8 bit bounces from 24 terribly distorted

[Rossd23]

I did some bounces to test out different dither/truncation sounds at 8 bits and the mixes are terrible distorted. Sounds like they were put through a distortion box. Is this normal when going from such a high bit depth to a low one like 8 bits? 16 of course sound fine.

[Eric Cardenas]

Yes it is.

[David Nahmani]

Perfectly normal. Which is why we use 16 bit or even 24 bit in the first place. Of course there's a whole movement dedicated to 8-bit music production (aka Chiptune), for its reminiscence of the first video game soundtracks. . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiptune

[involver]

There are quite a lot of creative uses for sample and bit rate reduction. Play with the Logic Bitcrusher plugin if you want to find out about the different distortions available this way!