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Clipping when recording from S/Pdif

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 7:57 pm
by TimUK
I would have expected that when recording from an optical S/Pdif source the level controls would be greyed-out but on my SB Live card they remain active and when set to 100% audacity display clipping in the recorded Waveform.

Oddly, the recorded audio does not sound distorted so I wonder if the red clipping marks are being triggered at sample-values =+/-32767 which,of course, is OK

On a previous S/Pdif card (Trust's Sound Expert Optical) things seemed more straightforward with gain in digital recording mode being greyed-out and no clipping ever showed. Any suggestions or experience?

Tim

Re: Clipping when recording from S/Pdif

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:49 pm
by kozikowski
Broadcast videotape machines do that with scaling, but they also have provision for click-stop preset or 1:1.

Does yours?

Koz

Re: Clipping when recording from S/Pdif

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:33 am
by TimUK
My recording source does have some adjustment +/- on its S/PDIF output but as it's set to zero I would have expected correct recording levels with the attenuator chain fully open?

I've changed the recording format from 16 bit to float's and all the visible clipping is gone.