Clipping as intentional FX on drums

[Sharmaji]

got a bass sound last week that was a stylophone into a mic pre adding 65db of gain (totally in the red), into an EQ pushed so hard that it started to self-modulate, into a distressor set on "nuke," pushed totally into the red, and then dialed back at the output to record at a normal level.

sounded fucking great.

distortion is a big, big part of sound design.

btw i dig that crapped-out white noise SD. good stuff.

[azuk]

Stylophone's are epic.

My waveshaping attempts sound weak as hell.

[AxeD]

got a bass sound last week that was a stylophone into a mic pre adding 65db of gain (totally in the red), into an EQ pushed so hard that it started to self-modulate, into a distressor set on "nuke," pushed totally into the red, and then dialed back at the output to record at a normal level.

sounded fucking great.

distortion is a big, big part of sound design.

btw i dig that crapped-out white noise SD. good stuff.

At least go into the fact that digital clipping is always wrong as well

[JFK]

got a bass sound last week that was a stylophone into a mic pre adding 65db of gain (totally in the red), into an EQ pushed so hard that it started to self-modulate, into a distressor set on "nuke," pushed totally into the red, and then dialed back at the output to record at a normal level.

sounded fucking great.

distortion is a big, big part of sound design.

btw i dig that crapped-out white noise SD. good stuff.

At least go into the fact that digital clipping is always wrong as well

Its not always wrong, in this instance its being utilised in a perfectly sensible way.

Clipping the master is always wrong, but thats not what he is talking about.

[Sharmaji]

At least go into the fact that digital clipping is always wrong as well

digital clipping can give you a really crunchy high-end-- can be great on snares.

FWIW clipping is always up for discussion in mastering as well-- take a gander through gearslutz and see how many folks talk about clipping their a/d convertors on the way back in. Depending on the material, it can easily add 1-2db of volume w/ not too bad results...

as is always the case, you don't know until you try.

and never trust the internet.

[AxeD]

I'm not sure what you guys are doing, but actually clipping a digital signal will immediately cut it off.
Or maybe it reproduces some really loud pop which would be truncated to the max value it can handle anyway.

I know Sharmaji is talking about clipping analogue gear, that's of course really common, but I think some people
in this thread mean exceeding maximum levels in digital. That's basically murdering sound
Maybe I misunderstood some of the replies though.

(Could be we have a different definition on clipping.)

[JFK]

I know Sharmaji is talking about clipping analogue gear

But he isnt though... he even mentions digital clipping in his post.....

Putting a snare on a seprrate channel, push that channel into the red, bounce, bring the sample back into the DAW and then reduce the volume. It can give you a really crunchy clipped sound.

I thin we are talking about two different things mate.

[OfficialDAPT]

to be brutally honest....

Those drums sound really really bad, they would easily get covered up in a mix. The kick and snare have no weight and they sound extremely low quality which is something I doubt you were going for. If you want to hear a snare limited to shit the 'right' way, go listen to a Koan Sound song.

That being said, I'd strongly suggest you practice layering your percussion before you work on getting it loud as hell if that's what you want. One of the most important part of drums IMO is having enough body and substance to hit through a mix. Another important part is picking out the right samples to layer. If you use shitty samples like the ones you have, no amount of digital clipping is going to make the sound good (that I know of anyway).

Check out a series of tutorials DJ Vespers did on youtube:



Also there are plenty of other layering tutorials on youtube. I highly recommend you learn how before you experiment more with the clipping thing you're doing.

[AxeD]

I know Sharmaji is talking about clipping analogue gear

But he isnt though... he even mentions digital clipping in his post.....

Putting a snare on a seprrate channel, push that channel into the red, bounce, bring the sample back into the DAW and then reduce the volume. It can give you a really crunchy clipped sound.

I thin we are talking about two different things mate.

Yeah but I replied to his post at the top of the page.

Honestly I've had several lectures on digital audio so far and they teached that actual clipping of a digital signal will just destroy things.
If a converter has a bunch of headroom left (like what they talk about on gearslutz), that's a different story.
Same goes for driving a signal in a daw.

[JFK]

Yeah but I replied to his post at the top of the page.

Honestly I've had several lectures on digital audio so far and they teached that actual clipping of a digital signal will just destroy things.
If a converter has a bunch of headroom left (like what they talk about on gearslutz), that's a different story.
Same goes for driving a signal in a daw.

Do you mind if I ask you to clarify what you mean by "destroy things"?

If you mean it removes (clips) the peaks of the waveform, then that is exactly the effect the OP is looking for.

[azuk]

to be brutally honest....

Those drums sound really really bad, they would easily get covered up in a mix. The kick and snare have no weight and they sound extremely low quality which is something I doubt you were going for. If you want to hear a snare limited to shit the 'right' way, go listen to a Koan Sound song.

That being said, I'd strongly suggest you practice layering your percussion before you work on getting it loud as hell if that's what you want. One of the most important part of drums IMO is having enough body and substance to hit through a mix. Another important part is picking out the right samples to layer. If you use shitty samples like the ones you have, no amount of digital clipping is going to make the sound good (that I know of anyway).

Check out a series of tutorials DJ Vespers did on youtube:



Also there are plenty of other layering tutorials on youtube. I highly recommend you learn how before you experiment more with the clipping thing you're doing.

I'm actually really good with layering, I'm just trying to see if clipping them to all hell works.

[mthrfnk]

to be brutally honest....

Those drums sound really really bad, they would easily get covered up in a mix. The kick and snare have no weight and they sound extremely low quality which is something I doubt you were going for. If you want to hear a snare limited to shit the 'right' way, go listen to a Koan Sound song.

That being said, I'd strongly suggest you practice layering your percussion before you work on getting it loud as hell if that's what you want. One of the most important part of drums IMO is having enough body and substance to hit through a mix. Another important part is picking out the right samples to layer. If you use shitty samples like the ones you have, no amount of digital clipping is going to make the sound good (that I know of anyway).

Check out a series of tutorials DJ Vespers did on youtube:



Also there are plenty of other layering tutorials on youtube. I highly recommend you learn how before you experiment more with the clipping thing you're doing.

I'm actually really good with layering, I'm just trying to see if clipping them to all hell works.

How did the drums sound prior to the clipping?

[azuk]

https://soundcloud.com/azuk-1/clean-drums

[OfficialDAPT]

https://soundcloud.com/azuk-1/clean-drums

the snare sounds OK, but you definitely need a little more high end in the kick because it doesn't have that click that others do. Also, I really encourage you to do more research on layering even if you think you're good at it because you can always get better.

[mthrfnk]

https://soundcloud.com/azuk-1/clean-drums

the snare sounds OK, but you definitely need a little more high end in the kick because it doesn't have that click that others do. Also, I really encourage you to do more research on layering even if you think you're good at it because you can always get better.

The kick is peaking too high (imo) and has midrange thump but too much, I'd go for a lower thump and use multiple samples or synth'd parts to construct the mid/top end, atm it just sounds like a weirdly eveloped sine.

[azuk]

https://soundcloud.com/azuk-1/clean-drums

the snare sounds OK, but you definitely need a little more high end in the kick because it doesn't have that click that others do. Also, I really encourage you to do more research on layering even if you think you're good at it because you can always get better.

I really hate any high end in my kick, especially past 1k.
I'll definitely read up on layering though.

https://soundcloud.com/azuk-1/clean-drums

the snare sounds OK, but you definitely need a little more high end in the kick because it doesn't have that click that others do. Also, I really encourage you to do more research on layering even if you think you're good at it because you can always get better.

The kick is peaking too high (imo) and has midrange thump but too much, I'd go for a lower thump and use multiple samples or synth'd parts to construct the mid/top end, atm it just sounds like a weirdly eveloped sine.

It's peaking at 100, I don't really see how its's to high. I also dislike mid/highs in my kicks.

[SunkLo]

Well clipping your kicks is adding high frequency content back in. Maybe if you had samples with more HF content you wouldn't have to clip as much. I'd recommend grabbing a waveshaper or dedicated clipping plugin to save yourself from having to bounce out clips without even knowing what they'll sound like and then re-importing them. Also if you understand the relation between time and frequency, you'll know that high frequency content is where the snap and transient is. You might not like the sound of too much high end on a solo'd kick but in the mix it'll help it punch through.

Re: digital clipping in mastering, sometimes the artifacts from hard clipping are more transparent than those of a limiter. It doesn't pump at all, just lops off the transients. You can squeeze some extra volume out without it sounding blatantly compressed. Obviously there comes a point where you're squaring off the actual body of the signal which is gonna sound pretty trash. It's something you have to be careful with, which is why it's commonly viewed as universally bad. But if you know what you're doing, it's just another tool in the box. You can think of it as a hard limiter with 0 attack and release if you like.

mic pre adding 65db of gain

[azuk]

Well clipping your kicks is adding high frequency content back in. Maybe if you had samples with more HF content you wouldn't have to clip as much. I'd recommend grabbing a waveshaper or dedicated clipping plugin to save yourself from having to bounce out clips without even knowing what they'll sound like and then re-importing them. Also if you understand the relation between time and frequency, you'll know that high frequency content is where the snap and transient is. You might not like the sound of too much high end on a solo'd kick but in the mix it'll help it punch through.

The reason why I don't use high ends on my kicks is because I combine them with a open hihat.

[azuk]

Soundcloud

These are the drums I'm talking about.

[legend4ry]

Just for the record. No ones attacking you - its just blunt advice.

If you want help don't question everyone's input negativity.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to listen to anything due to Soundcloud at work being blocked but still..