OK, here
http://www.airwindows.com/dithering/DitherAnalysis.htmlBeen meaning to do that.
Bit of a summary-
The high energy noise shapers produce a color. I don't care who does them- Alexey does them best and still gets a sort of 'illuminated' quality that people actually seek out.
Sound Forge is doing something interesting, that I want to know more about. It is producing a tone character that would be more to the taste of Brad, or anyone who is having objections to the noise shaper sound. It's an area I've been specializing in lately. Sound Forge was also VERY popular in the 2496 shootout for a non-high-energy noise shaper.
If you're going to use UV22, you might as well use Ultra, because you gain nothing by half measures and using Normal.
Cool Edit Pro 44.1 actually sucks- Alexey only likes it because he likes high energy shapers, and his is much better. Use C1 or C3 for that.
Barry Hufker is dead-on about the Pow-R dithers- 1 is your best best. 3 has funny colorations but all's fair in love and EQ, and 2 is a blast of very obvious hiss. None of them are really 'all that'. If you want high energy noise shapers Alexey is your man- if not, TPDF or Sound Forge is. Or maybe UV22 if you don't mind its color.
Don't use the highest energy noise shaper in Wavelab under any circumstances, it's really obnoxious. The lower energy ones aren't that much better. TPDF is your friend. Dither noise shaped wrong is MORE annoying.
Waves noise shapers are all annoying, reduce soundstage depth and produce a coloration, but the worst of them is not the most extreme but the least. DOn't even use the Low setting- worse than plain dither. Really, it'd be better to just use dither. Or go out at 24 bit and dither elsewhere.
*awaits brickbats and general gleeful abuse*