Phonic
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Clipping the Master Bus Even with a Limiter On?
Ok, how come I am clipping on my master bus?  Uploaded with ImageShack.us As you can see from this screen shot, I have FabFilter running and should not be exceeding -0.50 for my output, yet I am. How can I fix this?
post edited by Phonic - 2012/06/02 21:57:19
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jimmyrage
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Re:Clipping the Master Bus Even with a Limiter On?
2012/06/02 22:29:13
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Can't tell from the screen shot where bus C is routed to but it looks like it's bypassing the master bus. May be the cause. Also may want to make sure all tracks are eventually going through the master bus.
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benjaminfrog
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Re:Clipping the Master Bus Even with a Limiter On?
2012/06/02 22:35:38
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Yeah, it's not your Master Buss that's clipping (the limiter is working), it's your output. Like Jimmy said, you probably have more than just the Master Buss routed to your output.
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John
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Re:Clipping the Master Bus Even with a Limiter On?
2012/06/02 23:08:51
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Right, you have a send to phones from the master buss and the phones is out putting to the main outs directly.
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JesusMics
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Re:Clipping the Master Bus Even with a Limiter On?
2012/06/03 00:30:56
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You have more then one channel routed to your output. The master on the far right is not your Master Bus. Route "Phones" output to your Master Bus, then the output of your Master Bus to your Main output.
Your main output (master on the far right) may still clip, but don't worry, just turn it down till it no longer clips. You can use BOOST11 on your Master Bus to amp up the gain with out clipping on your output. Your limiter is working fine. You can also use some EQ on your Master Bus if you wanted to bring down the overall gain on the full frequency spectrum of your mix.
It's very well known that Master Outputs may clip, but should not cause any digital distortion, and you are usually fine with just turning down the Master output till it no longer clips (this would be optimum levels anyways). Thus staying away from BOOST11 & EQ.
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bitflipper
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Re:Clipping the Master Bus Even with a Limiter On?
2012/06/03 11:46:14
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Your input signal is too hot and the attack time is too long. Use the gain slider on your master bus to knock a few db off going in to the limiter, lower the attack time and increase the lookahead.
 All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. My Stuff
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CJaysMusic
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Re:Clipping the Master Bus Even with a Limiter On?
2012/06/04 10:09:53
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Beisdes form being too hot, if its even that. Enable ISP on the FAb Pro L and put the look ahead to about .25 to .40. Then enable the x'2 for oversampling.
Your attack can be just fine where it is, depending on the song.
CJ
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Phonic
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Re:Clipping the Master Bus Even with a Limiter On?
2012/06/04 15:33:23
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Thanks for all of the suggestions so far.
To clarify, the phones bus is actually outputing to outputs 1/2 of my MOTU while the Master is outputting to the Main Outputs (these are seperate connectors on the back of the MOTU). All tracks are set to output via the Master Bus via Sonar.
BitFlipper - I have always believed that it was best to keep the Master at 0, it is ok to turn it down a bit to prevent FabFilter from clipping? Also, I thought FabFilter would prevent clipping and be able to take any input level?
CJaysMusic - I actually do have ISP enabled and I will adjust the look ahead.
I guess I don't understand this limiter like I thought I did - I thought that no matter what, it could handle whatever input level it is provided and would output my ceiling (in this case -0.50dbl) with whatever settings I choose. Perhaps this is not the case?
PS I did try to reupload the screenshot in full-size but no matter how many times I tried to replace it, it still shows up resized.
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bitflipper
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Re:Clipping the Master Bus Even with a Limiter On?
2012/06/04 19:03:33
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BitFlipper - I have always believed that it was best to keep the Master at 0, it is ok to turn it down a bit to prevent FabFilter from clipping? Also, I thought FabFilter would prevent clipping and be able to take any input level? Yes, it can be as close to a brick wall as any limiter. But you can still have intersample peaks, which is why you never set the limit to 0db (which you're not doing). Plus, if you have an attack time of over a second, which you appear to have in your screenshot, you are almost guaranteed to have clipping unless the output limit is set very low. (CJ, being a professional mastering engineer, knows this but probably couldn't make out the picture very well.)
All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. My Stuff
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