Ultimate Clipper (?) - for FREE ('cuz you have it) - How to...

[Boombastix]

I have several clippers, great to get drums 'THAT KNOCK'. But to clip a Kick is a delicate matter as the overtones can make it sound, well, not so great...

I compared a few clippers to just clipping the Reason Mixer Master Channel (had to bounce to disk for the latter). I actually liked the Reason Mixer Master Channel (RMMC) clipping the best on this particular kick. But that process is a bit bonkers.

Well, there is a hidden gem in Reason. Listen up, the 'terrible' Maximizer, actually has a great clipper, (you just need to find it) and it seems to do exactly the same as the RMMC - but how you may ask, well here it is...

1. Use the Maximizer as an insert on a drum track (or whatever you gonna clip).
1b. Make sure your sound is Normalized, i.e. peaking at max.
2. Turn OFF the Limiter (yes, OFF as in, well freaking OFF).
3. Turn ON Soft Clip
4. Set the Soft Clip Amount Knob to '0'. (Yes, zeeroo as in, all they way to the LEFT) Left it what makes it going from Soft to HARD
5. Now dial up the INPUT GAIN, and every tiny dB increase is how much you will clip. So Kicks usually like around 2-5dB, to much and they break up with not so stellar overtones. Snares and other things you can often push quite a bit more, but listen wisely...
6. Bounce the sound and save in your lib if you made a keeper.

Save yourself a $50 clipper and/or time spent on Splice to find hard knocking Kicks, cuz now you cook 'em yourself...
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[orignaloriginale]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. I put it together in a combinator with a kiloHearts Gain device to push up the Maximizer input gain and simultaneously roll back the overall output with the same rotary knob to do some quick A/B. (Plus, if I didn't save your Maximizer set up in combinator, I would never remember your trick when I needed it.)

[deeplink]

After following Selig's process in this post viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7518737&p=513410&hi ... er#p513410

I have something similar set up in a combinator;
Containing:
1x mclass compressor (no compression, only set to increase gain by approx 24db)
2x Mclass Maximisers.
Combi Rotary 1 - controls the input gain into the limiter (if being used) [first maximiser]
Combi Rotary 2 - controls the output gain into the soft clip [first maximiser]
Combi Rotary 3 - sets the Soft Clip amount [first maximiser]
Combi Rotary 4 - sets the input gain (no limiting) on [second maximiser] - usually set all the way down i.e -12db.

I have this combi inserted on every device before the mix channel input.
This way, I ensure that all my instruments are entering the mixer at -12db at most, with little effort.
And I can use Input Gain and Output gain to dial in the amount of limiting or clipping to taste.

One final thought, there's a lot out there about not 'overusing limiters' all of your mixes and reserve it only for the master bus. But I find I can really get control over a single sound, especially when using EQ, when a limiter is involved.

Would love to hear the RT opinions on this.

[Boombastix]

Selig describes something different. What I describe is to hard clip drums, like what producers do in hip hop, EDM, etc to get drums that hit hard. You need to square wave them a little...

[selig]

Selig describes something different. What I describe is to hard clip drums, like what producers do in hip hop, EDM, etc to get drums that hit hard. You need to square wave them a little...

My last paragraph describes how I've been hard clipping drums/percussion since the 1980s because how how you can get away with a good bit of clipping on transients well before it even sounds clipped - you can of course take it further with the setup I suggest.

That being said, I find that adding the limiter "trick" makes drums them hit even harder IMO…

[zabukowski]

You don't even need to disable limiter - just turn up output gain with soft-clip engaged.

[Boombastix]

Selig describes something different. What I describe is to hard clip drums, like what producers do in hip hop, EDM, etc to get drums that hit hard. You need to square wave them a little...

My last paragraph describes how I've been hard clipping drums/percussion since the 1980s because how how you can get away with a good bit of clipping on transients well before it even sounds clipped - you can of course take it further with the setup I suggest.

That being said, I find that adding the limiter "trick" makes drums them hit even harder IMO…

Yeah, it was a common trick back in the days to normalize a sample in the Emu/Akais and then add a few dB of gain to clip. That is exactly what my method does as described above.

Young producers today push their master fader in the DAW to clip their hip hop beasts on the output and discuss which DAW has the best clipped sound. But clipping with the Maximizer allows you to do it as an insert or in the master and with better control.