Ogg imports are automatically being clipped at +/- 1.0 (or 0dB)

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

I have several spoken word files that were originally in the OGG format. If the peak is over 1 then I tend manually amplify, or clip fix, or in a worst case scenario I will compress. I am doing this to ensure my peak limits are below +1 or above -1 . I check the initial peaks with Foobar2000’s ReplayGain scanner (EBU R128).

Foobar2000 gives me values of +1.86 dB Track Gain & 1.216109 Track Peak for this file. However when I zoom in on the audio file where it is beyond the clip threshold (Show Clipping), I can see it’s peaks are actually being hard limited at 0 dB. Mp3 files with similar values are not being auto clipped.

Foobar2000 can also convert that Mp3 file to OGG and the ReplayGain scan values show that it closely retains the Gain & Peak values. The converted OGG files have the same issues.

I haven’t tried importing it into any other editors to see if they exhibit the same behaviors.

Is it something I’m missing with a parameter / preference?

OGG File import behavior
audacity1.jpg
Mp3 File import behavior
audacity2.jpg
Thanks for any help.

2

It looks like a limitation of Audacity’s OGG decoder.

I amplified a file to go over 0dB in Audacity, saved it as OGG, and GoldWave opened it without clipping.

You can convert the file to 32-bit WAV with foobar which is actually 32-bit floating-point, not limited to 0dB.

3

You can work around the limitation by setting the import filter to “FFmpeg compatible files”. (only tested on Linux)
Really, the files should not exceed 0 dB.

4

Thanks Steve, I’ll try the import filter.

As for the 0dB issue, that’s the real reason I’m opening them in Audacity in an attempt to normalize and prevent clipping.

Thanks
Greg