True North?
Posted on | October 18, 2008 | No Comments
I was doing some casual listening tonight of a professionally mastered disc. At some point, I noticed that the DAW (a reputable company, but not my main mastering DAW) I was listening through showed the track had clipped. Here’s the image:
I thought that was strange. Surely a reputable mastering facility wouln’t let a disc go to replication with a clip. So, I ran a meter that I usually use for checking masters and came up with this:
It’s not a snapshot from the same part of the song…it’s actually later. So if it had clipped it would be there.
The first example is one where the program material hit zero…probably for a single sample. In professional audio, a clip is characterized by three consecutive hits at 0. So, while the first program is a bit more “proactive”, it’s not accurate in a professional sense.
This is a good example of the value of utilizing professional-grade software when making a recording. Or, utilizing a studio that does.
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From Ohm to Om reflects the opinions of mastering engineer Paul Abbott, owner of San Diego's ZenMastering.
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