Avid HD I/O 16 x 16 Soft Clip and Curv - when do they kick in?

[Ed Boogie]

Originally Posted by Matt Hepworth

As I recall Curv kicks in just below -4dBFS and gradually turns to limit as the signal hits 0dBFS.

Soft clip acts hard on signal hitting right about 0dBFS and gives around 4dB of "useable" distortion reduced peaks. So, a signal that would have supposedly hit +4 above the absolute digital clipping will only hit 0. Hitting it harder than that and you'll get the distortion AND clipping.

Hi Matt/guys,

Can you confirm that this is the case for soft clipping?

If soft clip is on, does it do nothing until the signal hits 0dB - but can handle 4dB of 'overload' before clipping? Or does

I believe the studio is saying soft clip was on, but possibly not Curv.

I hope that means that if something is peaking at, say, -2.3db, then it's completely unmolested, and not that anything over -4dB is affected.

Does anyone know what the limiter's threshold/brick wall is set to? I'd love to ask Avid, but they're a little difficult to get ahold of...

Thanks!

Ed

[tom_lowe]

Originally Posted by Ed Boogie

Hi Matt/guys,

Can you confirm that this is the case for soft clipping?

If soft clip is on, does it do nothing until the signal hits 0dB - but can handle 4dB of 'overload' before clipping? Or does

I believe the studio is saying soft clip was on, but possibly not Curv.

I hope that means that if something is peaking at, say, -2.3db, then it's completely unmolested, and not that anything over -4dB is affected.

Does anyone know what the limiter's threshold/brick wall is set to? I'd love to ask Avid, but they're a little difficult to get ahold of...

Thanks!

Ed

I read somewhere that the biggest problem with SoftLimit and Curv is it's impossible to tell when you're hitting the limiter and no indication of when you're close, so you can't really set your levels around it. Like you say, Avid are pretty quiet on this front.

I remember being tempted to use it when I got my HD Omni, but the manual had little on it and a web search bought up a review suggesting not to use it. Even an LED saying when the limiter is active would be better than nothing. It's a bit like Avid are saying "you don't need to know about this, just trust us".

I'd actually rather have something clip and manually take down the gain or fix the clipped audio in RX. This takes away both options.

Even though it's not clipped, RX might be able to salvage it a bit.