clipped music?

[husker77 10+ year member]

I understand hu and amp clipping, but I have seen several references to songs being "clipped" and people "unclipping" them. How is a song clipped? How do you remove the clipping?

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[NutHugger 10+ year member]

I understand hu and amp clipping, but I have seen several references to songs being "clipped" and people "unclipping" them. How is a song clipped? How do you remove the clipping?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipping_(audio)

It's just as easy for the recording to be clipped as it is for the final reproduction to be clipped. If the frequencies are boosted past a certain point (beyond something's limitation. it could be several things.) the waves will become deformed.

Notice how nice and smooth the wave is on the inner portion. Notice the boundaries. Those represent the equipment's limits. Notice the outer wave. You can see that it has been boosted beyond the limits and the wave is no longer smooth. It is "clipped".

 

[husker77 10+ year member]

At what point in the process does this usually happen? And why is done, wouldn't the recorders know they are doing it and that it is bad? How do you tell if a song is clipped?

 

[jokers10 10+ year member]

Most music producers understand clipping very well. The reason some of them still drive the recorded volume to clipped levels, is because it is louder. To the average ear louder is normally better. The average listener normally has store bought speakers that you can't differentiate between normal clipped music and the non-clipped music, except the non-clipped music is normally quieter.

I would say the average clipped music production wouldn't harm the average system too quick. Even the non average bass head system wouldn't be affected by the music on the store shelves. What you have to worry about though is the slowed/decaf/screwed music. These jokers tend to not only lower the frequency of the bass notes, but also boost the output at this frequency range to levels that would harm most systems if played loudly.

Your hand on the volume knob will save your system in any case. If you play it full tilt all the time, you will probably shorten the lifetime of your setup quicker than someone who plays their music at normal levels, no matter what music you are playing.

 

[husker77 10+ year member]

Ok next question, can you measure the clipping of music with an oscilloscope? Many people are fond of telling people how you can't always hear clipping. Do ipods clip if turned up to loud? What about cheaper mp3 players?

And then a more specific question, would my eclipse deck clip since it is one that is not powered? It is a cd8053 and has no power output.