What is Clipping?
Also called: digital clipping, clip
Clipping is the distortion that happens when a signal tries to go beyond the maximum level a system can reproduce, so the tops of the waveform are cut flat. In digital audio, that limit is 0 dBFS.
A clipped waveform has flat tops instead of rounded peaks, which adds harsh harmonics that the original sound did not have. Short, occasional clips on a drum hit may be hard to hear, but sustained clipping sounds crunchy and fatiguing, especially on vocals, pianos and pads.
Clipping can happen at many stages: a microphone preamp driven too hard, a plugin output, the master bus, or the final file when inter-sample peaks go over 0 dBFS after conversion. Some producers clip drums on purpose with a soft clipper plugin to control peaks, which is a creative choice rather than an accident.
The usual fix is to lower the gain before the point where it clips, or to use a limiter with a ceiling below 0 dBFS on the final output.
Put it to work
Scan your final file for clipping and peaks over the limit before you release it.
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