Ableton Forum

So I was trying to understand the origin of some pops and clicks in my sound (as one does) and froze/flattened the track to look at the waveform

It looked very 'hot' and clipped.

I reduced the volume on the clip gain slider on the clip and sure enough - it had that straight clipped look



I zoomed in a millimeter and the straight edge of the waveform disappeared and I saw a normal, unclipped waveform



Why is this happening? Why don't I get even a vaguely accurate picture of the waveform when I am a little bit too zoomed out?

When you zoom in horizontally on a waveform you're visually spreading out the peaks, so you are seeing more detail of the waveform's contour between the peaks. When you're zoomed out the peaks are closer together and visually form a straight edge.

That's what I figure you're experiencing, although your second image isn't showing up for me.

I hope the second image is showing up now.

I think the difference between the images is not accounted for by your explanation. It is as if Live is artificially simplifying the image when I am zoomed out, and presenting a very different image when I zoom in just a bit.

Yeah now that I can see the second image it's definitely not zoomed in enough from the first image for what I was talking about to occur. Weird. No idea.

What is the skin that you're using, it looks pretty good!

'Easy on the Eyes' from Sonic Transfer

Live won't show samples.

Um, I don't see what you are saying. Or are you just being sarcastic?

Live not being able to zoom to sample level has nothing to do with this. No idea what the noobinator is talking about.

It's just a preview and not gonna show accurate waveform.

Well, once I really zoom in I can get detail up to and including being able to find zero crossings etc. So if it is a preview it is a pretty detailed one... And I still want to know why the 'preview', if it is one, behaves so oddly.

I will write to the morlocks at Abes & find out whether they have an answer.