Quote:
Originally Posted by Darius van H I'm not sure it's fair to say that clipped material always doesn't sound good when broadcast, converted or played back on crappy systems.
It depends on your definition of good - if you're listening from an audiophile, anti-distortion point of view, then granted, clipping is always bad.
On the other hand, if you're trying to achieve a "hot" master that retains a lot of punch and has similar apparent loudness to other songs in the same genre, then clipping can be a useful and valid tool.
D |
Yes, one man's meat is another man's poison. I'm torn from both sides every day of the week. Have pity on me. Client #1 doing a Latin Pop is asking me to give him another ref that's 1 dB hotter than the already clipped thing I produced whose RMS is already about a K-9!!! in order to "compete" on a CD changer with a terribly-distorted Mark Anthony with about a 4 dB peak to RMS ratio!
Client #2 doing a rock album is worried that the slightly clipped master I produced for him is distorting on some small systems and might make a poor MP3. I definitely agree I went too far with Client #2 and I made a mistake. I definitely think client #1 is making the wrong choice but I will do what he asks.
__________________
Bob Katz DIGITAL DOMAIN
http://www.digido.com
"There are two kinds of fools. One says-this is old and therefore good. The other says-this is new and therefore better."
No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.