I respectfully disagree with the previous 2 posts - not all clipping - whether via overloading an analog gain stage, the input of an ADC, a digital gain stage, or a digital plugin - sounds the same!!!
In fact it can sound very different - i.e. clipping in GClip ime often results with less crackle type artifacts with low end frequencies more pronounced (albeit with a little more distortion in mids) than using Voxengo Elephant 2.7 (which tends to have more crackle artifacts when pushed and emphasizes mids over lows) when set for the same amount of gain reduction.
And overloading the input of a Mytek Stereo96 (which handles hard clipping fine, but not outstandingly) sounds markedly different than doing the same with a Burl B2 (which handles it the best of any ADC I've ever auditioned), and definitely different than a Digi002 (which to my ear sounds like @ss as soon as it clips at all).
Anyway - as far as digital clipping with a plugin goes I've found the freeware GClip remarkably can often work very well for material with heavy kicks and snares (i.e. hiphop, heavy rock) - and for these types of material occasionally gives superior results when going for very high average levels than using more sophisticated (and pricier) digital limiters set to the same amount of gain reduction.
Obviously OMMV - but the fact remains that when you are forced by client request to get extremely high average levels clipping often retains transients (i.e. snap and punch) better than digital limiters - albeit at the sacrifice of greater added distortion relative to that added by a limiter.
Best regards,
Steve Berson