Prevent 2 mixed audio signals from clipping

ad42's icon

Hello all

Apologies for being a noob.

If I mix two audio signals into one, will they clip? If so, is there a limiting object? I can't find one...

brendan mccloskey's icon

If your two signals exceed +/- 0.5 before summing by addition, then the result will exceed 1. The [clip~] object allows you to specify upper and lower ranges, [tanh~], [sinx~] and others will do folding at the limits, but the simplest way is to first ensure each signal is less than 1. then divide each by 1./2. or 0.5.

dtr's icon

Divide by 0.5? Don't you mean multiply?

But what you're looking for is called a limiter. That will attenuate signals over a set threshold with variable severity. [clip~] would be the upper extreme, also called brickwall limiter. Check out [omx.peaklim~] for an adjustable one.

brendan mccloskey's icon

Divide? Multiply? What's the difference?

LOL.

Thanks for picking up my slip of the pen. Forgot about peaklim too.