Octatrack: Does it DITHER?

Does the Octatrack dither? I generally recommend to have the Octatrack flex format and recorder format set to 24-bit, and use 24-bit sources for best audio quality, and this might be one of the reasons. During these tests I also encountered a 'click' artifact/bug that is a result of internal re-sampling, but after publishing the video I discovered that this seems to be due to the default filter in FX slot 1, which apparently introduces a DC offset. In my 'Reverb Tail Artifacts' video I attribute this to the reverb FX but I'm now realizing it was most likely also caused by a default filter in FX slot 1 - • Octatrack Gremlins: Mr...
There has been one Octatrack performance recording that I published to this channel where I recall that I specifically chose to have these settings at 16-bit - • Perspectives | octatrack - I felt it made the sound a bit more dry/flat/aggressive, which suited that track. In particular I often notice a switch from 16-bit to 24-bit results in much more depth and clarity in the sound of the reverbs.
www.digido.com... - publicly avaiable article by Bob Katz regarding dither, very similar to what is written in 'Mastering Audio'
If you want to learn more about digital audio systems and mastering in general make sure to also check out his other free articles www.digido.com...
in his dither article, Bob Katz outlines a method to test for truncation vs. dither application -
"You can verify whether your digital audio workstation truncates digital words or does other nasty things, without any measurement instruments except your ears. Obtain the disc Best of Chesky Classics and Jazz and Audiophile Test Disc, Vol. III, Chesky JD111. Track 42 is a fade to noise without dither, demonstrating quantization distortion and loss of resolution. Track 43 is a fade to noise with white noise dither, and track 44 uses noise-shaped dither (to be explained). Use Track 43 as your test source; you should be able to hear smooth and distortion-free signal down to about -115 dB. Then listen to track 44 to see how much better it can sound. Try processing track 43 with digital equalization or level changes (both gain and attenuation, with and without dither, if it’s available in your workstation) to see what they do to the sound. If your workstation is not up to par, you’ll be shocked. Use a quiet, high-gain headphone amplifier to help reveal the low level problems."
he also mentions the important role economics plays in the implementation of digital audio systems:
"Now you know the first critical secret of digital audio: wordlengths expand. If this concept is so simple, why is it disregarded by some manufacturers? The answer is in your wallet. While DSPs are capable of performing double and triple precision arithmetic (all you have to do is store intermediate products in temporary storage registers), it slows them down, and complicates the whole process. It’s a hard choice, entirely up to the DSP programmer/processor designer, who’s been put under the gun by management to fit more program features into less space, for less money. Questions of sound quality and quantization distortion can become moot compared to the selling price."
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