Ableton Forum

Is there any way to insert a device before the audio from an external input actually hits its strip? E.g., to place a limiter or very gentle compressor on the input before recording the sample to avoid clipping.

I used to do this on a creamware system (long gone) but that had a bit of a different paradigm than Live's mixer. I would like to avoid having to bring out another piece of hardware to go between my mic and audio i/o just for the sake of avoiding clipping. For some reason with Live I have to be way more careful on input than I ever was on Cubase (or in hardware with Creamware taking care of that)...

Thank ye

--
er: this probably should have been in another forum, but oh well.

not to do what you describe, because to avoid clipping, it would have to be before the a/d conversion that happens in your hardware.


however, if you want to record something with compression (or any effect you want) it can be done. just set up a channel with your effects, route it to a new blank channel and record on that one. just remember, this won't allow you to prevent your incoming signal to be clipped at the a/d conversion stage and in fact that is not possible with any software.



.lm.

some advice, record at 24bit and set your input levels lower. shouldn't be a problem, your noise floor is so low, and your representation of dynamics so great that you don't have to set your input levels as hot as you do for analog or 16bit digital.



.lm.

+1 lm

leisuremuffin wrote:some advice, record at 24bit and set your input levels lower. shouldn't be a problem, your noise floor is so low, and your representation of dynamics so great that you don't have to set your input levels as hot as you do for analog or 16bit digital.



.lm.

Thanks for the tip, LM. I'll give it a shot.