{"id":1791,"date":"2021-08-24T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mixxed.com\/blog\/?p=1791"},"modified":"2022-09-22T11:42:27","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T11:42:27","slug":"what-is-clipping-in-audio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.routenote.com\/blog\/what-is-clipping-in-audio\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Clipping in Audio?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Audio clipping <\/strong>is the result <\/strong>of pushing your input signal <\/strong>past the capabilities <\/strong>of the hardware or software <\/strong>that’s handling the signal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clipping can happen <\/strong>to both digital <\/strong>and analogue gear<\/strong>, and the two <\/strong>do have significant differences <\/strong>in how they sound<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mixxed Mixer Tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Noise Floor: What is it?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Do I Measure Sound Pressure Levels (SPL) in My Music?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Are Buses, Aux and Send Tracks?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Difference Between Gain and Volume<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Gain Staging?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top 5 Metering Plugins to Masterfully Improve Your Tracks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Causes Audio Clipping?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Digital clipping<\/strong> happens when you breach the digital ceiling of 0dBFS <\/strong>(dB Full Scale<\/strong>). Digital clipping<\/strong>, for my synthesis <\/a><\/strong>enthusiasts, sounds like a squared-off soundwave<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you layered a few Mixxed<\/a><\/strong> kickdrum one-shots and the result is distortion? That’s digital clipping<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the signal hits <\/strong>your dBFS ceiling<\/strong>, the soundwave <\/strong>is squared off <\/strong>and even sounds like a square wave <\/strong>with its gritty characteristics <\/strong>and harmonic content<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analogue clipping<\/strong>, however, is when the signal <\/strong>is pushed harder <\/strong>than what the peak voltage <\/strong>of a particular piece <\/strong>of gear can handle<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sine wave clipping example, Source: Modern Mixing<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This can happen to any standalone hardware <\/strong>in a signal chain<\/strong>, from compressors<\/a><\/strong> to EQ’s<\/strong>, but there is a key difference between analogue <\/strong>& digital clipping<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Tell if Audio is Clipping?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Digital clipping sounds <\/strong>the same no matter <\/strong>what plugin <\/strong>(or sound<\/strong>) has overdriven the signal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analogue clipping sounds different <\/strong>for every piece <\/strong>of hardware <\/strong>that overdrives <\/strong>the signal<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that digital clipping does not take <\/strong>on any unique characteristics <\/strong>that analogue clipping <\/strong>can take from different pieces of hardware<\/strong>. The sound of analogue clipping <\/strong>can change based <\/strong>on the unique circuitry <\/strong>of the hardware <\/strong>that the signal <\/strong>is travelling through<\/strong>. So, analogue clipping <\/strong>from a tube <\/strong>would sound different <\/strong>to analogue clipping <\/strong>from a voltage-controlled amplifier<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find out how to prevent audio clipping in our<\/strong> gain staging<\/a><\/strong> article<\/strong>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Audio clipping is the result of pushing your input signal past the capabilities of the hardware or software that’s handling the signal. Clipping can happen to both digital and analogue gear, and the two do have significant differences in how they sound. Mixxed Mixer Tips Noise Floor: What is it? How Do I Measure Sound Pressure Levels (SPL) in My Music? What Are Buses, Aux and Send Tracks? Difference Between Gain and Volume What is Gain Staging? Top 5 Metering Plugins to Masterfully Improve Your Tracks What Causes Audio Clipping? Digital clipping happens when you breach the digital ceiling of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,19,17,323],"tags":[486,261,489,488,487,490,481],"class_list":["post-1791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-music-creation-tools","category-music-sampling","category-tutorial","tag-how-to-tell-if-audio-is-clipping","tag-mixxed-com","tag-what-causes-audio-clipping","tag-what-does-clipping-sound-like","tag-what-is-clipping-in-audio","tag-what-is-digital-clipping","tag-what-is-gain-staging-in-mixing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is Clipping in Audio? - RouteNote Create Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We're breaking down the difference between analogue & digital clipping, what causes clipping and how you can prevent audio clipping!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/create.routenote.com\/blog\/what-is-clipping-in-audio\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is Clipping in Audio? 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