How do I know if my track or sequence is clipping?

How do I know if my track or sequence is clipping at all? I am on MPC 2500, free JJOS.

I do this on my DAW. I think the only way u can do this inside the MPC without any other gear is doing as you would resample your stereo out, and look to the incoming level (with the REC preamp level to the lowest). I´m not sure but you should be able to do this although is very unpractical.

After building up a few tracks I always find I have to have the master level at -6db... This stops some internal clipping. Taking the master level below -6db does absolutely nothing to stop internal clipping, it just lowers the volume of the clipping.
edit: The master level shouldn't do anything to help stop internal clipping, but it does at -6db, which seems to have more to do with clipping when summing (i.e. you'll notice that a track on it's own doesn't clip, then as you bring in other tracks the internal mpc output starts clipping). This is where -6db helps on master level.

I wish JJ would make the filters (or output stage) more robust for each program. At highish resonance levels instead of sounding good the mpc just clips right on the sweet spot where you want a fat, resonant, filtered bassline (or whatever) You have to turn down the volume of everything else to compensate, but even then lowering volume doesn't stop the internal clipping... you have to turn down the resonance instead, which then loses the sound you wanted entirely.
I wonder if a hardware mod would fix this? I don't mind if the output is quieter as long as you had more headroom for resonance before internal clipping.
Hmm, actually, I wonder if that's why JJ sets the initial volume level for each pad in a program to 80?



and to answer the OP: You use your ears. Clipping in the mpc 2500 is obvious because it does not sound nice.

Ya, but I thought the OP was talking about the mpc's internal clipping before the sound actually comes out of the mpc.

yeah i was concerned about this too..
on the review on soundonsound it says
"High-resonance filter settings can produce internal digital clipping."

is this a big problem on the 2500 (w/jj os) when filtering basslines?

do you guys think i'd be better off using the LPF on my triton extreme instead?

If you're worried about clipping from an HPF/LPF filter with resonance, you can always lower the volume a little and run the output through a compressor or something.

I'd be less worried about the difference of the MPC/Triton filter and look into it further if you start hearing something bad.

It's not as bad as I may have made out. Make sure to lower the volume of the samples in the program (SAMPLE tab) when using hi-rez settings. This is pre-filter. The program OUT tab volumes are post-filter.

you can go to master output level and turn it down if your clipping.

Damn I see there's no way to find out within the machine. This might be a bit silly bit is clipping bad for the monitors?

If you wanted to watch for clipping you could go to Mode -> Record mode, set to master and watch the levels while you play your sequence.

If you haven't already, you might want to read up on it at someplace like this.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipping_(audio)

Best of luck man.

EDIT: Clipping Per Se isn't bad for your monitors... it's the pushing them further than they are designed to go that can ruin them. Digital clipping isn't likely to blow your monitors... it'll just start to make things sound muddy. Essentially digital clipping lets you push the wave form up to a certain point and then after that it flattens. However if you have some really long sub sonic wave forms that you clip it can do odd things and may cause you problems if it holds the speaker in a consistent state for an extended period of time.

jackymurda wrote:you can go to master output level and turn it down if your clipping.

This just turns down the gain of the clipping. It stays clipped but just quieter

But, setting master output level to -6db does save some light internal summing clipping. Knocking it any lower than -6db seems to have no more effect on the clipping other than to make the clipped audio quieter.

Best to turn down the volume of your samples pre-filter, post-filter and keep master output level at -6db.

I'm talking about internal clipping here, mainly before audio hits master output level.

p.s. If you make your monitors clip it means you are sending a signal too hot into them. This has nothing to do with the mpc clipping.

NearTao wrote:If you wanted to watch for clipping you could go to Mode -> Record mode, set to master and watch the levels while you play your sequence.

^^ You know, a few people have wrote this. I find my MPC DOES NOT display the levels when I'm resampling the MPC output. What OS are you all using? I'm using 2XL on a 1000.

elevated wrote:

NearTao wrote:If you wanted to watch for clipping you could go to Mode -> Record mode, set to master and watch the levels while you play your sequence.

^^ You know, a few people have wrote this. I find my MPC DOES NOT display the levels when I'm resampling the MPC output. What OS are you all using? I'm using 2XL on a 1000.

yeah, same here on os 2. no levels are displayed when resampling.

Sooty_G wrote:

elevated wrote:

NearTao wrote:If you wanted to watch for clipping you could go to Mode -> Record mode, set to master and watch the levels while you play your sequence.

^^ You know, a few people have wrote this. I find my MPC DOES NOT display the levels when I'm resampling the MPC output. What OS are you all using? I'm using 2XL on a 1000.

yeah, same here on os 2. no levels are displayed when resampling.

Hmmm... guess my memory is bad/flakey... you could hack it by using outs 1/2 and hook them into your ins... not exactly a stellar work around though