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Message: [QUOTE="Shamiso, post: 92706, member: 160"] KLOP clipping modes include Hard, Soft, Pro, and Ratio, with the Ratio control running from 1.2 to 1 through 8 to 1. Hard cuts directly, Soft uses tanh shaping, and Pro uses a cubic knee. The useful difference is not just how rounded the curve looks. Each mode decides how much of a peak gets bent, how suddenly the bend happens, and how much of a sustained sound spends time inside the nonlinear part of the curve. The [B][URL='https://goldmidi.com/community/threads/tmplt-sounds-introduced-the-klop-visual-clipper-plugin.78068/']KLOP visual clipping controls[/URL][/B] put the transfer curve and heatmap in front of you while audio runs. You can see where a snare only brushes the clipping region and where a bass note keeps leaning into it for much longer. [HEADING=2]The transfer curve decides what gets changed[/HEADING] A clipper applies an input-to-output level relationship. Small samples can pass through unchanged or nearly unchanged, while larger ones are reshaped once they reach the part of the transfer curve where the output stops following the input one for one. Soft clipping's gentler subjective character also appears in [B][URL='https://secure.aes.org/forum/pubs/journal/?elib=12197']controlled listening tests of nonlinear distortion[/URL][/B], where soft clipping produced smaller perceived-quality penalties than hard clipping. Hard and soft are not just different names for the same ceiling, since one makes an abrupt transition and the other bends gradually into the nonlinear zone. This matters more than the peak number alone. A short kick transient might cross the threshold for a tiny slice of time, while a held synth or bass note can keep driving the curve across repeated waveform cycles. KLOP's heatmap is handy here because it shows where signal levels are landing on the curve. A [URL='https://goldmidi.com/community/threads/clipper-displays-show-where-peaks-are-being-shaved.76450/']clipper display reading[/URL] can tell you where clipping is happening, but it still cannot tell you whether the new distortion actually suits the sound. [HEADING=2]Hard and Soft punish the same peak differently[/HEADING] Hard mode is the blunt one. Signal under the clipping boundary stays on the straight part of the transfer curve, then anything pushing past the limit gets cut much more abruptly. Sharp corners create stronger upper harmonics than a smoothly bending curve, which is why hard clipping can turn a clean transient into something noticeably brighter or rougher. On a kick, snare, or percussion bus, a tiny amount may disappear into the attack nicely because the clipped section is so short. Held sounds expose the trade-off faster. If a bass note keeps crossing the threshold, Hard is not trimming one disposable spike anymore; it is reshaping the waveform again and again through the body of the note. Soft mode spreads the change out. KLOP uses a tanh curve here, so the waveform starts bending progressively instead of traveling straight into an abrupt flat edge. A tanh soft clipper can therefore sound less sudden, but softer does not mean untouched. More of the waveform can sit inside the curved region, which means the effect can become audible as density, rounding, or harmonic color before you see a dramatic flat top. Try Hard and Soft at similar perceived output rather than letting the louder version win by default. KLOP's level-matched Compare control is useful for this because attack, sustain, and texture become easier to judge when volume is not moving around. [HEADING=2]Pro and Ratio give you finer control over the bend[/HEADING] Pro uses a cubic knee, giving KLOP another way to move from the straight part of the curve into peak control without using the same tanh shape as Soft. It is worth trying when Hard feels too abrupt, but Soft seems to spread the coloration farther into the sound than you want. The exact amount of audible change still depends on the source and threshold. A cubic clipping curve hitting only the tallest drum peaks is a very different job from the same mode sitting across a dense synth chord for half the bar. Ratio is the odd one out because KLOP gives you a numerical range instead of another named fixed shape. The available 1.2 to 1 through 8 to 1 span lets you move from gentler control toward firmer peak restraint without jumping straight between Hard, Soft and Pro. Start low and move upward on the same loud passage while watching which peaks keep reaching the active part of the curve. Keep the threshold fixed during this pass; otherwise, you are changing two things at once, and the comparison gets muddy fast. Listen to the front edge of drums, the body of bass notes, and any grain appearing in bright material. Stop where the unwanted peak loses enough height without the useful part of the sound going with it. [/QUOTE]

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