About Clipping in Audacity

Is there ever a time where clipping is acceptable?

I assume the answer is “No!”

I am playing around with trying to record VoIP calls, where my USB headset is one channel/track and my softphone is the other channel/track.

Surprisingly, the softphone track is clipping at a pretty good rate, even though it doesn’t sound too loud in my headset.

I’m just trying to understand why some things that don’t sound too loud clip, and others which sound very loud don’t clip?! :question:

I went into Audio MIDI Setup and turned down the volume on the track with my softphone.

When I re-recorded a voice-response system, I see a different kind of clipping…

As you can see here, the audio is “sawed off” yet it isn’t hitting the top of the track.

That is strange!

Why is the 800 # that I called chopping off the peaks of the lady’s voice?