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[Viitalahde]

I clip.

Clipping the A/D has been the best way to preserve transient impact when going loud, and done tastefully, downsides can be minimized. One of the downsides is, IMO, that clipping the A/D tends to make things sound a little the same. Maybe this is different with different converters, mine's the HEDD192.

But just recently I've been finding out that modern digital limiters are actually really, really good. As an experiment, I've now done a couple of projects with no A/D clipping and the results have been good for "normal" loudness.

We all know the good sides in running the analog levels lower, and no clipping route is one of the things I'm going to experiment with more often.

[bblackwood]

Hey Jaakko, which limiters have you found to be most useful / 'transparent' (using that term loosely)?

[Viitalahde]

Hey Jaakko, which limiters have you found to be most useful / 'transparent' (using that term loosely)?

Right now they're the Voxengo Elephant 3 and the Fabfilter Pro-L.

Transparency is indeed a loose term in this case - I would define transparency as transparency to what happens to the "innards" of the music, no matter how the transients are squashed.

And as with A/D clipping, limiting needs pre-work, too.

Digital clipping is still an useful tool, and I just used it today. I don't use it like I would use A/D clipping, it's more like just shaving off a little peaks and share the load.

[Mastertone]

Pro-L is amazing, i need to get it...

[Noah Mintz Mastering]

This is a topic that been talked to death but in a way it's always poignant. Clipping is something you do sometimes and sometimes you don't. What ever works best for the program material. Generally I look out for the 'over' light (on my dCS converters it actually says "over") and I back it off if they come on too often.

Regarding limiters, I still usually go between the Sonnox and the L2 but I've added the Pro-L which is a must have I think.

Lately, for the more acoustic or clean stuff, I've not been monitoring through a limiter at all. Rather mastering without one and only adding it if needed after I'm happy with the sound of the masters. Then I add the one that changes it the least. There is not one limiter that is most transparent I find. They all work different on different material.

[bblackwood]

*adds Pro-L to demo list*

[SafeandSoundMastering]

It's all about hearing where the distortion has moved to on any given track. The operative word being "moved". No free lunch.

As an aside you mean we still have to type letters everytime? zzzzzzzzzzz

[bblackwood]

As an aside you mean we still have to type letters everytime? zzzzzzzzzzz

First two posts only, I believe.

[Waltz Mastering]

I think a large part of the complaints people have with modern sound is a product of clipped converters.

With the advancements of other ways to get level, I don't think it's needed.
...a little to cold and permanent sounding to me.. hard to detect on crappy systems, but can get nauseating
on the good ones... never been a fan and not hard core about it either,.. just hope it's a passing fad.

[Joao Bessa]

Right now they're the Voxengo Elephant 3 and the Fabfilter Pro-L.

Transparency is indeed a loose term in this case - I would define transparency as transparency to what happens to the "innards" of the music, no matter how the transients are squashed.

And as with A/D clipping, limiting needs pre-work, too.

Digital clipping is still an useful tool, and I just used it today. I don't use it like I would use A/D clipping, it's more like just shaving off a little peaks and share the load.

When you say digital clipping, what kind of process do you use for that?

[Mastertone]

When you say digital clipping, what kind of process do you use for that?

There is a "clip" mode in the elephant, or try the gclip vst free plugin

[Thomas W. Bethel]

To Quote my intern "Pro-L is the bomb" Great sound and very very transparent. A must have...

[SafeandSoundMastering]

For some material it is a complete no go, very material dependent.

[Cass Anawaty]

Haven't used Pro-L, but clipping still wins here (for that type of material).  Present company excluded, I don't think most people even understand what they're talking about, and tend to attribute any distortion they hear (or even "overcompression") to "clipping".

[subvert]

There is a "clip" mode in the elephant, or try the gclip vst free plugin

If on occasion things really need to be very loud, I typically run Elephant in Clip mode feeding into Pro-L...