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Old 03-12-2015, 02:06 PM   #1
joshrose
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Default My renders are clipping even with proper gain staging and limiting.

So my mixes in reaper often clip by as much as 1-2db during the render process. I have proper gain staging in my mixes, my master bus fader is always at 0. I usually hit the master bus at -12 to -10 before my master bus processing. Typically I am limiting with Slate FG-X as the last plugin in the chain, and I usually have my output ceiling at -0.1 DB. When playing back the sessions and mixing, there is no clipping. Neither before or after the limiter. I have no plugins post-limiter either. This problem occurs whether I limit with FG-X, or any other plugin (L3, Ozone, etc).

I've been mixing for 18 years, and I've been at it long enough to know it's not some silly user error like having my master bus at +2 DB or something. Why is it that my renders always clip? I'm typically rendering to MP3 because most of my mixing is post-production, that is synced to video and put online, so I prefer to let reaper do the encoding rather than Final Cut.

I switched to reaper a few years ago, and I have always had this problem. Before that I mixed in Sonar for a few years, and Pro-Tools for many years. I'm not sure what it is about reaper that is causing me this problem, but I believe it has something to do with the rendering process.
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Old 03-12-2015, 02:42 PM   #2
thequietroom
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I think you should render mp3 to -.3

Someone may correct me or elaborate but I think that MP3 encoding can allow peaks to go over your limiter setting

edit:

I dont think MP3 will go over 1-2 DB though.. something else may be in play as well

Does you limiter has ISP protection?

Last edited by thequietroom; 03-12-2015 at 02:50 PM.
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Old 03-12-2015, 03:23 PM   #3
alex1073
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-0.3 for WAV here and -0.5 to -0.7 for MP3 (actually -1db for mp3 would be even better, but that's how I used to set the limiter up and that's it).

Cheers,
Alex


[edited to add]

Wav always stays under -.3, but mp3 sometimes reaches 0 when the limiter is set at -.5.

Last edited by alex1073; 03-12-2015 at 03:29 PM.
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Old 03-12-2015, 03:23 PM   #4
DVDdoug
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Yeah, It could be the MP3 encoding. As I'm sure you know, MP3 is lossy compression. The wave shapes change and some peaks are boosted while others are reduced. I believe this "effect" is worse when the file has been (dynamically) compressed and limited.

You can also get clipping from resampling, due to "inter sample peaks".

Note that the file is not actually clipped... It goes over 0dB! It will only be clipped if you convert it to WAV or send it full-volume into your DAC (which is hard-limited to 0dB.)

Try 32-bit floating-point WAV. If that file doesn't go over 0dB, your limiter is working fine.

(16-bit and 24-bit WAV are integer formats and they absolutely cannot go over 0dB. So you won't know if the file is clipped at 0dB, or if your limiter is keeping it to 0dB.)

Last edited by DVDdoug; 03-12-2015 at 03:37 PM.
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Old 03-12-2015, 03:29 PM   #5
RJHollins
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Have you tested FIRST rendering to a WAV ?

Does the WAV also clip ?
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