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Old 2005-08-15, 09:29 AM
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Re: An urgent message about digital noise reduction

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lou
Maybe the shows that have digital clipping were recorded with the volume too high to begin with? In which case there's nothing you can do about that, that's how the source is.

With analog cassette>digital transfer, however, there should not be digital clipping other than maybe an occasional pop, whistle or clap.
I am curious, what is the manufacturer/model of your A/D unit? I have both a Motu 828 24/48 and a M-Audio Duo 24/96. Both of of these units have input level controls that you have to set yourself (e.g. you have to twist the knobs to the correct settings). I can guarantee you, from personal experience, that if you set the input levels too high on these units clipping does occur, the Motu unit even has that warning led that tells you that you have clipped. If I set my input levels to full setting, massive clipping will occur on anything but the weakest input signal (any such analog recording would be very poor, very much lacking in dynamic range).

Maybe your unit has some sort of "input level limiting" feature that prevents clipping? I do not think I would want to use such a feature, because the peak amplitude values are different for each analog recording, so such a feature could easily result in unintentional compression. I would rather have control myself, and I do not want to compress any shows.

I would be interested to know if there are any other methods to prevent clipping when A/D'ing a cassette, but I cannot think of any other possible ways other than what I mentioned above. With my A/D units, setting levels is just like what a taper has to go through, except the taper gets only one chance to get it right, while I can tweak to my heart's content until I get it just right.
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