Topic: AT4041 with Zoom F3- am I getting clipping due to the mics ?

[grzy7316]

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 ?

[LeChti]

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 !

[grzy7316]

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

[grawk]

analog clipping wouldn't look like a brick wall (if you peaked below 0), it would just be distortion.

[gdrfbnfa]

I also understand F3s can experience clipping in 32 bit mode if using the wrong SD cards. I found out for myself at a show this weekend using MK41s at a not very loud gig. Thx for the Audacity tip- will try that.

[Ozpeter]

The usual function in editing software is the normalize function, which amplifies or attenuates all the audio by an equal amount, such that the loudest peak achieves maximum dB (or whatever you set the max to be).  Here's a link related to normalising in Audacity -

https://www.hollyland.com/blog/topics/normalize-audio-in-audacity