Help! Pre clipping in track but not master.. are we cool?
 

Hey guys, sorry for the possibly stupid question but a little light would be great.
I'm getting a pre clipping orange warning on a few tracks but have the master at -6db. Do i need to get those tracks down or am i gravy? I have the mix all good so it'll be a be a dog (i think) to get all the tracks down to avoid the pre clip. Please help me learn :confused: :p

Re: Help! Pre clipping in track but not master.. are we cool?
 

Hi, welcome to the community.

If you clip your A/D conversion there is no way you can fix it later, so yes, you need to pay attention. What do you mean with "orange clipping" though? Can you tell us have you actually reached 0dBFS or are your peaks somewhere in "orange" range like -6 or something? Because "clipping" means having three or more consecutive samples at 0

Lower recording levels are safer and generally sound better. In case you have a super expensive and mega high quality converter, and you can see it from specs, I can assume the converter can do -say- 124dB dynamics. Then again 24bit WAV file can hold 144dB dynamics. So what it means you don't need to record any hotter than peaks at -20dBFS to "get full resolution". Anything hotter than that and you are only asking for trouble.

Lowering master in the end cannot fix clipping. If you have clipped your input, you are storing clipped recording on track.

Re: Help! Pre clipping in track but not master.. are we cool?
 

^^^^This. But if the "clipping", which it isn't if it's just in the orange and there is no red clip indicator in the meters, is your full mix, put your Master back to zero. Then group all your tracks that you wish to lower the volume on, put them all in Volume view, go past the last Volume node (could be on any track) and lower all the volume of all the grouped tracks at once until it doesn't clip the Master. Alternatively, how are you metering, Pre or Post Fader?

Re: Help! Pre clipping in track but not master.. are we cool?
 

pre or post fader, and what meter types?... make sure you are using pre fader metering on the input track and legacy meters. And you talk about the "pre clipping"... to be anal-retentive it is the input ADC clipping that the meter can show, not the preamp analog clipping. Make sure you are lowering the preamp gain, not the pro tools fader to address this... if it's actually too hot/clipped the only full fix for that is to rerecord the audio.

In future when you are tracking: There is just no reason with modern ADCs to need to record at say -6dBFS (but again we have no idea exactly what you are looking at and what "orange" means, ... use dBFS numbers) and risk transient clipping... you can pull that back further (try more like ~-16dBFS) and make up levels later. Running hotter can make sense if you are trying to get specific results out of colorful preamps, not going to help you with modern clean preamps, and can make it much worse with cheap preamps, even without the ADC clipping. ... which you judge by listening not looking at meters.

Re: Help! Pre clipping in track but not master.. are we cool?
 

Here's another trick to lower a mix without losing the balance; Insert the TRIM plugin in the last insert slot on all AUDIO and INSTRUMENT tracks and set to -8(suggested starting point). Its easier if you make the TRIM plugin default to a user setting first. Assuming AUX tracks are fed by Post-Fader sends, this will lower the entire mix but retain the balance.

As for red on a single track, solo it and listen for clipping. Sometimes its as simple as lowering the output(or input) of a plugin. Some plugins sound fine and some don't, so critical listening is important. Sometimes, using a different plugin can help(I was a bit shocked to hear the stock digirack compressor, compared to some other comps).

My session templates have the TRIM plugin built in on every AUDIO/INSTRUMENT track from the start, but they are all in bypass until mixing time(nobody worries much during tracking, assuming proper input levels):o

Re: Help! Pre clipping in track but not master.. are we cool?
 

Another thing to consider is all plug-ins on an Audio or Aux track are Pre Fader, so any volume automation will not effect the signal going through plug-ins. To get around this, use a Trim plug-in as the first insert as albee suggests or buss audio tracks to Aux tracks and put your plug-ins there. A side bonus of this, if several tracks will have the same plug-ins with the same settings, just buss those tracks to one Aux track. You do have to gain stage the signal going to the plug-ins, but when balancing a mix with grouped volume decrease or increase, it would be the Aux tracks in the group, not the Audio tracks.

Re: Help! Pre clipping in track but not master.. are we cool?
 

... or use the clip gain feature