Clipping or no clipping????
Sep 3, 2007 at 12:46 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 14

MrJingles

100+ Head-Fier
Joined
Oct 5, 2006
Posts
297
Likes
10
Can someone tell me what they think the problem is:

I have my entire library ripped with Easy CD-DA Extractor, 240vbr, MP3Gain default values and I sometimes get a slight quick distortion in one or the other ear. It's not very often, but it's pretty annoying. I'm currently listening to Mindy Smith who is mostly acoustic folk with light backup musicians. You would think that it would be very noticeable with bands like Creed with extremely high output, but not Mindy Smith. It's totally random. I just now isolated one of the distorted moments and played it over and over. It could be clipping, though I don't know what digital clipping sounds like, so I'm needing some expert advice. The only thing I can think of is that my rip was not as good as it should be.
Anyone?
 
Sep 3, 2007 at 2:07 AM Post #3 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by mdarnton /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Have you checked the original? I find that a lot of CDs have clipping, already, and there's not much you can do about that.


Great idea, mdarnton! I'll give that a shot. Thanks!
 
Sep 3, 2007 at 7:49 AM Post #4 of 14
I notice clipping on practically 60% of the music I listen to, both mp3s and CDs. I have no idea how it manages to get past recording engineers though. Maybe they should pay head-fi a visit
tongue.gif
 
Sep 3, 2007 at 1:24 PM Post #5 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by b0dhi /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I notice clipping on practically 60% of the music I listen to, both mp3s and CDs. I have no idea how it manages to get past recording engineers though. Maybe they should pay head-fi a visit
tongue.gif



Maybe the problem lies in the mastering part of the process. The mastering engineer's job is to level out the entire recording which may make some tracks hotter than when they were recorded.......???
 
Sep 3, 2007 at 1:41 PM Post #6 of 14
Clipping annoys me most on recordings of North African percussions for some reason. At least I think it sounds like clipping. I remember vocal solos being ruined too now that I think about it... and I'm talking about acoustic music that's not supposed to be hot. I guess some people can't handle dynamic range.
On hot non-acoustic music, I'm more bothered by extraneous noises and assorted weirdness. I even remember a CD with some kind of hard dropout glitch in the middle of a track. I don't know if the guys who record this stuff are more aware of clipping or if the sound is bad and distorted in so many other ways that I wouldn't notice mild clipping... a bit of both probably.
 
Sep 3, 2007 at 1:47 PM Post #7 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by HFat /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Clipping annoys me most on recordings of North African percussions for some reason. At least I think it sounds like clipping. I remember vocal solos being ruined too now that I think about it... and I'm talking about acoustic music that's not supposed to be hot. I guess some people can't handle dynamic range.
On hot non-acoustic music, I'm more bothered by extraneous noises and assorted weirdness. I even remember a CD with some kind of hard dropout glitch in the middle of a track. I don't know if the guys who record this stuff are more aware of clipping or if the sound is bad and distorted in so many other ways that I wouldn't notice mild clipping... a bit of both probably.



Yeah, it's not so apparent with rock music, but when your chillin' and listening to a laid back artist, it's very frustrating. I just don't get it. I'm going to listen to the same song, but on cd to see if it's there as on the mp3 version.
 
Sep 3, 2007 at 4:17 PM Post #8 of 14
Read this http://www.mindspring.com/~mrichter/...s/dynamics.htm to see what it's all about. The short story is: they don't care about you or your ears. They think they can get away with it because most people are listening on things like boomboxes and cars, anyway, or through cheap earbuds. But you're not, so you're screwed.
 
Sep 3, 2007 at 4:56 PM Post #9 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by MrJingles /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Yeah, it's not so apparent with rock music...


Thinking back on it, there might be a more sensible explanation as to why I'm more often annoyed by clipping in acoustic recordings: the acoustic stuff I listen to is often live takes... definitely more often than the non-acoustic stuff which tends to be studio material and/or heavily processed.
 
Sep 3, 2007 at 4:59 PM Post #10 of 14
californication
 
Sep 7, 2007 at 4:29 PM Post #11 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by HFat /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Thinking back on it, there might be a more sensible explanation as to why I'm more often annoyed by clipping in acoustic recordings: the acoustic stuff I listen to is often live takes... definitely more often than the non-acoustic stuff which tends to be studio material and/or heavily processed.


It could be clipping during recording. From a microphone, on the recording equipment itself, a mixer artefact, a spike in current (those happen, especially if anything in the recording chain loses ground at some point, if any cable's microphonic or unshielded, if someone trips on a wire or bumps into gear, taps an amp with a loose contact...), etc. Clipping in the recording is usually quite different from clipping produced by a soundcard or amplifier.
 
Jul 2, 2012 at 11:18 AM Post #12 of 14
Yes, clipping is present on majority of modern recordings, unfortunately... The more you listen to some material the higher amount of defective parts you are able to spot. Of course, HQ headphones or using plugins for soundstage or room-modelling can highlight those. Unfortunately, when you compare with the original CD (or even try to download different pressing of that music), it's still there. Annoying... 
angry_face.gif

 
Dec 3, 2012 at 2:29 AM Post #14 of 14
Quote:
You realize this thread is over five years old, right?
tongue.gif
wink.gif

 
I did a search and found this thread. It's really bothering me, and I don't mind necroing this thread. Is there any way to edit the clipping out of recordings using software? I downloaded adobe audition and changed the volume of the track but it didn't help at all, but there's a lot of different volume settings. I have no idea what I'm doing.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top