Topic: Clipping in an oficialy launched CD track

[Dede2002]

Hi,

Just out of curiosity I've opened  a track from a CD with Audacity. Much to my surprise, the soundwave showed clipping everywhere! Yes,it sounds great, no distortion at all. Is there a reasonable explanation for that? Thanks in advance.

[Brian Skalinder]

Are you sure it's clipped?  How did you determine it's clipped?  Have you tried zooming in?  Sometimes a waveform looks clipped when zoomed out, but only due to a lack of graphical resolution.  Zooming in sometimes reveals greater detail in the waveform showing it's not actually clipped, after all.

[Dede2002]

Thanks Moke and Brian.
The file looks like this:

[rowjimmytour]

Looks normal to me!!! Brick walling or clipping is when the the sound wave goes flat w/ no spikes or a continues line.
Peace

[Shawn]

from around 1:45 to 2:10 looks to be clipped.

thats pretty much the brick / stick of butter look that is killing music. Made for radio broadcast crap. no dynamics, all slammed to the max.

QFT

[Brian Skalinder]

Try zooming in even closer on an area that looks clipped.  On a small area that looks clipped, zoom in to the point you see each individual peak of the waveform.  For example, instead of 2.5min worth of audio (see attached image aud-zoom1.jpg), zoom in tightly on just a second or two to view the individual peaks (see attached imgae aud-zoom2.jpg).  Though my recording isn't clipped, hopefully you can see in the attached pics how a series of individual peaks turns into a block when zoomed out.  If the series of peaks are approaching 0 dBFS, this would appear as clipping while zoomed out.

At any rate, yeah...many studio releases are compressed as all get out.

Edit to add:  Whoops, forgot to add the images.

[TNJazz]

Hi,

Just out of curiosity I've opened  a track from a CD with Audacity. Much to my surprise, the soundwave showed clipping everywhere! Yes,it sounds great, no distortion at all. Is there a reasonable explanation for that? Thanks in advance.

compression and limiting in the mastering process.

[Dede2002]

Thanks for the explanation. It's just that the waveforms looks so diferent from mine that I thought there was something wrong with them  . I'm only happy when I'm learning stuff.

[cleantone]

It is just part of the loudness war that has been going on for years. Nobody wants a quiet album even if it sounds great. Not as much concern for dynamics anymore. Although I am starting to see it turning around a bit. Hopefully that continues. Even an awesome mastering engineer can make a great mix sound bit worse when making it really loud. There is mention above that when you zoom in more you should not see flattened waveforms. You will see that though in a lot of cases. Even when your viewing close to the sample level. They can, will, and do brickwall stuff in mastering.

[Brian]

i still see grey behind that blue waveform.  amateurs

you want to see some fucked up limiting and compression in the mastering process?  open any marylin manson release.  complete stick of butter.  no dynamics whatsoever.  insanity

[PG]

It is just part of the loudness war that has been going on for years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Thanks Cleantone!

[TNJazz]

Not as much concern for dynamics anymore. Although I am starting to see it turning around a bit.

Apparently John McBride opted not to engage in the loudness wars for Martina's new album.  I believe his reaction was "turn the damn volume knob up if it's not loud enough for you" or something to that effect.  I haven't heard it yet but I'm told it sounds fantastic.

Hopefully many more will follow suit.

[anodyne33]

And that's why mastering engineers get the big bucks. It's actually a pretty interesting process if you read up on a day in the life of a mastering engineer.

In the world of pop music though (read: anything that a record company wants to get on the radio), the old axiom will always apply due to the way our brains interact with our ears... louder is better.

[cleantone]

And that's why mastering engineers get the big bucks. It's actually a pretty interesting process if you read up on a day in the life of a mastering engineer.

Some top engineers make as much as $5000 a day for mastering. The worst part is that I have heard engineers talk about being displeased with the resulting product from these people. I would like Ludwig to master something of mine someday.

[momule]

And that's why mastering engineers get the big bucks. It's actually a pretty interesting process if you read up on a day in the life of a mastering engineer.

Some top engineers make as much as $5000 a day for mastering. The worst part is that I have heard engineers talk about being displeased with the resulting product from these people. I would like Ludwig to master something of mine someday.

I have a feeling Bob ain't gonna even talk to ya for $5000 a day.  last I heard his Rate was around $3000 a track and he more than likely ain't even mastering it for ya.  One of his interns is prolly doing the dirty work and he just hears/grades/double checks his work.

what I wanna do is sit and spend about 3 days with Bob and watch the master at work.  The man hears things you and I prolly don't.