How Clipping Can Make Your Mix Bigger, Punchier and Louder

Clipping on purpose? Aren’t we supposed to avoid that at all costs?!
I’m gonna show you how to use clipping in your mix - not just in the master bus - as a tool for loudness, impact and punch.

[brandonm]

RIP to the master of clipping - Clippy from Microsoft Word. May he rest in peace, and may his contribution to clipping never be forgotten.

[EthanRom]

I'm crying at how effective this is, while at the same time making me feel stupid.

[leroybrown]

This is a perfect example of trust your ears and do what sounds good. We’d all probably naturally reach this conclusion to clip a little bit if people didn’t make it sound like it’s a sin to clip

[DrBrunoDzogovic]

I've been doing this all my life, sending the mix through a Behringer console and clipping back in the DAW. For hard genres like metal, rock, dubstep, this can work like a charm. Nothing makes a kick drum hit hard as a clipper

[gogreyhoundmusic]

Using the limiter for loudness is how you end up with an all cymbals drum sound.

[ignasibb]

Finally, I've understood what clipping plugins are and do. Thank you so much Jordan.

[ThatcherUlrich]

Back in the analog days as a band member, I always noticed that the engineers would have the meters on the drum channels flashing red on the hits, and I wondered if it was OK. Maybe this is the rediscovery of that technique?

[EqDior]

Great tutorial! Been doing this for years in different ways... The Moral of the story is "Mix with your ears not your eyes"

[whosrichpurnell]

I appreciate these videos. It’s rare you hear controversial advice such as this. One of the best pieces of advice I keep coming back to is “don’t be precious with audio.” Also, that EQ is just + and - ‘s

[marianojrivera]

Ngl, I've been doing this when I mastered and I was always scared when my boss comes around when I'm doing this before I Limit/compress the transients. You just gave me confidence to say I know what I'm doing! Thanks man, and keep at it

[mikemorello]

Haha yesss a few years ago Andreas stayed at my studio to help work on a record and I saw him do this and it changed my life! He’s a great engineer/producer.

[ayotwisted]

FL Studio Producers Be Like: S O F T C L I P P E R

[haihoisua]

OMG, this is really what I've been searching for all times!!! Thanks so much, bro!

[d.m.ebeats]

When I see you talking about clipping am so happy, clipping is the most underrated part of mixing but clipping, saturation, is key to reduce the Crest factor/dynamic range of a signal, hence increasing RMS where the percieved loudness lies.
Newfangled audio elevate is the mastering limiter I recommend is so great cuase I has a cliper at the end that you can completely control it's a game changer!!!.

[aurixkorban]

Oh dude you just solved a major problem I had for sure. I clipped on my 8 track and I though it sounded better, but i couldnt find a clear answer to what that did to the audio. Thanks.

[TeleCustom]

This is the way I did things back in the 90s when I started building my first home studio based around a Tascam 424 mkII portastudio. Because the signal-to-noise ratio of cassette tapes wasn't great, you just had to crank the level to tape to get the audio above the noise floor. You soon realise that running the level hot to the tape sounds best and gives you some natural compression/limiting. I think there is a LOT of mileage to the 'clipping' method. Maybe try some channel-strips on the master bus and just crank the level. You will also get some 'sweetening' depending on the type of console plugin you're using.

[dannyleftridgemusic]

Great advice as always! I can’t wait for the series next month!

[ZahraBlack]

Great video and super informative! Looking forward to seeing these plugins you are working on

[cgtbrad]

I've been mixing audio in some capacity or another for 25 years. I've mostly done arena level live sound for that, but often have to make mixes of shows. I'm shocked that I have never known of this clipping technique - and now that I've seen this demonstration it makes complete sense. Never again will I use a limiter for loudness.

[trancephile]

yeah that's Great, i recently started using this method in my mixes and the result is Amazing, thanks for explaining