bblackwood wrote on Fri, 04 June 2004 20:04 |
chikkenguy wrote on Fri, 04 June 2004 18:21 | what does clipping converters do that a limiter wont do more gracefully?
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Clipping allows the transient of the waveform to remain intact until 0dBfs - a limiter will start to roll that off as it approaches full scale. This can be felt as a reduction in 'impact' especially, but the diff is usually only apparent at larger levels of GR...
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Two kinds of clipping here at issue and I wouldn't want chikkenguy to get the wrong idea. The clipping that Brad is talking about, "I think", is flat topping the waveform before it exceeds -0dBFS. There is no distortion just reduced peaks. Digital clipping of the converter is when the signal exceeds -0dBFS. To my knowledge a digital limiter will not roll off when it's printed, it will limit exactly where the threshold is set, if it's a hard knee it's instantaneous brickwall, as soon as the first sample exceeds the threshold. To flat top the waveform at the ADC I always thought took limiting the mic pre, how else do you clip an ADC without exceeding -0dBFS? If you exceed -0dBFS you run the risk of the worst clipping distortion of all time, digital distortion when the signal exceeds -0 and the system no longer interprets it as music. At 24 bit risking overs at the ADC is a needless worry, IMHO, just bring the gain down and make it up later where you can denoise any noise floor lost, if you feel the need. One poster mentioned digitally clipping quick transients. While it's true that fast transients that exceed -0dBFS can be inaudible to some ears, if the signal lasts only a few milliseconds over, the audio is gone just the same. If you exceed the limit too long you get digital burps that sound terrible and can ruin a take, but clipping quick transients although inaudible as individual transients because they are short, form a blanket over the sound that is quite noticeable to my ears, "if" too many transients are clipped in a row over short timeline. It's a fuzzy distortion that renders the audio degraded in my opinion. I'm sure some people perceive it as squash distortion, but it's quite different. There are better ways these days than clipping the waveform to a distortion level, staged limiting with automated release control, will get you just as hot and without the blanket on the sound that clipping quick transients results in. IN MY HUMBLE OPINION!