The innovative Kilohearts, known for their high-quality audio plugins, have just unveiled their latest offering for their flexible ‘Snapins’ ecosystem of modular effects: the Clipper plugin.

Clipper brings the power of precise, per-sample audio clipping directly to your DAW, absolutely FREE of charge as part of their Kilohearts Essentials Collection, giving you the capability of transparent dynamic control to maximise headroom and aggressive sonic manipulation for sound designers looking to inject more character and aggression into their sounds.

Snapins, like the Clipper, can be combined and modulated inside of Kilohearts host plugins such a Phase Plant, Multipass & Snap Heap, offering a highly flexible and creative environment for sound design.

Understanding the Kilohearts Clipper: Beyond Just Chopping Peaks

The Kilohearts Clipper has been designed for sample-accurate peak trimming of audio signals. It operates by instantly cutting off the part of the audio waveform that exceeds the set threshold value. Unlike limiting, which also prevents audio from exceeding a certain level, a clipper typically doesn’t employ attack of release times. The absence of these controls results in a more immediate and potentially more aggressive and distorted effect when pushed.

Key Features at a Glance: Simple Yet Powerful Controls

Despite its potentially complex applications, Clipper has a straightforward and easy-to-use interface with four parameters. The simplicity of the controls allows quick and effective manipulation of audio dynamics to users of all experience levels.

  • Threshold: Set the exact audio level at which clipping starts taking place. The audio signal that surpasses this level will begin to have its peaks trimmed.
  • In Gain: Set the volume of the incoming audio signal before it hits the clipping stage. By increasing the input gain, users can drive the signal harder into the clipper, resulting in more aggressive clipping and increased harmonic distortion.  
  • Knee: Adds a soft knee to the clipping curve. Instead of an abrupt, hard cut-off, a softer knee gradually reduces the signal as it approaches the threshold. This can help to reduce the high-frequency artifacts caused by hard clipping. offering a smoother transition into the clipped region .  
  • Out Gain: Adjust the overall output volume of the plugin after the clipping has been applied. Clipping often reduces the peak level of the audio, and the “Out Gain” can be used to compensate for this volume loss, ensuring a consistent perceived loudness.  

Who Should Use This Clipper? From Bedroom Producers to Seasoned Pros

Clipper proves to be a powerful and versatile tool that has a wide range of applications in music production and sound design practises, as well as mixing and mastering scenarios.

  • Beginners: The free price point and straightforward interface are a big factor here, providing a simple and intuitive way manage audio levels and experiment with adding subtle or aggressive distortion to their tracks. It’s inclusion within the Kilohearts Essentials Collection also provides a bunch of effects tools to get started with.
  • Electronic Music Producers: Clipper is well suited for achieving the desired levels of loudness and to add aggressive distortion to elements like drums and basslines that has become a requirement in a lot of hard hitting dance music today.
  • Sound Designers: The Snapin environment integration is incredibly powerful for sound designers. The ability to combine and modulate the Clipper with other effects allows for the creation of unique and complex sonic textures and transformations .  

System Requirements & Availability

  • CPU: X86 64-bit with SSE3 support (standard in most computers) or Apple “M” processor.
  • OS: Updated versions of Windows or macOS. Kilohearts does not support OS versions no longer supported by their manufacturers.
  • Software: A Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) that supports VST2, VST3, AAX, or Audio Unit plugin standards.

You can get the Kilohearts clipper for FREE directly from their website!

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