RE: 'Normalise' causes 'clipping'
2006/02/04 09:10:46
(permalink)
Hi Pete,
I'm far from being a pro and others might give some more helpful tips. But here's my take on it.
Normalize should never cause clipping since all it does is raise the loudest point of a clip to 0db. The rest of the clip is raised respectively.
However if you add effects to the clip/track after normalizing it will probably, most certainly, clip since most effects also involve a volume change in some shape or form. In addition if the input/output volume of the track is set above 0db it will clip because, since you're starting out with the clip at 0db, increasing it's volume is pushing it past 0db.
If neither of these are the culprit to the problem then you might want to check to see if there was clipping on the front end while recording. If, for example, you are recording through a pre-amp, the singnal could be clipping at the preamp before it ever reaches your recording software's volume meters. In this case the volume meters of your recording software will not show any clipping but you will hear distortion during playback.
Well, that's about the best I can offer. Hope it helps. Hang around because others in this forum are usually far more helpful than I.
"Creating a bad song takes just as much time and energy as creating a good one. The problem is that you don't know it's a bad song until someone tells you, and by then it's too late."
P. Rabbit