Clipping drumkits

So this is a question specifically regarding electronic music, but can definitely apply to rock and certain driven types of music like jazz.
I'm wondering- is it okay for drums to be clipping? I've noticed that by cross-sectioning various songs, their snares are generally always above the edge. I do it a lot too- but do you guys think it's alright?

When drum signals get high they can clip but in many cases because the nature of the signal being so short lived as it clips it is often not heard or some could say that the clipping might add some aspect to the sound too. Allowing drum hits to clip only clips the signal and brings the rms component up slightly.

But technically it is incorrect to clip a signal and it is possible to record drums and not clip them anywhere. It is known here I use a system of metering called K System and I wont go into it other than it keeps an eye on the rms component of a sound much more so. Very fast transients won't even move the rms VU meter so you do depend on your peak metering to show you what is going on.

By choosing a low ref level such as -20 db FS as being the 0dB VU level then you have plenty of room to move. Also recording in 24 bit helps here too. I play drums and just set my incoming levels so that with medium to hard force I am getting the signal maybe peaking -10 dB or so. It means if I do hit something a little harder it still might only reach -2 or -3 dB. 

You will get reasonable level from all your drums. The drums that ring longer and are more open and sustained in sound will show up as a thicker waveform and the very sharp quick hits will be high in waveform height but not very fat waveform wise but they are still there.

The mistake people make as usual is trying too hard to get track levels up in some sort of attempt to create a final louder master later. But it is much better to monitor at a higher level and keep your track and buss levels down instead. As you build up your drum busses and also start applying compression on individual drum tracks the rms components of the signals start to rise and the peaks get tamed slightly which is all good. By the time you are creating a composite drum sounds on a final drum buss and you are compressing that overall buss too remember, the rms part of the signal will be quite full and the peaks still there and transient but nicely tamed, the drum sound will really end up moving a VU meter and from there you have a strong fat drum sound that is loud but still snappy. 

This all results from very low level unclipped drum hits right back at track level. But the good news is that there is no clipping anywhere and as a result the drums will sound clean and totally not distorted anywhere. From there you can always dirty up a drum sound or take it further but I do believe that totally non clipped drums and every instrument sounds are possible within a DAW. 

As someone who has played live drums for 41 years now I have become very accustomed to the sound of my Sonor kit live. (One of the nicest drum sounds ever!!) When you go to the trouble of recording very nicely and unclipped drum sounds with digital especially I hearing on playback something that is very very close to the sound of the kit itself and that is when you know you are recording properly and accurately. I have come through the complete analog thing and I was never fully satisfied with the sound of analog in terms of drum transients. And the reason is that analog is inferior in this regard but digital excels here!

But with digital you have to be careful about our 0dB FS ceiling and especially so with drums because those peaks can rise up and clip before you know it. But with correct miking as per usual and gain structure it is possible to record any drum sound very cleanly without any clipping present.

With drum samples and things I guess one needs to apply a similar approach. I know that many drum machine VST's, single shot hits and loops can be very loud but the same rules apply there to gain structure. You often have to fiddle with the final volume of the signal leaving any VST. Some can be very loud and hot and will often clip your track immediately. If that is the case turn it down right back at the main VST output level. They all have it somewhere, set your levels back to lower and clean etc..Treat it like an incoming live signal and you won't go wrong.

Saying that any form of clipping being ugly is one point of a purist view. Let's look at the artistic side of it. Sometimes you might put a snare up into clipping and then it undergoes a transformation maybe adding a nice pop to a snare or kick etc. I have done it by accident and been pleased with the results. One person's ugly might be another's beauty with some reverb added.

If this clipping happens it can be controlled and the level lowered again back to normal but with the clipping sound still present. If you do induce it then it is important to bring things back to the channel ref level again soon after.

But overall I am on the side of others here and tend to not do it all and if it does happen maybe have a quick listen to see if it is worth using (fast transients only) and move on setting things back for a non clipped sound. I agree with Dave in that sustained sounds don't sound too great digitally clipping above 0dB FS.  

As someone who has produced a fair bit of Jazz clipping is not something that features very often in this situation either. With older styles a more pristine approach is usually required. And even modern Jazz that may involve distorted guitar sounds, the drums will most often be clean. The guitar distortion is best handled by the guitarist in nicer and more conventional ways.