Clipping philosophy. I need to be schooled in this.

Discussion in 'Mixing and Mastering' started by krameri, Dec 4, 2023.

  1. anonymouse

    anonymouse Platinum Record

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    If transients are hitting your master bus limiter too hard, thus preventing you from achieving a desirable loudness without a noticable pumping effect, softclip the transients first. That's pretty much it for me.
     
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  2. krameri

    krameri Rock Star

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    Thank you all! Now I know something about clipping!
     
  3. DoubleTake

    DoubleTake Audiosexual

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    Yeah, me too!


    Ahhh...can you tell me again what that something is?
     
  4. clone

    clone Audiosexual

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    In this scenario, some people will let it clip the most "offensive" transients, and then put a Transient Shaper on after the clipper to get some of them back, or print it with just the clipper, bypass it, and then add Transient Shaper only to it. Sometimes I do not like the results I am getting with the clipper, I will give up on the idea and replace it with Sonnox Inflator or something to that effect. Saturation and Limiting.
     
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  5. Djord Emer

    Djord Emer Audiosexual

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    To put it in simple layman's terms:

    clipping makes audio go BOOM BOOM, loud loud, hot hot.
     
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  6. Stevie Dude

    Stevie Dude Audiosexual

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    seeing @Djord Emer i remember once I asked about this overly clipped track which clipping is used as a "creative fx" that during my first listen in my studio I went panic mode for few seconds thinking there's something wrong with my speakers and monitoring system. It's a frightening experience playing this song at high SPL. :rofl:

    the song is doing fine, clocking 200mil streams on Spotify alone

     
  7. gotnofriends

    gotnofriends Kapellmeister

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    Force me and choke me 'till I pass out
     
  8. Stevie Dude

    Stevie Dude Audiosexual

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    it was hot when Jennie did it, but Weeknd had to ruin it and sing that line too :deep_facepalm:
     
  9. typical-love

    typical-love Producer

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    See, in general this is where I seem to be gravitating towards to- dangerously (or undangerously) close to team anti-clipper lol. Especially for "organic" (live recorded/band) material. I think my mixes have suffered from too much clipping/saturation.

    On the other hand, again it's all about taste, and what genre you're working on... You wouldn't want to take this approach for something like this



    Wait until 0:47 :D
     
  10. anonymouse

    anonymouse Platinum Record

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    My English is failing me, what is the difference between the two options you mention?

    So you clip the transients, then shape them back with a shaper?
     
  11. Stevie Dude

    Stevie Dude Audiosexual

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    I saw superstar producers doing clip, transient shaper (boost transient), clip, expander + EQ, clip. That's like common practice for them. I think Luca Pretolesi do this all the time and squeeze out 6db out of nowhere in one of the mymixlab video. It's still on the sister's site I believe. The end result doesnt really sound distorted or too much clip artifact but considering it ended up at -4LUFS with dynamic range of 3, it's safe to say it sounds like shite. haha.
     
  12. anonymouse

    anonymouse Platinum Record

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    Damn, thats a lot of pumping and squeezing. Gotta try that! Trim the fat.

     
  13. shinyzen

    shinyzen Rock Star

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    haha yes!!! i love lil texas. Clipping as a creative choice is great for hardstyle, neuro bass, dubstep, house etc
     
  14. shinyzen

    shinyzen Rock Star

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    do you know the name of the tutorial? would love to see this. I love clipping, over clipping, destroying mixes etc lol
     
  15. clone

    clone Audiosexual

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    If my English is somehow problematic, I'm not going to type some additional long post. When I used the term "some people", I meant it. So here you go, I found some you can argue with it about: https://gearspace.com/board/music-computers/1397593-clipper-plugins-utilization-strategies.html

    There is also a little section in the Jaycen Joshua/Dave Pensado MWTM video about destroying every transient in a waveform and still not getting the loudness you want from the quieter portions of a waveform without resorting to compression. But I think that was when he busted out Wavesfactory Spectre and I stopped watching it.
     
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  16. Hazen

    Hazen Rock Star

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    Someone has probably mentioned it before, but if your pads are distorting, chances are you are using hard clipping, which is not always suitable. If (for some odd reason) you insist on hardclipping your final mix, you can also use automation to ensure that at least on the drumless section of your track there will be no clipping applied.

    Personally I think that a softer transfer curve (close to hardclipping, but with some knee) is preferable to hardclipping in most instances. Oxford Inflator is basically a clipper with a soft logarithmic curve, where the material at the ceiling is not immediately obliterated, but softly rounded-off.
     
  17. Stevie Dude

    Stevie Dude Audiosexual

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    I forgot, I don't know for sure. I think it's "Mastering Louder". apologies if I got it wrong. try asking a guy name Jim Von Gucci at the sister's site. He probably know
     
  18. krameri

    krameri Rock Star

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    Thank you for this info. I have Kazrog K-Clip 3 because I figured I'd try clippers from the sister site. Are you familiar with that one by chance?

    https://kazrog.com/collections/frontpage/products/kclip-3
     
  19. anonymouse

    anonymouse Platinum Record

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    No I meant MY English haha. To me these options sound the same:

    And:
    Both have the clipper and then shaper, right?

    Thanks for the topic link, very interesting thread :)
     
  20. shinyzen

    shinyzen Rock Star

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    not op, but i have K clip and its great! you will want to adjust the "soften" knob for something like a pad, you can also try multiband clipping. Its often beneficial to cycle through the different flavors / types of clipping algos, some work better than others on different material.
     
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