Allow clipping: Yes? No? Sometimes?

[Gutbucket]

Off to take a look at the waveforms of some of my trumpet recordings.  I have heard others mention those can be asymmetric but I've never looked for it.  Thanks

[Gutbucket]

Interesting, I wonder why that is & what's going on acoustically for that to happen.

[Scooter123]

asymmetric waves can be found in the wild... not sure if its a good thing or not, but they do exist.

Especially if you've ever heard Miles Davis....

[Javier Cinakowski]

not just trumpet, I have that happen on several different horn instruments...

[Gutbucket]

Enough of this hijack, back to clipping... I say death to clipping!

..except for guitar amps and those corkscrew hairs that emerge from old men's ears and noses.

[bdasilva]

clipping???  NEVER? Its giving the A/D all Fs  and how different playback devices react is well unpredictable... Maybe you don't hear it.. but  the distortion is there.  Sending out a recording that has any clipping is a very amateur move.

[anodyne33]

Sending out a recording that has any clipping is a very amateur move.

Professionals do it every day.

[habit]

Sending out a recording that has any clipping is a very amateur move.

Professionals do it every day.

Exactly.

[Frequincy]

I would experiment with a compressor and a limiter and see what works best for this application. If both were set up properly, they both could do things that might improve the results. I personally wouldn't clip a recording to reduce peaks like drums can produce.

I would recomend saving an unaltered version of your recording. That way later if you hear the results on a few other playback systems and hear problems you can always make changes.

That's just my 2 cents.

[easy jim]

Sending out a recording that has any clipping is a very amateur move.

Professionals do it every day.

Exactly.

And many of these so-called 'professionals' compress the shit out of their mixes, and completely destroy any dynamics...that doesn't mean it sounds good, or that it is good practice.  Proper use of a limiter or compressor is the best approach, and can be done to tame extreme peaks without killing the dynamic range of the raw recording.

not just trumpet, I have that happen on several different horn instruments...

QFT.  Check out the waveforms from a trombone for some really asymetrical looking waves.

[anodyne33]

Sending out a recording that has any clipping is a very amateur move.

Professionals do it every day.

Exactly.

And many of these so-called 'professionals' compress the shit out of their mixes, and completely destroy any dynamics...that doesn't mean it sounds good, or that it is good practice.  Proper use of a limiter or compressor is the best approach, and can be done to tame extreme peaks without killing the dynamic range of the raw recording.

I don't disagree, but sometimes distortion is pleasing to the ear. It what made analog tape far superior to the early digital technology. (well, that and saturation and such) And more importantly, if a signal clips when recorded, limiting and compression cannot change that in processing or playback.

[easy jim]

I don't disagree, but sometimes distortion is pleasing to the ear. It what made analog tape far superior to the early digital technology. (well, that and saturation and such) And more importantly, if a signal clips when recorded, limiting and compression cannot change that in processing or playback.

True enough, especially re the bolded section...I gathered in this case, however, that there was no clipping in the OP's raw source, and he's asking if it's OK to allow clipping in the post-edited file.  That's just bad form IMO, and will not sound as good as using a proper hard limiter - which seems the tool best suited to the task at hand.

[ziko]

did you go line in? On my mt2 I had a wave issue like thatx5 when i went 1/8 in. that has pluggin power. here is a laughable image of a country joe show-oops
http://img259.imageshack.us/i/at822issueoi2.jpg/

as far as tweaking levels. i shoot for just below zero with no clipping to start. A few clips I find acceptable but I would not add any levels to clip.

edit-I would have no clue how to limit-compress anyways
http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/heynow1