Most clippers I've come across so far have worked one of two ways: you either pushed the gain up until the input hit the ceiling, or you brought the ceiling down onto the signal and then raised the output to make up for the volume loss.
With this one, you can do both. Or just one.
It has Auto Gain Compensation that doesn't just "boost what was cut" to make everything as loud as hell, but it should rather keep the perceived volume fairly close to what the un-clipped signal originally had.
The clipping and Auto Gain happen before the Post Gain, so watch out how far you turn the Post Gain up, we don't want ugly surprises.
By the way: the Post Gain defaults to -0.01 dBfs because some hosts show clipping at 0.00 dBfs already, instead of when the first real overshoot happens at +0.01 dBfs. Defaulting to -0.01 dBfs keeps the track meters nice and not-red.
Values are editable in the text boxes, holding the Shift key will make the knobs fine-tune, double-clicks will reset them.
I'll probably be putting more work into this, just out of pure curiosity. I'm already working on a switchable soft clipping characteristic, a more refined Auto Gain, better skinning possibilities, etc.
If you have any bright ideas ... lemme know.
This is just my "entry project" into the world of plugins, so please don't expect too much. Everything I learn from this simple project will hopefully help me create some more sophisticated things, so any feedback regarding installation, handling and user experience is welcome.
----------------------- UPDATE v1.2.2 -----------------
As of v1.2.2, Clipmax now has two new clipping modes:
The SOF switch will activate Soff (soft) mode. Use Pre Gain to boost into saturation, pretty hard to make this clip. AGC will calculate against Pre Gain instead of Ceiling, so don't be afraid to boost ... but watch out before switching back to normal or Ruff mode.
I recommend to leave Ceiling at -0 db for Soff mode, or use it very sparingly. A bit mellower high end than default and Ruff mode, works great on guitars or vocals.
The RUF switch will put Clipmax into Ruff (rough) mode, this will add a "ceiling before the ceiling" (watch Ceiling knob). The more you lower the actual ceiling, the further down the "soft ceiling" will be extended. Signal that hits the soft ceiling will be re-scaled, similar to compression but on a per-sample basis, so this will sound slightly rough.
The soft ceiling re-scaling will bring down transients but won't sound as metallic as the standard hard clipping, makes a nice shape (pun intended) on bass and also some drums, methinks.
Changelog entry v1.2.2:
* Added Soff and Ruff clipping modes
* Added bipolar knob behaviour
* Added clipping LED inertia
* Improved Auto Gain calculation
* Reduced CPU consumption slightly
* FR: AGC no longer defaults to ON
----------------------- UPDATE v1.2.2 -----------------
Here goes: http://free.chokehold.net/clipmax/
Cheers,
Rob
(edit - in one computer configuration, in the other is does)
