[Funky-kun]

My music collection consists of both lossless and lossy audio. For output I use bit-perfect ASIO. Some of the lossy files have clipping I would like to avoid without introducing any changes to the lossless files, therefore no hard limiter or replay gain. If I use the advanced limiter DSP, will it change the output of lossless files? Or will it affect only lossy ones with clipping?

 

[Slogra]

I don't think there are simple solutions to this problem. I'n not sure how the advanced limited works exactly. I image it WILL change all peaks near clipping, but maybe i'm wrong.
 
Personally i would try something with replaygain as it KNOWS the exact peak.
How about you only apply replaygain to your lossy files, and remove replaygain tags from your lossless files? Then set foobar's replaygain processing to "prevent clipping according to peak".
That should do the trick. This way the lossy files will be maximized or lowered according to peak, but the lossless files are unaltered while playing (in theory, i haven't tried it myself ).

 

[xnor]

Funky-kun, the advanced limiter will work as you expect. Your lossless files/audio will not be altered. Lossy files with peaks > 1 will trigger the advanced limiter.
 
ReplayGain-ing would be another option, like Slogra described. If you just "prevent clipping according to peak" then I see no problem scanning your whole music library with RG. This option will not "maximize" or boost anything, it'll just attenuate songs that contain clipping samples (happens with mp3 files, for example).

 

[Gradoman]

Replaygain does not effect the file itself (scan not alter waveform) and you can quickly disable it if you want to.

 

[sonci]

There are lot of lossless files that can clip on several DACs or soundcards with volume maximised, on the adequate speakers/phones, especially the  modern compressed albums,
Advanced Limiter would be useless in this case

Usually I scan an album by RG as a single album, if I see an album gain of -8db or up, I apply replay gain,

Normally album gains of Classical recordings or old rock cd, usually go up to -4 or -6 and don`t need to apply gain,
"prevent clipping according to peak" dont work for the clipping I`m refering to, so I only use as "DSP playbak"- "apply gain",

 

[xnor]

Quote:

Replaygain does not effect the file itself (scan not alter waveform) and you can quickly disable it if you want to.

 
It doesn't alter the audio data, yes, but it needs to store the tracks peak, gain .. in the tags. So technically the file is altered. (sorry, I'm pedantic here)
 

Quote:

There are lot of lossless files that can clip on several DACs or soundcards with volume maximised, on the adequate speakers/phones, especially the  modern compressed albums,
Advanced Limiter would be useless in this case

Usually I scan an album by RG as a single album, if I see an album gain of -8db or up, I apply replay gain,

Normally album gains of Classical recordings or old rock cd, usually go up to -4 or -6 and don`t need to apply gain,
"prevent clipping according to peak" dont work for the clipping I`m refering to, so I only use as "DSP playbak"- "apply gain",

If you have a lossless file and there's some clipping parts then you cannot cure it with RG either. It's a defect in the recording itself. The information is lost/destroyed.
 
If you have a faulty DAC that clips additionally to that simply use the volume control. -1 dB should do. But output (even of lossless files) will not be bit-perfect anymore then.

 

[Funky-kun]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.
 
I avoid using ReplayGain, as more quiet and/or dynamic tracks (e.g. classical) may become boosted by RG and their peaks will clip then. But I know it also has the function only to prevent clipping from RG data.
 
What is the difference between the advanced limiter and replay gain then? RG uses prestored data and the advanced limiter calculates realtime and corrects before the buffered samples are played back? Which one do you believe is the better option?

 

[xnor]

Exactly, since RG knows beforehand that a song will clip by a known amount it can (digitally) attenuate the whole song.
The advanced limiter on the other hand works like a compressor on the buffered samples during playback if a clipping (>1) peak was detected. It effectively reduces dynamic range of samples near the clipping peak(s) and leaves other samples untouched. Therefore, the adv. limiter is recommended to be used at the end of your DSP chain.
 
Quote:

I avoid using ReplayGain, as more quiet and/or dynamic tracks (e.g. classical) may become boosted by RG and their peaks will clip then. But I know it also has the function only to prevent clipping from RG data.

 
There's another option to apply gain AND prevent clipping according to peak.

 

[Gradoman]

Funky-kun , then don't RG scan your classical albums. Remove the TG tag, but leave RG enabled. So have the benefit of capping very loud albums, but leaving classical gain alone (tag not waveform)

 

[sonci]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xnor /img/forum/go_quote.gif
It effectively reduces dynamic range
 

Yes, use Replay Gain then,
 
Its all about snake oil anyway..

 

[xnor]

Quote:

Yes, use Replay Gain then,
 
Its all about snake oil anyway..

 
RG can also reduce dynamic range.. *sigh*
 
Snake oil? Huh, where's that coming from now?

 

[Funky-kun]

I prefer listening without matched levels, so I'll stick to the advanced limiter. It seems like a pretty nifty plugin. Thanks to everyone who helped me.