Digital clipping - are there ways to limit the effects?

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hgpuke

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Hi!
I sometimes make recordings of the choir I am a singer in, and use a simple MD recorder and stereo mike. Because I have noone to help me out, I have to guess the settings of the input sensitivity (gain). This time, I guessed slightly wrong and some passages of some of the pieces are affected by digital clipping which sounds terrible :(. My question is: Are there any way to make these passages sound less terrible by applying a filter in a sound editing program? I use Audacity to edit (mainly cut the recording into its individual tracks) my recordings, but am open to other suggestions if needed.

Thanks,
Hans-Göran, Sweden
 
The short answer is no - not really... clipped is clipped. The only way is to make sure you keep your recording levels much lower.

I managed to do some recovery/rescue operations on small clipped segments (no - not MY tracks, stuff I was mixing for a client!) by using the Click/Crackle remover in Sound Forge, but for serious distortion, it won't work... even for light clipping, it's definitely a compromise.
 
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bb is right. if its too far gone. its difficult to rescue.
there are various restoration tools on the market. just google.
but as to how they can help you depends how far gone the source audio is.
the old cool edit 96 had an interesting feature. a filter you can try at various frequencies. for example if its harsh in the upper mids. selective filtering might help make it more palatable. but its a lot of experimentation.
you can also get down to the sample level in 96 and do some manipulation.
and in other audio editors. a list is at hitsquad.com.
but this will be lots of work figuring out. might not be worth it to you.
or you could try dart restoration tools and there are many others.
but how well they will work i just dont know , without you trying them.
you might get lucky but possibly not.
 
relative subject

i have a question in the same area.........i use reason and the clip light flashes pretty frequently in most projects. but i don't hear any thing out of the ordinary. should i be listening for anything in particular. the levels would be maybe just slightly high. it's not like the display/meter is pegged in red at the top. my experience in hearing clipping is gaps in audio i don't have that. any thoughts?
 
deus you can get very analytical with wave files. some software like the old editor cool edit 96 will let you look at individual sample values.
the ideal is to calibrate your signal chain through the pc so that when you look at sample values on the high or low peaks you see sample values
plus or minus 32000 max . this leaves some error margin. software led's
one has to be carefull of because the algorithms that produce them usually
sample the sample values only every few milliseconds depending on the programmers approach and algorithm used. me personally i dont let my sample values get even as high as 32000. i add in a bit more margin.
you can always take a wave track youve recorded into (16 bit only)
cool 96 and it will tell you through analysis your highest sample values.
peace.
 
The big problem is even if you reduce the clip in volume (easy) the "clip tone" will still be there... and it's ugly. I tried to fix someone else's song that had clipped. Unfortunately they didn't have the master tracks anymore--just a mixdown, and it was impossible to fix it. If I had the individual tracks you could probably compromise and "hide" it pretty well. In a mixdown it's not easy nor pretty.

Here's the clip (no pun intended):

 
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