How to avoid input/output clipping?

  • Hi!


    My setup is as follows: [kemper] <= spdif => [Eleven Rack] <= usb => [Cubase]. The monitors are then connected to the main-outs of the Eleven-rack.


    I recently tried a nice Mesa-boogie clean-profile. The volume was much lower than all the other rigs, so I cranked it up. I then noticed some digital-clipping going on if I struck the strings with more than a little enthusiasm. I crawled the forums and read about input-output settings and what the lights beside them indicates. And wouldn't you know it, the output briefly flashed yellow from time to time. I then adjusted input-sensitivity and cranked the rig down. Problem solved... sort of...


    Now from my point of view... digital clipping is not the new fuzz... I don't want it... ever... anywhere... in any form... at any time... in any recording... Hearing recordings where compression has caused destructive digital clipping makes my soul rot. While others might not feels this strongly about it, I doubt I'm the only one.


    In Cubase this is easy. Huge red bar... Basically a little red flag flown sideways. On the Kemper it is a light which may or may not briefly indicate clipped input/output for a very short amount of time. The thought of there being clipping somewhere without me knowing, makes me reluctant to record anything. I also don't want to manually quality-assure every goddamn profile I every try by hand.


    Is there a better way?

  • Check if the Kemper have the same sample rate of your eleven Rack and the cubase

    The Kemper is master and the sample-rates are identical. Also the clipping went away when I adjusted the volume. Thanks for your answer, but I doubt this is a digital issue. Which just made me realize the name of the topic is really badly worded. Sorry about that :-/ I'll fix it.

  • I've locked the input settings for that reason. Occasionally the odd profile would have a really hot input setup for low output pickups that would cause clipping with high output pickups.

    Haven't had an issue since