Lets make a list of cds with clipping

[Ben Johnson]

Or you could just make it easy and listen to nothing but classical music.

Actually, you'll find clipping in that stuff too. I've heard several solo piano recordings that go over during FF or FFF passages. Not really blatant, raging clipping like some of the aforementioned examples, but clipping nonetheless. A lot of times the engineer (or assistant) will have an eye on the score during the performance and ride the fader; the results are a bit more natural than simply throwing on a comp (a big no-no in classical music as we all know).

You can also hear clipping in a lot of orchestral stuff too, notably in tutti passages. The Lord of the Rings soundtrack (not really classical, but whatever...) has some clipping during those massive crescendos.

btw - what's up, Nick

 

[NickL]

Actually, you'll find clipping in that stuff too. I've heard several solo piano recordings that go over during FF or FFF passages. Not really blatant, raging clipping like some of the aforementioned examples, but clipping nonetheless. A lot of times the engineer (or assistant) will have an eye on the score during the performance and ride the fader; the results are a bit more natural than simply throwing on a comp (a big no-no in classical music as we all know).

You can also hear clipping in a lot of orchestral stuff too, notably in tutti passages. The Lord of the Rings soundtrack (not really classical, but whatever...) has some clipping during those massive crescendos.

btw - what's up, Nick

Not much other than you breaking my balls

What are you up to? My midterms just kicked my head in.

 

[NickL]

i didnt master chimaira by the way

I can tell. Your low end is always controlled and the chimaira is... not. haha

 

[aramism]

KSE end of heartache has some like "guitar distortion" clipping when the guitars are "soloed" during some parts. then i realized like morgoe and dss3 said when distorted heavy guitars are like solod in some recordings there is this weird buzzy clipping. noticed it a lot with zuess recordings as well.

 

[Aaron Smith]

IIRC, this is common with things mastered with a TC Finalizer - I've noticed it on a lot of Andy's albums.

I definitely agree that the clipping guitar breaks are the most difficult thing to work on with a Finalizer... It's pretty strange.

 

[Nebulous]

Some of the most rediculous clipping (IMO of course) is on the latest Kamelot. Most of the album is quite clean, but the title track has what should be this orchestral/ bass/ fucknig whatever buildup before the last chorus iirc and all it does is fucks up the master bus compression and defeats the point of those tracks even being in the mix.

 

[Russtopher]

Boysetsfire - The Misery Index

Not exactly metal, but damn it's painful to listen to.

 

[Machinated]

The remaster of Bonded by Blood, basically unlistenable.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Dimmu Borgir - Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia
Biomechanical - Cannibalized

And not a little...

 

[James Murphy]

IIRC, this is common with things mastered with a TC Finalizer - I've noticed it on a lot of Andy's albums.

I definitely agree that the clipping guitar breaks are the most difficult thing to work on with a Finalizer... It's pretty strange.

guys, i have a finalizer too, and it's not more prone to distortion than any other box/plug-in.... BUT it is harder to automate the limiter setting, thanks to the latency and the fact that not many MEs and wannabe MEs are very MIDI savvy. it's the fact that the limiter is often too heavy handed for "guitar only" breaks that causes the distortion, not anything inherent to the finalizer itself. if you can calibrate for the hardware latency of the finalizer and are MIDI savvy, then you'll have no problems with the finalizer.

 

[Radd]

Questions:

So clipping from mastering comes from pushing the limiter to hard?

The limiter has to be pushed hard to get a loud and in your face outcome?

Can't the band or ME hear it?

Do they hear it but decide to make that sacrifice simply because they want or are requested to have that loud, in your face production?

Does the ME simply not know what he's doing? I find this hard to believe in every single case but maybe it is and judging from James's last post, it looks like that's a strong possibility.

Doesn't it make someone or everyone involved including the label look bad?

And finally, has anyone here personally or know of someone/band that has sent their material away and paid to get mastered with it coming back clipping?

I'm talking blatant, obvious, nasty ass clipping that the average person can hear and say wtf is that?

I was interested in the Bonded by Blood remaster but not now.

 

[lordcthulhu]

Some of the most rediculous clipping (IMO of course) is on the latest Kamelot. Most of the album is quite clean, but the title track has what should be this orchestral/ bass/ fucknig whatever buildup before the last chorus iirc and all it does is fucks up the master bus compression and defeats the point of those tracks even being in the mix.

Hahaha so true, I couldn't believe it since The Black Halo was PERFECT production-wise (it also happened to be a much, much better album).

Oh, and the worst (other than Metallica), as someone said before, is Hypocrisy's Virus. First I thought it was my headphones, but gaaah! That album would seriously be one of melo-death's finest if it wasn't for that!

 

[Seizure.]

Speaking of clipping...

Anybody use AD converter clipping instead of digital clipping?
It seems alot of mastering engineers are using it to get there loudness, and according to them it sounds better then digital clipping.
I even saw Jens Bogren prefering it above digital on gearslutz.

 

[Metaltastic]

Some of the most rediculous clipping (IMO of course) is on the latest Kamelot. Most of the album is quite clean, but the title track has what should be this orchestral/ bass/ fucknig whatever buildup before the last chorus iirc and all it does is fucks up the master bus compression and defeats the point of those tracks even being in the mix.

WOW, holy shit, I never noticed that until now, and that's just laughably bad! (especially in the left channel as I'm perceiving it). Bastard...

 

[lordcthulhu]

WOW, holy shit, I never noticed that until now, and that's just laughably bad! (especially in the left channel as I'm perceiving it). Bastard...

You a Kamelot fan? Did you catch them at BB King's?

 

[Metaltastic]

Haha, like 3 years ago, yeah (on the "Black Halo" tour) - I go to school in central NY, so it's unfortunately quite a ways from NYC, so the last show of any kind that I went to was in Sept. '07! I'm a huge Kamelot fan though, they're one of my favorite bands! (well everything from Karma onwards, anyway )

 

[Nostalgiaplatz]

Any Disarmonia Mundi album, fragments of d-generation is heavy on it

 

[Nebulous]

WOW, holy shit, I never noticed that until now, and that's just laughably bad! (especially in the left channel as I'm perceiving it). Bastard...

Haha, sorry dude.

 

[lordcthulhu]

Haha, like 3 years ago, yeah (on the "Black Halo" tour) - I go to school in central NY, so it's unfortunately quite a ways from NYC, so the last show of any kind that I went to was in Sept. '07! I'm a huge Kamelot fan though, they're one of my favorite bands! (well everything from Karma onwards, anyway )

Cool! They played BB Kings last week or something. An American mate of mine who I met at the Evergrey concert in Sydney (he was on exchange) posted the pics on Facebook, and it looks like Kamelot puts a hell lot of effort into live shows nowadays with violinists, actors and whatnot.

 

[Keessi]

One of the worst fucking shitty distortion I've heard was on Slayer's Christ Illusion... This album would've sounded sooo fucking punchy and heavy it weren't clipped so damn hard...