StandardCLIP

[audiotools]

I recently released the StandardCLIP clipping plugin. The goal was to develop a mastering plugin to increase the volume, which handles the clipping process as transparent and flexible as possible.
Let me know if you have suggestions or questions!

http://www.siraudiotools.com/StandardCLIP.php

[ObsoleteAcc99]

so this is for final master limiting basically? Like an inexpensive alternative to ozone or pro L for example?

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Hmm, not having good results with this so far on a pop dance mix. It's brutal on the kick drum and causes strong distortion.

It reminds me a lot of sonic timeworks hard clipper which was very cool in the day.. but now with tools like Ozone etc we just have better mastering options than a hard clipper.

With 32xOS active and using an isp meter, there are no overshoots which is pretty cool of course.

I can see use for this on certain individual tracks especially with the saturation - but not for my master, at least not the way it currently is.

[audiotools]

Thanks for your feedback. For what kind of music-style did you use it? Of cause it depends on the material, if you use it a heavy weight pre-compressed bass drum, you might reach clipping zone fast.
Try to choose 50%-60% soft-saturation, and then slowly move the input-gain from -12dB (or even lower) up. Stop before you hear any audible distortion.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Hi,a a 128 bpm 4/4 pop/dance mix.

You can quickly hear standard clip killing the kick where as ozone and aom invisible are keeping it nice and undistorted.

I did try that setting and it seems to add to the kick distortion.

input -12db? The mix is not hot to begin with. I started with input gain at positive levels so it was actually doing some limiting. This mix has 6 db peak in it and averages 14-12 ish rms. I tried to simply get it to -10 average with standard clip, and had the issues, but it sounded great with ozone 5 on intelligent 2.

Also you have a gain knob and input knob. I presume the second gain knob is more for when you are not using the ceiling?

a GR meter would also be appreciated.

[audiotools]

I presume the second gain knob is more for when you are not using the ceiling?

No, actually there are two clipping stages, the second: "ceiling" is only to prevent the few samples over the defined output-gain, which can happen because of oversampling accuracy. Its described in the manual.

http://www.siraudiotools.com/StandardCL ... l.php#Main

Limiting and clipping are different processes. If a signal has a large loudness variability, and you just want to push it to the limit, a limiter will pump up the quite parts (simplified) while the clipper is making anything louder but adds (soft-)distortion. This is something you should keep in mind.

[pekbro]

This is a great clipper,

I bought it after just a few minutes with the demo. A scalable UI would be nice,
but not a big deal...

-Cheers

[audiotools]

This is a great clipper,

I bought it after just a few minutes with the demo. A scalable UI would be nice,
but not a big deal...

Thank you Pekbro. Have you noticed, there is an option to re-size the whole plugin-gui.

http://www.siraudiotools.com/StandardCL ... l.php#Zoom

[steffensen]

Been demoing this today and i really enjoy what im hearing.
A/B'ed it against Ableton Saturator and the Clip really holds its ground.
I cant get as good results with anything in my arsenal actually.
I think i have to buy this along with the EQ at some point. Fantastic work.

[pekbro]

audiotools,

Thanks, I didn't see a little handle in the corner so I thought it wasn't scalable.
And I suppose I spent way too much time fiddling with the color themes to notice
the zoom setting... heh

Anyway great job, I'm very satisfied with it...

-Cheers

[audiotools]

Thank you! Let me know if you have other suggestions or questions.

[MogwaiBoy]

Updated today:

StandardCLIP 1.2.024/025

• Performance improvements for certain hosts
  Fixed modal behavior for Cubase clip rendering (Mac)
  Design changes
  Improved preset menu

StandardEQ and SIR2 have been updated today as well.

[shroom81]

This clipper is awesome!

[Hermetech Mastering]

Loving this, thanks for the very reasonable price and all the updates!

I have a quick question on gain structure. I'm using it in mastering, (just before a limiter), to chop off just some of the peaks as inaudibly as possible, not for extra gain/loudness. As such I use it in Hard Clip mode. What I have been doing is leaving everything at zero, and just bringing the Clip control down by however many dB I need to cut the unwanted peaks off, so the subjective loudness remains about the same. Then on to the limiter.

The question is, is this the best way to achieve what I want? What would be the difference between the way I currently work, and boosting the Input Gain by the same amount, but leaving the Clip at zero? Any difference or no difference?

Thanks again,

Gregg

[cprompt]

Well, I would say that bringing the gain up until it starts to clip is the same as bringing the clip level down until it starts to clip, except the former will be louder after the event.

Raising the gain 8dB and clipping 1dB is the same as clipping 1dB then raising the gain 8dB (which is what you are effectively doing if you feed the clipped signal in to a limiter and raising the gain by 8dB before any limiting kicks in).

Raising the gain is a simple mathematical operation so I can't imagine it would make any difference if you do it in StandrdClip (excellent clipper btw) or your limiter.