A soft clipper is a type of audio signal processing effect that limits the amplitude of an input signal. It does this by gradually reducing the level of the source material as it approaches the maximum level that the clipper is set to e.g., 0 dBFS or -1 dBFS. This helps to prevent the audio material from becoming too distorted, particularly in the digital domain. However, in other genres of music distortion is more than welcome. It's the desired sound.
What is the difference between a soft clipper and a limiter?
The difference between soft clippers and brickwall limiters is that often the latter can do what the former does. This is because many modern mastering limiters have optional parameters that you can fine-tune and pretty much make the magic happen. These parameters are namely: knee, attack time, release time, and lookahead time.How do you turn a brickwall limiter into a soft clipper?
To turn a mastering limiter into a soft clipper, you use the following settings as starting points:Parameter | Value |
---|---|
Ceiling | 0 dBFS |
Attack | As slow as possible e.g., greater than 100 ms |
Release | As fast as possible e.g., 10 ms or 1 ms |
Knee | You want a gentle curve (or high values in dB) |
Gain (threshold) | Until you get about 4 to 6 dB in gain reduction |
Lookahead | Off (or zero) |