Song level clipping

[illapino]

Say an instrumental has 10 instruments/tracks, altogether making the master channel consistently go above the 0dB level on the audio level meter, even out of bounds that u can't see how high it's actually going on that meter. How bad are the consequences of letting a song clip, even though it sounds fine on any system and you don't (or think you don't) hear distortion? Is it a big nono to let songs clip like this?

but to me keeping everything within the 0dB level (keeping everything in the negative decibel range of the audio level meter) makes the song sound really quiet compared to mainstream mp3s. Plus when you export most songs on albums into WAV format and look at their waveform, even they too show signs of clipping

 

[Adrian-MarQ]

If your signal is going well above 0db on your master output you will definitely hear the distortion. It's not much of an issue insider of your DAW since you can just lower the output. Outside of your DAW, the distortion will remain.

I think you are being misled by the visuals.... The commercial tracks your are comparing your audio to are likely peaking at -0.1 db or at 0db. The reason that they seem so loud without clipping is due to compressing and limiting the signal. A limiter will essentially allow you to raise the volume of the entire track to 0db (or whatever level you wish) without crossing that point. I'd suggest looking up how to use compression and limiting and practicing since it is easy to make your audio sound terrible when trying to simply make your track as loud as everything else out on radio. Here is a video that I found useful for determining how hard I should push my signal when limiting:



A final note about loudness....
You do not need to worry about loudness to the extent that you'd be willing to let your signal clip. Loudness has its benefits (we tend to perceive things that are louder as better), but achieving that loudness at the expense of the quality of your audio is not beneficial to you.

 

[steffeeh]

You compare your songs that are mastered and that have gone through a very heavy loudness increasement phase. Just make sure you have plenty of headroom in the production and mixing stage, and you can then apply loudness by your own taste when it's being mastered.

 

[hamudj]

Hi folks,

Sometimes i use different limiters and i experience that it depends on the audiotrack. Many times i use the Fabfilter limiter and between the L1 and L2 there is also a different limitation.
When you limit maybe it sounds flat and the punch is out i have this problem with the kickdrums you can just try to gain out the tracks around 4-6 and bounce them all for a new arrangement. Sometimes i also use the limiter from brainworx because the punch is kept and it is not a cutoff it just sounds peaky eventhough it is not clipping. In some cases you can route the audios to a 4-8 Channel mixer for example the Mackie VLZ3 and you will recognize that the peak is so much lower eventhough it has the same volume. Maybe you can also try to bus groups of your arrangement and eq the frequencies which are building the clipping by analising the frequencies with several plugins you can see the waveform and frequencies. Sidechaon compression can also duck the frequencies which overlap in some cases it is recommended and meant to patch or layer pad sounds or atmospheric wide and roomy soundambiences therefore it is a couple of tricks to avoid clipping the pros are not doing something else but a little bit practise improves only. Have fun with my idea.

Kindly Regards

Hamudibeats

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[jBam]

Just to answer part of your initial question: "how bad"...

Potentially very.

When you digitally clip, you're literally squashing everything above TO zero… A large peak will therefore be squared off at the top to zero. A little clipping won't blow anything up; but it is actually possible to damage a system with significant clipping at 0dB… particularly over time; but in theory it's like smoking… "every clip is doing you damage" haha...

You of course are also loosing fidelity.

You didn't mention a limiter. Just pop a limiter on the end (if you're not getting it mastered). It's a less damaging way of getting loudness, and if you're learning the ropes in production, and are missing the loudness, then this is an easy route to take.

In the long run though, you should be able to get a reasonably loud mix up and running below zero… not spankingly loud; but loud enough to be satisfying. Mixing sound correctly is important; but that's another thread altogether.

Good luck and have fun!