Clipping Consistency? What's going on here?

[sethbove]

Hey everybody,

 

This may seem like a very elementary question, though I'm confused and would love some clarity. I just recorded a piece in Logic 8 using synths, vocals, drums etc... and I notice that I was hitting the red pretty hard, +4db at times, on my outputs 1+2 - mostly due to drums and synths being a bit hot - but it sounds great!. I don't hear any audible distortion, yet +4db in the red seems pretty high. I bounced the file down in both 24bit AIF (without normalizing) and 192mp3 (without normalizing). Both files sound fine, and I can't hear digital clipping.

 

However, when I re-import the bounced tracks back into Logic and play them, the levels go up to 0db but never clip or go into the red. Why is this? I wanted to try showing a buddy of mine the track, to see if he could hear any clipping, but he said that it never actually visually clipped for him in his DAWs (in Cubase and Logic). Though on the actual session file, it goes way up into the red. What's going on here?

 

I know I can simply decrease the output faders to eliminate the clipping, but I'm curious as to why the clipping spikes do not show up in Logic once I've bounced it and re-imported the bounced file? Shouldn't it be consistent? It's the same data, right? Is there some sort of limiting going on somewhere in bounce down?

 

I'm using no plugins. Audio interface is an Apogee Rosetta 800 on a Mac Pro Quad Core. My pan laws are set at default.

 

Thank you for any help or clarity into this you can give. I appreciate it!

 

-Seth

[teta]

i would like to get some info about this too.

 

ive been experimenting with this, and noticed that you can clip the output alot when you are bouncing your tune (+3-5dbs) without noticing distortion, and when you open the bounced wave/aiff file in logic and play it the output never clips and doesnt go above 0db.

 

dont know why, some people say that you should never clip the output, but ive been lately watching tutorials by drum'n'bass producers and some of them say its ok to clip and go into the red a littlebit in daw's.

 

and some of the producers i know say this too; you can go into the red as long that your tune doesnt distort, and your mixdown is balanced well.

 

i really dont know what is the right answer.. but i DO know that if your gonna send your track to get professionally mastered LEAVE SOME HEADROOM, and dont clip the output.