Clipping??

[dweinberg]

I've been ripping albums using VinylStudio for close to a year. A recent rip of the soundtrack of Hair shows clipping after the fact, but there were no clipping flags on the ADC (spot checked) and with VinylStudio. Based on the attached, was there clipping? It appears that the rip was clipped on several tracks. Please advise.

Note, both images are from side 1 of the album- they're the same.

Thanks.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

What type of ADC do you have please?

[dweinberg]

I have been using the ADL GT40a, made by Furutech.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Ok, thanks.  I had one of those but it died.  Some more questions for you:

  - What happens if you reduce the setting of the recording level slider?  Does it still clip?

  - What is the recording level slider currently set to (0 - 100)?

  - What do you have on the input side of the GT40?

My current theory is that clipping might be happening upstream of the GT40.  Thanks.

[dweinberg]

Here are my replies:

  - What happens if you reduce the setting of the recording level slider?  Does it still clip?
VinylStudio did not show any clipping while I recorded the album. Typical response from other albums did not indicate any clipping or show clipping in the Split Tracks or Clean-up Audio displays. In the case of this one album, the Split Tracks display doesn't show much (if any) clipping, where the Clean-up Audio display does.

  - What is the recording level slider currently set to (0 - 100)?
Prior to recording an album, I check the album with the Check Level function. The slider is typically set for 88 where the GT40a recording attenuation is set for 0dB. If VinylStudio rarely, if ever, shows clipping at 88. If the GT-40a clip signal indicator comes on with some frequency, I will reduce the recording attenuation to 6dB where I then typically raise the slider to 100 (again checking it against the Check Level function).

  - What do you have on the input side of the GT40?
See above.

Finally, I should note that I only have seen the Clean-up Audio show clipping on this one album. It did not occur on other albums that I recorded with VinylStudio.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

> I only have seen the Clean-up Audio show clipping on this one album

Aha!  That throws a completely different light on things.  I think the clipping must be on the original master.  It does happen.

[dweinberg]

Yes, that makes sense. I originally posted this to 1) confirm that (thank you), but also to ask 2) why the clipping doesn't then show up on the Split Tracks display?

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

The Split Tracks display is an approximation, designed to make it easy to see where the track breaks should be.