Okay, so from many reads through some overly complicated definitions, I understand that dithering is basically a process to reduce the size of your song while retaining it's fidelity? Am I wrong, partially right, somewhere in the middle?
As far as I know, dithering shouldn't have any impact on the overall peak levels of the song, or affect the dynamics in any way, shape, or form.
I've gotten a lot better at mixing over the years, and I can master my songs pretty close to the 0dB standard in commercial music (Yes I know mastering yourself isn't the best idea for those who are about to chime in about that,) but when I add a dithering plugin at the end of my mastering chain, my song clips.
Now, this is a weird clip. It's an export clip. If I play the song full through, it doesn't clip, yet when the export finishes, the clipping flag indicates the song has clipped at some point during export, and it only happens when I use the dithering plugin.
So, for the sake of preventing my eventual mental breakdown over this, could somebody please un-dumb the concepts of dithering, why dithering would make a song clip during export, and any tips?
For the record, I use Cubase 6.5 and the dithering plugin is Apogee UV22HR.