[00birdy]

I came across clipping in audacity the other day and noticed some files had some massive clipping in them.  Here's an example.  
These are of course two different tracks.  (TATW 450 show if anyone cares)
top one was a podcast in 128kbps, bottom is live rip from di.fm, in 256kbps.   unfortunately it's a radio show so getting lossless/320 isn't really an option.  

What do you guys think about this?  I'll save my opinions til later in the thread.


 

 

show clipping disabled 

 

[proton007]

If you've recorded it off a source, maybe the gain was set too high.
 
Not sure if you'll hear distortion or not. Give it a listen.

 

[00birdy]

Wasn't my recording so I can't say for sure.  I honestly don't think it sounds bad.  It does sound way brighter, and the 128kbps file obviously sounds lower quality, it's also much much softer.  But as to which one is more accurate to the original source, it's hard to tell.  They both seem very different in their own ways.

 

[proton007]

Quote:

Wasn't my recording so I can't say for sure.  I honestly don't think it sounds bad.  It does sound way brighter, and the 128kbps file obviously sounds lower quality, it's also much much softer.  But as to which one is more accurate to the original source, it's hard to tell.  They both seem very different in their own ways.

 
Also depends on the content of the recording. Take a look at this for instance:
 

 
Its similar to what you have. And its from an actual music cd, remastered.
It may not sound outright bad, but it will lack the dynamics, meaning, the difference between lound and soft sounds is gone.

 

[mikeaj]

The views are so zoomed out, you can't say much of anything.
 
When the bottom track is clipping, about how many samples are at the limit?  If just the very tip of a peak is clipped slightly, only a couple samples, that should make a difference in sound quality, but it may not sound bad.  If 50 samples in a row are regularly at the limit and the waveform is massively distorted regularly throughout the track, that's a different matter.

 

[xnor]

Quote:

bottom is live rip from di.fm, in 256kbps.

I guess that's loud, dynamically compressed electronic music further compressed before streaming and mp3 encoded which additionally adds clipping.
 
My opinion: that's bad, regardless of genre.