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#10541 - 04/29/06 07:48 AM Understanding Soft Clip
Keyboard Man Keyboard Man Planeteer Registered: 01/26/04 Posts: 157 Loc: Toronto	Hi All, I know that most of you are not fond of using soft clip. Recently, I recorded my piano students' recital. I want to attempt keeping a relatively full dynamic range recording, however, there were a few loud peaks that I would like to tame, and, at the same time bring up the overall level of the performance upon mastering. Do you think that using soft clip is the answer to this? Should I bring the level up to just below where I hear distortion with the soft clip on? Is this the best approach? I would appreciate your advice.
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#10542 - 04/29/06 01:19 PM Re: Understanding Soft Clip
buster 'n babs buster 'n babs Planeteer Registered: 04/29/02 Posts: 1420 Loc: burlington, canada	how about using compression? if used carefully, that should accomplish what you need. (be careful because the compression function in the roland can change the overall tone...can becomer harsher and colder...try tweaking to taste.) interesting that u are recording recitals. i am thinking of same. we live in burlington. should keep in touch. _________________________ buster n' babbles www.jazzkitchenstudio.com our IAC page - buster and babbles our IAC page - the Jazz Kitchen Our MySpace page Groove. Heal. Inspire.
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#10543 - 04/29/06 04:26 PM Re: Understanding Soft Clip
loudhvx loudhvx Planeteer Registered: 02/19/01 Posts: 772 Loc: Chicago,IL,USA	You've probably read this already, but in case you didn't: This is regarding the "soft clip" option in the Mastering Tool Kit in Roland VS multitrack recorders. The manual is misleading about the "soft clip" option in the MTK. The "soft clip" limits the output like a brick wall. The level meters at the output of the MTK will stay well below the maximum. This, however, is not the misleading part. The software and the appendix-manual lead you to believe the output's "soft clip" is before the output's "level" adjustment. In fact, the "Soft Clip" is applied after the "Level" adjuster. The "Soft Clip" actually reduces the overall volume. Adjusting the "Level" adjustment in the output section (of the MTK) won't bring up the level. It will only create distortion. There is a limiter in the MTK that works quite well and behaves as expected. Use it instead of soft clip. Initially, it appears you can correct the signal loss by increasing the master fader. This is a bad idea if you are dithering to 16 bits. The master fader needs to stay at 100 because the master fader is still operating at 24 bits. (Dither occurs at the end of the MTK chain.) No processing (volume changes) should be done after dithering. Simply turn off the soft clip and use the "limiter" section instead. Then the MTK will behave more as expected." _________________________ Hook\'s VS880/ex info page. My VS info
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#10544 - 05/01/06 08:48 AM Re: Understanding Soft Clip
Boray Boray Planeteer Registered: 10/15/01 Posts: 4019 Loc: Gothenburg, Sweden	Good to see old friends knowing what they are talking about! $;\)$ /Anders _________________________ http://www.boray.se/
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#10545 - 05/03/06 02:16 AM Re: Understanding Soft Clip
loudhvx loudhvx Planeteer Registered: 02/19/01 Posts: 772 Loc: Chicago,IL,USA	Good to hear from ya, Anders! _________________________ Hook\'s VS880/ex info page. My VS info
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#10546 - 05/04/06 03:03 PM Re: Understanding Soft Clip
Mike_Strat Mike_Strat Planeteer Registered: 03/12/00 Posts: 1061 Loc: Albany, NY USA	KB Man, Try automixing the track faders to decrease the level of the loud peaks. Doing that can be more natural sounding than using compression. Set snapshot markers at the beginning and end of each loud peak. THEN apply subtle compression to the overall mix to smooth the levels a bit more... but only to the point where it still sounds natural and not too compressed. That is what I do... and it works well for me. Mike $\:\)$
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#10547 - 05/06/06 06:43 AM Re: Understanding Soft Clip
Keyboard Man Keyboard Man Planeteer Registered: 01/26/04 Posts: 157 Loc: Toronto	Hi Guys, Thanks for the ideas. Mike, I did end up using automix to get a natural reduction of the peaks...it worked well. I have been using Automix a lot for the Pop/Rock songs, but, this is the first time for any classical music. Good to hear from all of you again. Take care
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#10548 - 10/02/06 11:17 AM Re: Understanding Soft Clip
MIKE MIKE Planeteer Registered: 04/16/99 Posts: 146 Loc: San Diego Ca US	nice post....
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