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Izzy Video 062 – Prevent Audio Clipping

izzyvideo62

The audio engineers in my audience aren’t going to enjoy this Izzy Video much. My method for preventing audio clipping is a sure sign that I’m an amateur, but it works. For those of you who are like me, untrained in audio, this installment of Izzy Video might be helpful.

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  • christian nielsen

    Hi

    I think it was a good tip.

    Maybe you want to invite some expert to your show, who can tell us how to make good sound

  • http://www.anillusion.nl Anillusion

    Hey, I subscribed only recently to your podcast and really enjoy watching it. I have a question regarding this last video about the audio-clipping. It is the same method I use, so when you talked about audio engineers wouldn’t do it this way, I got interested. Can you please explain how audio engineers would do it?

  • http://www.izzyvideo.com Israel

    Christian — That’s a good idea. I know I have several audio specialists in the audience, so maybe I can coordinate with them.

    Anillusion — I wish I knew the answer to your question. My guess is they probably have a more technical way of dealing with clipping. Because I’m not trained in this area, I don’t really know what I’m missing.

  • Eddy

    another option would be use a limiter that won’t allow your audio to go above 0db.

  • http://www.creativitytospare.com Chris

    Hi,
    I am an audio engineer. I teach at the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Tempe AZ. I specialize in Digital Audio.
    Recording Digital Audio is not that different from Digital Video or Digital Photos.
    The Highest level of light you can record is White – and if you go over this it will still show as white. For example if you shot a digital photo of someone using a flash but were too close to the subject, you would clip the level of White, turning them into a ghost. You can’t really fix it, all you can do later is lower the levels and you get more of a gray ghost. All detail has been clipped off.

    It is exactly the same thing with audio. If you go over zero dB all levels beyond that will be clipped and form a unique type of distortion that is not pleasing at all. You can not get any of the details beyond that level back.

    Your method of setting levels is actually quite appropriate. I call it the Price is Right concept, as close to 0dB but not over. The only problem you might have with your method is if the speaker never gets anywhere near that level, you will end up with much more noise when you turn up the final product. If you record in a fairly quiet enviroment you should be fine (no A/C, fans, traffic, wind etc). I know that you already check for that stuff based on the good quality of your videos. Also you are doing the real magic trick of plugging in headphones and listening to what you are recording. If it sounds good there it will sound good later.

    One thing that an engineer might use is a compressor or limiter when recording digital audio. A compressor set to a fairly high threshold -12dB and a small ratio 3/1 might help keep some of the peaks from the person speaking from clipping without making it sound like someone is grabbing the volume and yanking it down. A limiter on the other hand will stop the level completely at a certain level, it can be alright for the occasional peak but will sound bad if it is always hitting that point.

    Hope that helps
    Chris

    http://creativitytospare.com