What clipping is
Digital audio has a ceiling called 0 dBFS. Anything that goes over it gets cut flat, like a tree with its top sawn off. Those flat-topped peaks create distortion: crunch, harshness, and a kick that loses its punch.
Clipping usually comes from one of three places:
- A master pushed too loud to sound bigger than other tracks.
- Gain added after mastering, for example by a volume tool.
- Format or sample rate conversion, which pushes peaks that sat just under the ceiling over it.
Spotting it with your eyes
- In the waveform: the wave turns into blocks, with flat tops hitting the ceiling across whole sections.
- In the spectrogram: the drop looks smeared, with no dark gaps between kicks and bright vertical streaks reaching into the highs. See how to read a spectrogram.
- In the loudness: anything louder than about −6 LUFS has been squeezed hard and is likely to clip. See what LUFS is.
Spotting it with your ears
On headphones, a clipped track often just sounds "loud and thick". A big system exposes it: crunchy kick and bass, harsh vocals and hi-hats, and ear fatigue after a while. If you can, test the track on loud speakers before it goes into an important set.
When you have to play it anyway
- Bring its gain down a few dB compared with the other tracks. It won't remove the crunch, but it avoids stacking more distortion in the mixer.
- Don't boost the EQ on a clipped track, especially not the bass.
- Look for a better copy: a store-bought version or the label's original is usually cleaner.
- Keep the mixer's meters out of the red, however clean the track is.
With TaxonomyDJ
The Inspector tab flags tracks pushed so loud they're likely to distort at their peak, with a Clipping warning and the full-track spectrogram so you can check yourself. Free. And while you listen, the player's EQ lowers the level automatically when you boost a lot, so the sound doesn't break up.