Also thanks to Junglist Manifesto for their Jungle Jungle sample pack. Great shit.
Here's a great guide to levels in digital audio, which also goes over 32 bit audio, as well as the effects of digital clipping from PopMusic.dk:
http://www.popmusic.dk/download/pdf/levels-in-digital-audio.pdf
Lately I've been experimenting with limiting, and intentionally clipping a mix I did with a friend a while ago. It has been fun, and interesting seeing how much volume I could add to an already compressed mix by limiting it. When I was first mixing I was always frustrated that I could never get the volume, or perceived volume that commercial tracks seem to have. So I got some free diagnostic tools, looked at my favorite mp3's and discovered that a vast majority of them are clipping, sometimes VERY hard. I noticed some electronic music clips at +6dbs, which basically means the top 6dbs of audio are flattened, but the rest of it sounds TWICE as loud as a file which has been normalized to 0dbs. What's going on here?
Well, you can actually clip somewhat hard and still end up with a listenable mix. You just sacrifice the peaks of your audio, and get some artifacts from the process. The problem is that the dynamic range of the audio is reduced. This can result in a "flat", "harsh" or "loud" sound being permanently imprinted on the mix. Again, this is one of those processes that you can't go back from. Once something has been exported as a fixed point (16 or 24 bit) WAV file that is clipping-those peaks are gone. So once again, save copies of your projects! Clipping isn't really something you should be trying at home, unless your a mad scientist who enjoys brutalizing the ears of your listeners! Check out this Mixdown for Mastering guide if you are curious about how to export your mixdown for the mastering stage.
No comments:
Post a Comment