Clipping help

[joeyd38]

Hey all, just a quick question

Does anyone know how to control clipping? What is the best way to avoid in while recording and mixing and are their any tools/plugins that can help limit or cancel clipping in Pro Tools 11?

Thanks and happy producing,
Joey

[Craig F]

recording, pull back in the gain level a bit (were the channel meter changes from green to yellow is a good place)

mixing:
if the tracks are recorded to hot use Clip Gain to lower the tracks a bit (6 to 12 dB)
don't use so much make up gain on compressors and limiters
when EQing try filtering out what you don't want before boosting what you do want from a track

[Carl Kolchak]

Simple :

Don't record so damned loud.

When you're recording an external signal, set your pre-amp so that the body of your signal is between -20dB and -14dB (depending on how your hardware is calibrated), and your highest peaking stray transient on something like a snare drum / slap bass guitar is absolutely no higher than -6dB.

If you're bouncing a V.I. simply turn it's output volume up, or down accordingly to follow the above guidelines.


When you're mixing, generally you'll want to have the same perceived volume whether any particular plug-in is engaged, or bypassed - unless of course your entire goal is to boost the level.

[joeyd38]

Thanks for the tips guys! I guess the best thing to do is record at a lower vol with little/low gains. Sometimes the vocalist are just too loud!
Thanks again,
joey

[Craig F]

few vocalists know you to work a mic any more, lean back when going loud, lean in when going soft or running out of air on a held note

an external mic pre and compressor/limiter before the ADC is another option

[mikeyman]

I never record vocals without a compressor to even out recording levels

[YYR123]

A little squeeze on the way in never hurts.....

[mesaone]

Turn down the gain! As long as your gear doesn't have a low S:N then you'll be fine. Don't look at your waveform and think "oh, that's too quiet".

Like was mentioned before, keep meters in the green. Peaking in the yellow is fine. You can always turn it up after recording it, if necessary.