Syntrillium Backup Forums :: View topic - Can't tell when clipping occurs during record..

SoundZilla · Posts: 5

I use a 'SB128 OEM' & CE2000 1.1
When recording in CE, watching the level-meters underneath, I came to the strange conclusion that i can't seem to tell (from the meters) when the 'recording-gain' is set too high and thus wil clip the sound.
Cause during recording the levelmeters won't go in the red-area (show the peak-led) no-matter how high i set the gain.
I can only tell if the recorded material is distorted or not, by playing it back and by hearing.

NOTE: The recorded material (during playback) will show no clipping cause everything is recorded within the 16bit boundaries. Thus the peak-leds will not light.
But during record, having the gain set too high (or slightly) WILL DEFINETLY distort the sound and it WILL be audible in the recorded (during playback) material. It just is within the 16bit area, so no clip will be noticed by the peak-leds.
CE acts in this manner as somewhat like a compressor Smile

(actually no fun at all)

Does anyone else experienced the same problem/what can i do about it (except for trying a new soundcard)?
Are there any parameters in CE or SB .ini files that cause CE to act this way ?

Help would be very appreciated.
Cause now i have to depend on human-hearing, looking for clipped material during playback.

Thanks. Smile

SoundZilla

beetle · Location: USA Posts: 2591

The Creative cards exhibit a sort of "Self limiting, or clipping" behaviour around about 90db. I found that everything was fine if I didn't allow the peaks to go beyond that. This is part of the reason I will not use a Creative SB card.

dwightdouglas · Posts: 2

I always set input levels with the windows volume control (Properties/Recording). That bargraph meter displays what's actually coming from the soundcard. The yellow segments seem to indicate the start of clipping.