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Levels and cliping

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 2:09 am
by djazz
ableton says that live has 32bit of headroom on the manual.

32bit = 192 db of dynamic range and 6db of "headroom" according to the metter.

When we mix down at 16bit we end up with 96 db

does it clip that 6db of headroom from the 192 or bring it down within the 96 db range ???

The clip indicator lights when signal is more than 6db. Is this the real clip point ? +6 or 0 ?

Re: Levels and cliping

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 5:06 am
by tylenol
djazz wrote:ableton says that live has 32bit of headroom on the manual.

32bit = 192 db of dynamic range and 6db of "headroom" according to the metter.

When we mix down at 16bit we end up with 96 db

does it clip that 6db of headroom from the 192 or bring it down within the 96 db range ???

The clip indicator lights when signal is more than 6db. Is this the real clip point ? +6 or 0 ?
I'm not sure what you mean by the clip light not lighting at 0, at least on the master it does. The master fader clips at 0 -- you can verify this by having operator generate a sine wave and gradually pumping it up above 0 (make the meter area taller so you can see the max value it's reached). You start to get the expected harmonics immediately at 0. Also, at some point I found a thread where Robert confirmed this. As I understand it, no other tracks besides the master clip at all (or at least not in ranges that you will ever reach unless you try). This can be verified easily with a bunch of utility plugins and a sine wave.