How To Avoid Clipping
Sat night I got lectured by the Sound Guy at our club. He's never there, and he decided to show up out of nowhere. Anyhow, he was showing me how to use our system properly and how to make it sound good. So I decided to show you guys what he showed me. It made a HUGE difference. NO GAYNESS! lol..
Most of this should seem pretty straight forward and it's common sense, but trust me. We all know most DJ's don't give a fuck or simply don't know how to properly avoid redlining.
Anyways, his method worked and it made the system sound LOUD, CRISP, PUNCHY and best of all NO CLIPPING AT ALL. The levels were kept green the whole night without having to do major adjustments throughout the night. This is what worked for us Sat, so it might not work for you.
---- THE NIGHT ----
We had a live BANDA SINALOENSE at Midnight who did a 30 Min Set. Plus we also have the DJ's & the MC. Our sound is a custom built front of the house line array with subs under the stage & fills spread around the club.
---- EQUIPMENT ----
1 Soundcraft Mixing Board
1 Rane TTM57 Mixer
2 Pioneer CDJ's
2 Shure SM58 Wireless Mics
2 Shure SM58 Wired Mics
---- THE PROBLEM ----
We have two major problems; the DJ's always redlining and the band getting feedback on the mics. To avoid clipping, I always monitor the other DJ's and lower the volume on the mixing board, but we all know how most DJ's are and they just don't give a fuck. The band is another issue. The singer always walks around the venue and sometimes walks under the speakers causing massive feedback.
---- THE SOLUTION ----
The sound guy is a touring sound guy. He does sound engineering for many big mexican artists such as Vicente Fernandez, etc. That's why he's never at the club, he's always touring.
Anyways, his solution was pretty simple. For the DJ set up do this..
- On the 57 & on the mixing board LOWER THE GAINS ALL THE WAY DOWN. Turn them up little by little as needed.
- Up the FADERS on the 57 all the way up.
- On the 57, put the MASTER VOLUME 3/4 up.
- Leave the EQ's flat.
ON THE MIXING BOARD..
1.- Lower the gains completely on all your channels. Only raise them as needed.
1.- Up the FADERS on channels 1 & 2. Those are the ones feeding off the 57.
2.- For channels 3 & 4, the two vocal mics, kill the bass. That's what causes the feedback.
4.- For channels 5 & 6, the two instrument mics, lower the fader and bring it up as needed. Both channels go into a tuba so there was massive bass being produced by it.
5.- Bring the bass up & down as needed on channels 5 & 6.
6.- ALWAYS MONITOR EACH CHANNEL'S LEVELS INDIVIDUALLY. That was something I didn't know how to do, until he showed me.
BTW, he also told me that DISTORTION & FEEBACK is what causes speakers to blow up, not how loud they are.
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What is 'clipping' distortion?
What causes it, and how to avoid it when recording audio?
What is clipping and why avoid it? Clipping is a form of distortion where the amplitude of the waveform is attempting to be so large it runs out of room and pushes against the extreme edges of available sampling space (referred to in digital audio terms as '0dB').
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3 Answers
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Clipping occurs when the signal exceeds the maximum dynamic range of an audio channel. If you're recording a sine wave, clipping looks like somebody cut the top and bottom of the sound wave:
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipping_(audio))
Analogue equipment will often add other artifacts along with clipping and rarely will the peaks be cut cleanly as with digital clipping. In some applications, this kind of distortion is sought after and desired with analogue equipment. Digital clipping sounds very harsh and is usually to be avoided at any cost, but artists like Björk has experimented with digital clipping as a distinct effect as well. Some genres of electronic music now use digital clipping along with bit reduction and sample frequency reduction liberally as effects alongside regular distortion, reverb, chorus, etc.
When recording, you need to adjust the gain-control of the pre-amp so that the peaks do not exceed the maximum dynamic range. This is often indicated as 0dB, or with a overload LED indicator. To prepare for the recording, make sure you receive the same kind of sound signal as the actual recording and adjust the gain until the peaks almost hit 0dB. Your goal is to get as close as possible to 0dB without exceeding it throughout the entire recording. Doing so will guarantee the maximum dynamic range and the lowest possible noise level in your recording.
Throughout mixing and post production, you also need to watch out for clipping (unless you intend to use it for effect). Again, most equipment, analogue, digital, physical or software will have indicators for clipping.
'Clipping' or 'hard clipping' distortion generally refers to trying to record at a volume level that is higher than the maximum value your hardware will check for. Since it can't store this value, it simply records the highest value available. If you look at the waveform, the peaks will look flattened off, as if someone clipped them off with a set of shears.
This is different from 'soft clipping' which usually refers to the often-desirable distortion introduced by analog hardware such as tube-based amplifiers.
You avoid clipping by making sure your input levels are always below the maximum. I like to pick a target value to aim for (in digital, usually -12 or -18 dB depending on where the noise floor is) and try to keep it there. A little higher is okay, but the highest value I ever record should stay lower than -0, otherwise digital clipping will occur.
Most recording software has a 'peak' or 'redline' indicator that lets you know when you're getting close to this level.
Warrior BobWarrior BobAny audio signal path, digital or analog, will have a maximum amplitude. If you feed it a signal, or amplify it more, you will get 'clipping distortion'.
You avoid it by doing something that you should always do at all times: You should make sure that at each part of your signal path the path should be as loud as possible without distortion, but no louder. This will minimize noise. Final fantasy 7 graphics mod.
Almost everything that can clip will have some sort of clipping indicator. Turn the levels up until it clips, then turn it down until it doesn't.