The Science of Clipping - The ULTIMATE Tool for Loudness + Punch 

Some people have been asking about Standard Clip here, because they're not able to reproduce the same overshoots I observed in my session. So I captured a screenshot of the session, Standard Clip settings, and meters for you below. Also, Nicholas Di Lorenzo from @panorama_mastering just published a good video that shows how the overshoots happen in Standard Clip and why they happen on some material but not other material. You can watch that here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GGiLAhHPHV0.html. First of all, I'm clipping very gently here. A couple dB on super short audio events. Mainly just the snare. I'm not pushing the clipper hard at all. Check this out: capture.dropbox.com/UY8A1izXIQNtEJFU You're most likely not seeing the overshoots because Standard Clip has 2 clipping stages. The first is oversampled, and the second is a 0X non-oversampled hard ceiling (called "Ceiling" in the plugin). If you leave the Ceiling engaged, then the second clipping stage hides the overshoots from you by applying more clipping. If you disengage the Ceiling parameter, you see the true peak level overshoots both in sample peak and true peak (true peak overshoots being higher). The same is true for K-Clip and most other clippers with oversampling. They usually have a second 0X OS ceiling. And in fact, you see the exact same thing in iZotope RX Audio Editor. When you use the Resampling process to downsample anything, you'll see the parameter "Post Limiter" engaged by default. They need a post-downsampling limiter to catch these overshoots. This is because the Fourier transform process with the sinc function related to the lowpass filter used in anti-aliasing will cause higher and higher overshoots the more Fourier partial harmonics are used. The more oversampling used (and the more extreme the downsampling) the higher the overshoots will be. Some people have commented that they're not seeing overshoots using Standard Clip with the ceiling off, so we're investigating this further. It could have to do with the material being run through the clipper and the project sample rate. I'll post more info here as I learn more.

In the first 15 seconds I can hear how loud and clear the audio is even on my crappy phone speaker! Subscribed

Man this was probably the most helpful video I watched on clippers. Even doing it on a dnb song! You are a legend. Hope you’ll have some more dnb examples in your videos. Subscribed!

A lot of people complain about the cost of Gold Clip but you really have to give it a go if you haven't yet. It's definitely got some special sauce going on.

I am in awe when I watch someone of your professionalism teach about such advanced topics. Thank you for this.

Love how you break down complicated subjects and make them easy to understand, with practical advice!

I remember Baphometrix saying something about not turning on oversampling in his Clip To Zero Strategy series of videos - while extremely comprehensive, I got a little lost in the series, this video has cleared things up for me so thank you (easier when it’s d’n’b too!)

Keep in mind that the artifacts added by aliasing are explicitly non-harmonic. They're harmonics that would have been created but bounced off the Nyquist frequency and therefore render improperly. You're right that for gritty DnB track, aliasing is probably pretty much negligible. But that won't always be the case depending on how much clipping you're doing and what genre you're working with.

Holy shit! I haven’t watched a video from this channel in a few years and it feels like a completely different channel, but in a really good way. Like this is really high level, technical stuff here. Thank you for this!

This is RIGHT up my alley. Videos like this are exactly the reason I am subscribed. Its hard to find content on RU-vid that delve into slightly more advanced topics, without having to pander to the newbie that jsut downloaded their DAW a week ago. Keep it comin!!

Holy crap, I saw someone mention the name "vespers" and had not idea that you were the guy from 10 years ago. Here you are making hits and I'm still in my bedroom haha

I flippin love the AB tests in mastering videos 👌

This is gold. We need more of that content!

Thank's for going so deep into that topic

Such a great video, Vespers. Thanks for it!

Awesome vid. Thanks!

Awesome video !!

Great knowledge and well explained. Keep on going.

the best video about the clipping! thanks a lot

This is great, more of this please, detailed videos on all the nuggets and trinkets, 👊 Cheers

this is very interesting info, keep those coming

Really appreciate this video.

Great video. Thanks

Thanks for the useful info.

If anyone here is using Reaper, I have have good news for you: you can use any hard clipper you want at 0x oversamplig internally, and use Reaper's oversampling (at FX instance or chain level) and you'll see that you'll get no overshoots. I tried it with several clippers.

Great explanation thank you

Great video, i like clipping the individual busses before the mixbus.

Gold content. Thanks for sharing Vespers!

exxelent and clear...again 💚

Great video, Drew. Thanks for sharing ✨ Studio looks amazing 🎉🚀

nice info about the oversampling

Great video, thank you for the R&D

really solid vid, didn't know this before

Exactly what my test reveal to me, cool video, thanks 🤙🏽

fantastic video

great video, nice

Great video - did not know about this

Thanks great video

Mannnnnn you just blew out this whole mystery of oversampled plug-ins are creating a better sound, it always bothered me and now you’ve made this all so clear to me, thanks brother ❤

The demo from around 4 minutes got me engaged. Too many mixing channels are using weak demos.

Great video! A few times, I've cascaded a few clippers in a similar way people do it with compression, in order to address and attenuate overshoots back to my desired threshold, clip the clippers! lol

This was a super cool Video as always. I think oversampling can be genuinely useful, especially when it comes to more aggressive clipping but in this case it makes absolute sense to leave it off. Thanks for the Input!

Nice knowledge. Checking out that DMG plugin

great content

Very useful info, thank you. In the digital domain we tend to overshoot to what we think are standards and decisions for better quality, and those decisions can bring your CPU to its knees. When really it is a slight transient defect you can’t even hear. Always look forward to your videos.

Great point about oversampling and overshoots. I often felt my mix sounded better before rendering at higher oversampling. I have confirmation bias now 😊

Love this. I never thought of aliasing not mattering if all you are chopping is transients.

Very interesting.

Thanks!

Great demo and info. I use Gold Clip on the 2 bus just before the Slate FG-X 2. I love the Gold Clip because it is clean, but it can get gritty if that's what you want. I have had Orange for a week, and would use it per track. I also have SIR Standard Clip, and have used it on the 2 bus. Anyway, very interesting info on oversampling. I don't typically use oversampling in most plug-ins already.

Another good reason of not using oversampling, depends on the filter is being used for the downsampling, they tend to create pre-ringing or a long post ringing.

I noticed at 07:46 the in and out for each band on KClip was [in = 0 out = 0] but before enabling the 4-band mode it was [in = 6.0 and out = -6.0]

Before committing to clipping a track, or adding a clipped track to a mix, compare the track to a clean version, a (hard, multiband, like Aphex Dom II) limited version, and a fast attack high ratio compressor. Adjust for identical "loudness" to your ears not level with the same general amount of clipping. . Decide if you like what you hear. All level shaving is not the same.

Amazing video. Wish you added to the comparisson, clipping with the Glue Compressor in Ableton. I´ve been using only the clipping option that comes with the Glue for years now in the master before the limiter. And it´s free :) All the best!

whhaaatttt I've never seen this demonstration before. great info

Great! Love the IK Soft Clipper to control the knee, I find it to be quite transparent, and the harmonics are really pleasant on the master. Edit: and damn, Gold Clip sounds amazing, beyond my price point for what I do though, lol.

At last someone who knows what he's talking about on the internet

Honestly, I find the AI mastering online tools do amazing job and are free.

thx boss

gold content!

I agree! 100 percent! I used to use limiters in my mix and constantly was always faced with lots of troubles, UNTIL I started using only clippers. Im 100 PERCENT a fan of using CLIPPERS! great video! very informational! thank you!

killer video. very helpful in understanding some of the concepts that have eluded me re: clipping. any recommendations for fairly aggressive clipping approaches? I'm interested in over-the-top character of some lofi trap/soundcloud rap where they are clipping the hell out of FL albeit the clipper in FL is fairly limited. I have kclip but I'm not sure if I'm fully taking advantage of its functionality

Great video, thanks. Btw what are your thoughts on oversampling in limiters? Like Pro L2 etc Cheers

I still remember when I figured out how useful clipping is for mixing, I was new to FL Studio and wanted to distort a sound, wanted to try out fruity soft clipper since it was in the distortion section, but the plugin has no gain, so I used a plugin before to drive it into the clipper. I was very surprised just how far I had to push into the clipper before it actually started sounding distorted, then I started just putting it everywhere instead of limiters since Fruity Limiter does sound kinda trash by default.

this is really interesting - I've been disabling oversampling on freeclip (which I use for run-of-the-mill track/bus hardclipping) but I never thought about checking for overshoots when using KClip on my master. Now i wonder if it's even the best option for master clipping. Also, I noticed (when I check the delta signal) that kclip is doing some kind of noise-shaping on the signal which I thought was interesting - but maybe that's related to the overshoots.

with analog gear, soft clipping=tube, hard clipping=transistors

Thank you! There's a great playlist about this subject at Baphometrix channel, too

Just the lesson I needed, would you use clipping on your drum buss with the defangle and the gold clip on your master or would that create problems? I noticed too much clipping on the drum buss messes with the hi hats too much so only used it max 25% but really interested to try this gold clip on my mix buss…

OKAY so i finally tried this out. I went to my project (I mix and master at the same time dont shoot me I love it) And i took off the over sampling on all the clippers. i use kclip to hard clip, then use standard clip pro clipper mode to add some SLIIIGGGHHHTTTT expansion into a clipper. Max 1 db of clipping. I was 4x oversampling on al of them. And the sonics are so much more different. Its noticble right away when i A/B them. I also notice that the 4x oversampling changes my wave form, make some peaks smaller for some reason idk why but then I have 0.2 db more headroom when I dont use oversampling. I also notice that the 4x makes things kinda squashed together. Ruining the open separation and depth that i worked so hard to learn and test and create in the box. The 1x sounds a bit darker, but this is a dark mix, its supposed to be dull and sad. The production is also using dull tracks. That "dullness" I am getting is the OG sound i was after. I also noticed the 808 and snare opens up and you can hear the syncopated rhythm better. I am so shocked that this many changes happened using the over sampling. I over sampled on my kick, snare, > kick and snare buss, > drum buss and my master chain. Insane. I am still over sampling on certain plugins that inject distortion and harmonics on non transient tracks and using oversampling on a saturation plugin on my mix buss but its paralleled saturation through the plugin mix knob mix knob. Never gonna use oversampling again on transients. I am def gonna look into gold clip as well and see a new A/B

So interesting. What are your thoughts on Acustica Audio's ASH clipper?

This is very interesting, i tried Standard Clip myself and i noticed the same issue. Looks a little better with mixed phase instead linear, but there is still some overshoot compared without OS. Didn't tried the mixed phase with more pole (maybe it's better for peaks) but i'm not so sure if mixed phase should be used in clippers, i'd like to know your thoughts about this too

Can you do the same with a stock Ableton effect? Compressor maybe?

Do you have a recommended plugin for monitoring crest factor in real time?

Thank you for this Homie, absolute gold👌🏽💽

gold peak ftw. got louder and maintained it's character without squashing the signal to death.

So if there’s a “high quality” switch (as there are on FAC’s Punchlab and KnockClipper) it’s best to just leave them off? I’d say both of these wouldn’t be used as master clippers though

Can't I just use ozone 11 on master and clue compressor, limiter all good in Ableton?

At 1:20 you show how clipping affects the wave, but it looks more like like compression - making a certain part of wave quiter. Whereas with hard clipping it supposed to “cut” the top of the wave, isn’t it? If yes, then it means that it cannot be transparent, because it has to add harmonics to reflect the new wave shape. Or am I understanding it wrong?

Dammmiittt now my entire system is gonna change after hearing the differences lmao. Prolly gonna get my hands on gold clip and change up my master chain. Question tho, what do you think about over sampling using using a saturation plugin? Also what about using Oxford inflator on the master? I imagine it would be better used spread on the sun bud tracks instead.

Were you using the gold clip in hard or soft clipping? If it was hard then surely all the clippers would sound the same as hard clipping is identical regardless of the clipper

what u mean u “hope we got something out of this one” ? thank you man…eye opening

Yes, I could hear aliasing. People focus on the main tone strikes for distortion. That's not where it's evident. Focus on the spatial effects. Oversampling sends the problem out of range. You're right- oversampling doesn't change your signal. It moves a signal competitor off the field of play.

Thoughts on FIRE THE CLIP?

The last video you said you shouldn’t use a clipper on a whole mix but rather in the mix.

RX de-clip is actually not a clipper, its a clip repair tool.

man it's abot time SOMEBODY said this

Duuuuuude

Baphometrix reprazent

Great observations! Funilly enough; even with oversampling; I'm not getting TP overs on my standard clip ceiling; how hard are you pushing to get over's +0.6dB?

When I run my mic through a preamp, eq and compressor my levels look great but clipping is awful

ooooow my fucking oversampling

The sounds reminds me of buchla noises

Does the whole room shake with those speakers in the walls? 😅

I've never used oversampling because I didn't like

How do you even get to a Mix with a Loudness of - 11 LUFS before Mastering. I don't get it.

Damn, I've been using K-Clip on every track. Guess I need to open up my wallet again haha.

I use different types of fades to clip. Its called fade clip.

Oh no the cat's out of the bag...

Get Oxford Limiter and forget everything else.