Bit Mapping

The action of rearranging digital data in such a way that much of the information that would require a larger digital word can be encoded into a word of lower bit depth, thereby producing a higher quality signal than what would normally be possible for the given bit depth. This is distinct from dithering (see WFTD archive dither) which is more of a randomization of the signal at low levels. A popular bit mapping scheme right now is Sony’s Super Bit Mapping, which claims at least 20 bit performance on 16 bit recordings.