Nutritious Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Ok, so this may be normal, but it's been bugging me and I want to understand it. Usually I will export my mixes to wav first so I can import to Sound Forge for VBR mp3 encoding. However, whenever I export to mp3 and check the mp3, it shows that the mp3 has occasional clipping. Checking the wav file there is no clipping detected. So I tried normalizing to -.3 db then rendering, still some clipping areas but not as bad. Tried it in Sound Forge, Audacity, & FL studio to see if any would allow non-clipped mp3's (when the original wav is -.1dB) and they all spit out mp3's with clipping detected (not audible though). Is this a normal part of the mp3 compression process? I can't understand why the conversion would cause clipping, unless some sort of bad normalization is taking place or something on the back end. I'm just trying to understand to see if there's any way around this problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 What are you using to render to MP3? And are you using a limiter on your master track? There's absolutely no reason the volume should be getting changed at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 I'm trying several scenarios: FL with TRacks limiting, leaving final output at -.1 dB -Export to wav is fine -Export to mp3 causes clipping Sound Forge importing FL's wav shows -.1 dB -Export to mp3 VBR causes clipping Audacity, same as Sound Forge I'm rendering via LAME, which maybe is the common thread here. EDIT: Starting to this this is the detection on these audio applications, based on amount of compression. I threw a few songs into sound forge & Audacity like Monstrous Turtles and Nuclear Flash and they're also detecting clipping in various amounts. Perhaps these apps can accurately chart wav levels, but not mp3's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephyr Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 I don't find the problem with FL Studio's integrated mp3 encoder, I just use that with no problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 I don't find the problem with FL Studio's integrated mp3 encoder, I just use that with no problems. I would use it if they offered VBR encoding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sole Signal Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 EDIT: Starting to this this is the detection on these audio applications, based on amount of compression. I threw a few songs into sound forge & Audacity like Monstrous Turtles and Nuclear Flash and they're also detecting clipping in various amounts. Perhaps these apps can accurately chart wav levels, but not mp3's. I think this is it. When I limit to -.1db in Sound Forge and save as an mp3, re-importing the file sees it as 0.0db and on the verge of clipping. If I save the same file limited to -.1db as a .wav, it reads it correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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