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  • SOLVED THANK YOU clipping is a mystery (p.3)
2016/11/08 12:52:02
tlw
There are two different "types" of clipping.

One is the kind overdriven guitar amplifiers and fuzz boxes do, which can be very musical. That's analogue clipping.

The other kind is digital clipping, which happens when an incoming signal is so hot the convertor chip can't handle the volume. That kind of clipping sounds like harsh noise with no discernable audio content at all. To hear it hook up a microphone or any input source to your audio interface, max out the pre-amp gain and make some musical noise that results in the interface meters going well into the red and record the result.

Some interfaces may have built-in limiters to prevent digital clipping, or pre-amp gain too low to create it. If yours is like that then find a youtube video of lots of broken bottles being thrown into a steel bin and play it as loud as you can stand. That will come fairly close to what digitally clipped audio sounds like.
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