Clipping

General

– Clipping is basically what Happens when a Digital Signal is Past Zero dBFS

– unless it is a Desired Effect you Want to achieve, it is always Sounding Bad by Introducing Digital Distortion along with several other Problems (Do Not do this by Mistake)

– so always Check the Signal and try to Detect where the Clipping might come from

– there are different Kind of “Clippings” and as said, it can be used to Lift a Sound as well

Hard Digital Clipping

– taking a Signal and Increase Gain so much, that some Parts Past the Zero dB

– the Waveform will Turn from a Smooth Sine Wave towards a Square Wave (but Unnatural Square Wave) and therefore Sound Harsh

– it is more of a Hard Knee Clipping

Soft Clipping

– Clipping appears also in a Analog Environment and Today there are a lot of “Soft Clip” Emulations 

– often you Find a “Slope” Parameter with a Soft Knee Curve for Analog Clipping plus a Hard Knee Curve for Digital Clipping

– this Waveform will Result in a much Smoother Distorted Curve and therefore Sound Smoother

– the Difference is that the Waveform will be Distorted along the Sine Wave by Building Finer, i.e. Distortion Keeps the Relation to the Sine Wave