Audio clipping on output?

[Helvete]

Hi there. I'm new to these forums, and english isn't my first language, so please bear with me.

I have a strange problem: I'm replacing some snare drum tracks to make them sound better (I have a lousy drumset and even worse recording/mixing skills). The original track is clipping. Whenever I try to replace the hits, the output is _also_ clipping, or at least it seems to be. Adjusting the input and/or output levels in drumagog only results in the same "clippy" curve at different levels.

I get the impression that the volume for each hit gets adjusted during the hit, resulting in the first "punch" effectively sounding less and the rest of the hit sounding more.
I don't have a screenshot (but I can make one if it helps). No matter the level, a curve that looks like this: --.__ Ends up the same, but I want it to be more like: ^,__ if that makes sense.

I've played around in the settings (and probably messed them up beyond repair) to no avail.

I'm using cubase 5, if that matters.

Oh, and on snare tracks from other songs, where the snare is at a more sensible level, this problem is nonexistant, or at least far less severe.

To sum it up, I want hits that clip to be replaced by normal samples with a "sharper" curve.

[Jack]

Hello,

Drumagog's sample playback happen post-input adjustment and it doesn't alter the samples to try to "clip" them at all. It simply tries to match the peak dynamics of the source and the sample it's playing. I'm not sure of what you mean by the "curve", except for if your source track is clipped then no matter what it's going to end up "squashed" because every hit over 0 db is going to end up at the same dynamic level. To try to regain the lost dynamics, you may need to do something like convert the track to MIDI and manually adjust the velocities of these notes to make them more varied.

Cheers,
Jack

[Farview]

In cubase, turn the channel trim down a few db. What is probably happening is, since the sample is going to be the same volume as the hit that triggers it, you are clipping something later in the signal chain.

[Helvete]

Thanks for your replies.

@Jack:
Sorry about the word "curve", that's a language misunderstanding on my part. The word I should have used was "graph", I believe.

Anyway, here's a screenshot of the "gogged" snare hit:



As you can see, the graph looks clipped, even if it's nowhere near clipping level. You've probably guessed that I'm not exactly a cubase expert, but I'll try to explain what I'm trying to do, because it might be so absurdly obvious that one wouldn't think it could be done wrong...

The track in question was clipping from the start. It's a metal song, and dynamics aren't that important, but getting a good and short "snap" from the snare is important since it needs to cut through the mix without being too loud. (I know how that sounds, but again, I'm an amateur).

So what I'm doing is open a snare take, and press Ctrl+A to mark all of it, then adjust sensitivity so that no hits are missed (pretty easy since most of them are at the same level, due to clipping). Then adjust the resolution so that no hit gets triggered twice, as in a flam. There's not much noise, so getting drumagog to trigger at the correct places is easy.

"Dynamic Tracking", "Stealth Mode" and "Auto Hi-Hat Tracking" is off, everything else is on. "Input" and "Transient Detail" sliders are in the rightmost position, while "Output" slider is a little left of the middle. Trigger Filter is off, as are synth, effects and plugins.

This is when I hit "process", and get the output in the screenshot above.

I've messed around with a lot of strange settings which I don't understand, so there's a good chance I've messed something up.

@Farview: Thanks for your reply. The "channel trim", that's the slider on the track which lets you adjust volume on all the takes on that track without using the gain process on them? I'll try to mess around with it, it's been at 0 dB the entire time, so since the takes were clipping, that might have something to do with it. I don't know what's meant by "signal chain". That's about the level of amateur I am


EDIT:

I tried to replicate the behaviour with a tom sample (on the same snare track), but wasn't able to. Could the .gog samples themselves be clipping, due to something I've messed with?
On the off chance anyone has experience with the particular sample: The snare .gog file I'm using is called "DW Edge - (D112)(Mix2).gog", from a sample collection called "Purrrfect Snares".

[Jack]

Aha! I think you've found the issue. It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that your source track was clipped. But many of the samples in that particular GOG file look clipped when they were first sampled. If it sounds okay, don't worry about it. However even if you adjust the gain of the track so that it's below 0, it will still have some of the clipping artifacts. So you may want to select a different GOG file. Perhaps check out one of the Farview recording samples that comes with Drumagog. See if one of those that works well in your session.

Cheers,
Jack

[Helvete]

Thanks for your reply.

That's good to hear, I was pretty sure I was doing something wrong, or had messed up some setting

I'll check out some other samples after work.

Solved, thanks both of you.