[LAU] Dithering - Was: master levels

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Mon, 02 Feb 2015 22:25:49 +0100, Atte wrote:
>I had a fairly unpleasant experience last weekend. A band (indie/folk)
>in which I play and for whom I also did/does some recordings + mixes
>for, were played on national danish radio on the national chart. The
>unpleasant part was that our song sounded really wimpy compared to the
>other tracks.

I don't think that it has to do with the loudness war. How well do you
chose Linux EQs? Most of them are completely unusable. IMO
Fons' parametric EQ is ok.

If I record an ALESIS D4 cymbal with Linux, the result is week. If I
record it with a consumer DAT recorder, there's no audible difference
to the original sound. Even a 4-track cassette player with Dolby C
still sounds better, than the Linux recording (tested with TerraTec and
RME cards).

Assumed it should be missing dithering, then what dithering to use?

Linux dithering is a PITA, it adds annoying audible noise, no stand
alone consumer gear, no proprietary DAW and especially no professional
gear comes with such audible dithering noise.

Is there usable dithering available for Linux?