Interesting Post on the clipping = distortion concept.

[Doc Jones]

A guy over on the Ableton forum made a youtube video that demonstrated that you can push your tracks into the red (over 0dB) in a 32 bit float daw and not incur any distortion into your audio signal.

This was kind of eye opening as I always thought that anything above 0dB in the digital world was bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oipad34MYn4

note, make sure your volume is turned down when he starts the test tone.

[XLR8A]

oh noes...

[Onkel Dunkel]

I think the reason for this to work is because 32 floating point decimal means that the values are constantly calculated (that´s why it´s floating) so when he lowers the volume so that it peaks under 0 dB the shape is calculated back to a pure sine . It will be shite if you export to 16 or 24 bit wave file...

Some nerdy techniocal stuff about floating point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_point

[Doc Jones]

maybe I am missing something, but I thought he actually did export the +8dB audio file to a wav file and then reimported it back into ableton live? Then when he zoomed in on the wav file, it showed that it wasn't distorted.

[Onkel Dunkel]

maybe I am missing something, but I thought he actually did export the +8dB audio file to a wav file and then reimported it back into ableton live? Then when he zoomed in on the wav file, it showed that it wasn't distorted.

He exported to a 32 bit floating point wave file that he re-imported. It was first when he turned down the volume that it wasn´t distorted (he doesn´t show the waveform before he has turned down the volume).

From video: Bring the volume down -18 you will see an undistorted sine wave.

He also points out that it will only work with 32 bit floating point format:

The mastering process to anything but a 32 bit float format is when you need to worry about clipping.

So mixdowns to CD quality is a big NO NO...

[Doc Jones]

ah, ok. thanks for clarifying that onkel.

so then my thought that I should keep each track's signal below 0dB still the proper way to work?

[Onkel Dunkel]

Well as long as your audio tracks are recorded in 32 bit floating point and you keep the the overall volume under 0 dB when doing mixdowns to less than 32 bit you should be on the safe side (i think). But to be on the safe side i would keep below 0 dB in each track...