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Old 04-06-2017, 03:19 PM   #19
TryingToMakeMusic
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Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 416
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bezusheist View Post
at 0 dBFS is not clipping, over 0 dBFS is clipping...
Are you sure about that? Maybe you are right, but I'm not sure. I'm thinking of the fixed-point representation you get when you render to 16-bit or 24-bit PCM.

For example, suppose you're rendering to 2-bit PCM. 2-bit PCM samples can take 4 values total:

11
10
01
00

Reordering to put 0 in the middle:

01
00
11
10

But there is no middle, since the number of possible values is even. Different audio software deals with this dilemma in different ways. Some might map like this:

Code:
+1.0 amplitude -> CLIP
+0.5 amplitude -> 01
 0.0 amplitude -> 00
-0.5 amplitude -> 11
-1.0 amplitude -> 10
In that case, 0 dB may or may not be a clip, depending on whether it corresponds to -1.0 amplitude or +1.0 amplitude.

16-bit and 24-bit PCM have the same issue. I don't know how Reaper maps floats to fixed-point PCM, but it's a factor.
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