clipping

  • Thread starter Thread starter James K
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J

James K

Member
Hi,
I've been recording recently on my new studiomaster desk and I've noticed that the clip LED keeps coming on on the drum tracks. It doesn't sound bad, in fact it seems to fatten up the sound nicely and give it a bit more 'snap'. I was just wondering if this is okay? I.e. will it damage any circuitry or can I continue doing it?

Cheers
James
 
"Back in the day" with some boards, that's how we set the level on the drums. Too fast for a VU meter, you'd wait for the "clip" light on transients. Usually, you were still in reasonable shape.

Going to digital, this would probably not be the case by a long shot - but with a fully analog path ("to tape") it probably won't be an issue assuming that it sounds okay.
 
On some desks the clip light means you're clipping...on some others, it's set to warn you a few dB before clipping. I have a feeling the Studiomaster might be in the latter category but it's more than 10 years since I've touched one of their desks and that one was ancient even then.

In any case, clipping can be fairly gentle (at least in the early stages) in the analogue world so if you like the sound you're fine. You certainly won't damage anything. However, if you are actually clipping and decide later you don't like the sound after all, you're still stuck with it.

As Massive Master says, this is NOT the case in the digital world. Clipping there is an ugly, nasty sound so make sure that, even if you hit clipping in your mixer, you stay well away from it on your DAW.

Bob
 
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