Clipper recreation within the software domain

[stinkyfingers]

airwindows adclip3

[Lagerfeldt]

Originally Posted by garry_spectrum

Software developers - please accept this note as an open letter to be considered when planning your future projects.

Yes, and we are working on it: Bifrost Audio - Mastering Quality Digital Processing

Hopefully it will be released in 2013, though it is still in alpha stage.

I am using my self-designed software now, as it has been stable for a couple of months.

Apart from feeling pretty geeky, I am very pleased with the results. I have already used it on hundreds of commercial releases, including a #1 hit and three dance chart top 10 tracks.

Features implemented so far:

• Threshold
• Optional auto-gain link
• Output makeup with 0.01 dB precision
• Variable knee (soft clip threshold)
• Variable look-ahead
• Solo clip (audition function)
• High resolution I/O meters with clip display

To be implemented:

• Bypass button for look-ahead/latency compensated internal switching for both auditioning and automation purposes

My goal was to combine high quality sound with a dedicated and mastering oriented workflow - as well as additional flexibility in comparison with most hardware clipping.

Furthermore we are looking into an interesting shaping function, but only time will tell how this turns out, since it has not been done before in software.

I realize some will say, "Just what the world needs... another clipper", but it is a tool like anything else, and I prefer to have the best and most flexible tools available to me. If nothing exists, you must invent it yourself.

[garry_spectrum]

Got to check that out stinky! It's a shame it's not cross-platform though...

[garry_spectrum]

Originally Posted by Lagerfeldt

Yes, and we are working on it: Bifrost Audio - Mastering Quality Digital Processing

First of all, congratulations on starting a new audio software development company with a practicing mastering engineer taking the lead on product design and hopefully providing a non-compromise attitude on quality assurance iterations.

Imho, many engineers are looking forward to having reliable tools at their fingertips, especially in these days of highly competitive DIY project life cycles.

So, best of the luck with this beginning and hopefully enough there will be a private or maybe even a public beta testing activity group down the road, in which I'd love to take part for sure.

Kindly -
Garry

[engmix]

Originally Posted by Lagerfeldt

Yes, and we are working on it: Bifrost Audio - Mastering Quality Digital Processing

Hopefully it will be released this year, though it is still in alpha stage.

On paper this sounds like a very useful tool, since limiting is not always ideal.

I'm hopeful that you'll make it as high quality as you can, even at the expense of a flashy GUI, which is just to drum up sales. Things like meter ballistics could also eat up some serious under the hood processing power, do you think it's really necessary? A clip display with readout sounds good, but a general i/o meter seems superfluous when it comes to driving levels above full scale 0dB. Just my unasked for 2 cents.

Good luck with the project, looking forward to hopefully finding it useful enough to pull out the bank card.

[Retinal]

Originally Posted by garry_spectrum

Hello good sirs,

I was wondering to learn your thoughts regarding a possibility of recreating a proper a/d clipper within the software domain.

Don't you think it is now quite possible to implement a software project that would include a modeling based or shall we say "advanced algorithm" based approach as a deliverable for creating a clipper plugin for a professional use that would come as close to the existing hardware counterparts as possible ?

I know there are t-racks, gclips and all, but these do not really seem to be filling in the niche sonically per se - what do you say : )

Software developers - please accept this note as an open letter to be considered when planning your future projects.

Cheers!
G.

I think Vladg's Limiter6 sees exactly what
you're describing as its last stage.
I remember reading the manual that the last "module" is suppose
to simulate AD clipping, and that is on top of the clipper module
so is not the same as the other clippers available

[bendermastering]

ADClip is a very good tool, v3 works very well and imo it is the best version of the plugin.

To me it sounds nicer than Prism overkillers or clipping the Orpheus converters, though I've never directly compared ADClip to clipping other brands ADC so I can't really comment on that.

[mdoelger]

What about Stillwell's Event Horizon. You can use it as a clipper or limiter. Has softclipping implemented and sounded really good to me.

[Lagerfeldt]

Originally Posted by engmix

On paper this sounds like a very useful tool, since limiting is not always ideal.

I'm hopeful that you'll make it as high quality as you can, even at the expense of a flashy GUI, which is just to drum up sales. Things like meter ballistics could also eat up some serious under the hood processing power, do you think it's really necessary? A clip display with readout sounds good, but a general i/o meter seems superfluous when it comes to driving levels above full scale 0dB. Just my unasked for 2 cents.

Good luck with the project, looking forward to hopefully finding it useful enough to pull out the bank card.

Thanks for your comments.

It's a no-compromise design in terms of audio quality and I'll personally be doing integrity tests (as well as some very qualified beta testers). As for the meters, we'll keep an eye on the DSP usage.

That said, DSP is not a big issue when it comes to mastering because:

A) Most mastering engineers use hardware as part of the chain and have plenty of available DSP power for plug-ins

B) Mastering projects have a very low track count, and mastering is performed in a separate project from production and mixing

However, we do not want to limit people in how they use the plug-in, so it will be as DSP and RAM efficient as possible. I am fortunate to have a highly skilled, top professional programmer on the job.

I have also met with other programmers in order to discuss their take on some of the more advanced features. It has been a very enlightening process for me.

[AUDIOBOMBER]

mac version please !

[engmix]

Originally Posted by Lagerfeldt

Thanks for your comments.

It's a no-compromise design in terms of audio quality and I'll personally be doing integrity tests (as well as some very qualified beta testers). As for the meters, we'll keep an eye on the DSP usage.

I'm glad to see that...because a plugin of this nature really needs to be of the highest quality possible. I'm sure it will be a great challenge to nail it down, hence there not really being anything out there of uber high quality, so good luck with it.

[garry_spectrum]

Originally Posted by mdoelger

What about Stillwell's Event Horizon. You can use it as a clipper or limiter. Has softclipping implemented and sounded really good to me.

Alas I can't confirm that Stillwell's plugin does the trick. It may be well based on the musical material going in, which in my particular case is mainly transient heavy EDM.

In summary, it sort of softens the edges a bit and yet blurs the image a lot which is nowhere near the standard of hardware units. And this is what I am talking about - the cpu power that is available nowadays and the dsp researches have gone deep enough in order to be able to reveil a clipper plugin of high standard.

[Lagerfeldt]

Originally Posted by AUDIOBOMBER

mac version please !

The two versions currently under development are AU (Mac) and VST (PC). We'll see about AAX (not likely for various reasons), but a Mac VST version makes sense.