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Gear / Technical Help => Recording Gear => Topic started by: grzy7316 on May 06, 2026, 07:39:39 AM

Title: AT4041 with Zoom F3- am I getting clipping due to the mics ?
Post by: grzy7316 on May 06, 2026, 07:39:39 AM
I have a par of audio technica AT4041 mics with a Zoom F3.  Looking at the results of my recording, am I dealing with some clipping here due to the mics ? I was in 32 bit mode for the recording, and did not have any option to adjust gain.   Do I need to put something between the F3 and the mics to lower the gain going into the F3 ?
Title: Re: AT4041 with Zoom F3- am I getting clipping due to the mics ?
Post by: LeChti on May 06, 2026, 07:54:28 AM
No, that's the goal of 32bit float : what looks saturated is possible to recover !
It looks like you're using Audacity : select all your audio > Effect > Amplification ....and if your version works like mine, the "default" amplification will be negative and bring you with a max level of 0 dB : you then recover a good waveform, without any distortion !
Title: Re: AT4041 with Zoom F3- am I getting clipping due to the mics ?
Post by: grzy7316 on May 06, 2026, 08:50:31 AM
Thanks for the tip. When I saw the tops of the  waveforms being squared off in audacity, I thought that meant there was clipping coming from  the mics. One more thing I realized  was that the 80hz filter  on the side of the mics was  on when they arrived, which is a bit of a bummer, but I have that turned off for next time
Title: Re: AT4041 with Zoom F3- am I getting clipping due to the mics ?
Post by: grawk on May 06, 2026, 10:00:28 AM
analog clipping wouldn't look like a brick wall (if you peaked below 0), it would just be distortion.