Way to predict bass boost which won't clip

[dgoldsmith]

Hi! I'm trying to use bass boost. The (brief) passage about it in the manual says "...if you don't try to boost too much; 12 dB is usually just right." but as little as 5 dB is clipping some of my passages; is there a way to predict (calculate) the bass boost dB parameter that will result in a "normalized" track (i.e., abs(peak amplitude) = 1)? Thanks.

[billw58]

'Fraid not. Try applying the Amplify effect to the entire track with "Amplification (dB)" of -10. Then apply the BassBoost to your liking. Finally call up the Amplify effect again and accept the default settings (which will normalize the track to 0 dB).

-- Bill

[steve]

If you use a recent version of Audacity 1.3 and have the sample format set to 32bit, Audacity will not clip the audio even if it goes over 0dB, so if you inadvertently boost the signal too much you can use the Amplify effect (with a negative amount) to bring the peak level back down to below 0dB.

(The peak level needs to be below 0.0dB because even if Audacity does not clip the sound, your sound card probably will, and if you burn it to an audio CD or convert it to MP3 then it will definitely clip. It is generally bad practice to work with signals over 0dB so you should try to avoid doing so).

[dgoldsmith]

'Fraid not. Try applying the Amplify effect to the entire track with "Amplification (dB)" of -10. Then apply the BassBoost to your liking. Finally call up the Amplify effect again and accept the default settings (which will normalize the track to 0 dB).

Will do, thanks for the tip.

If you use a recent version of Audacity 1.3 and have the sample format set to 32bit, Audacity will not clip the audio even if it goes over 0dB, so if you inadvertently boost the signal too much you can use the Amplify effect (with a negative amount) to bring the peak level back down to below 0dB.

Cool, good to know, thanks!

(The peak level needs to be below 0.0dB because even if Audacity does not clip the sound, your sound card probably will, and if you burn it to an audio CD or convert it to MP3 then it will definitely clip. It is generally bad practice to work with signals over 0dB so you should try to avoid doing so).

Yes, I know, that's why I was disturbed that bass boost didn't have a "self-check" to guard against this; but then, given what you say above, I guess it makes sense that it doesn't really need one.

Thanks, both!