- Truth is PCM Audio is Completely Linear Right to the Point of Clipping
- there is No Difference between a Mix that Clips at -6dBFS or a Mix that Clips at -0.6dBFS
- i.e. if a Mastering Engineer Needs More Headroom They can Simply Attenuate the Audio
- the Only Thing to Avoid is to Go Over 0dBFS, even that is No Problem if the Audio was Exported as 32 Bit Float (as Clipping can then be Fixed Afterwards)
- but in General it is Better to Mix with More Headroom Instead Work into Clipping All the Time
- if However you Mix into the Red and Want to Avoid Clipping, Simply Turn Down the Master Fader Because it is Exactly Thought for that (it Does Not Change the Quality in Any Way)
- there is Only 1 Scenario where a Lowering the Master Fader Needs to be Avoided and this is if you Export with a Dither Plugin to 16 Bit in Pre Fader Mode (which is However a Bad Approach in Any Way as you Either Render to 24 Bit and Let the DAW Handle the Internal Dithering or you Export as 32 Bit Float which Does No Need Dither, or then Render to 24 Bit and Ignore Dithering at All)
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