Clipping - Boss

GT-X Setup Manual

Section 2 Audio Terminology
signal level but 100 units noise. If I put a louder signal
through the unit initially—for instance 200 units and
amplify it by 10 the audio is 2000, however the noise is still
only 100; Instead of 10% its now only 5%. Indeed If I now
reduce the amplification—to say 5 times, I get 1000 units of
audio and ONLY a mere 50 units of noise. We have the
same audio level but a significant reduction in noise. This is
clearly an improvement over our initial case.
The problem is once noise has been introduced it is a
bugger to get rid of—moral of the story is to try to reduce
noise at its source, especially from noisy units. This is why
so many pages are devoted to this subject in section 9.
It can be seen that if a louder signal can be fed into a fixed-
noise level unit, then we actually end up better off at the
end. Thus it is better to feed a loud signal rather than a quiet
one. However, the receiving device MUST be able to cope
with this loud signal. If it can't, clipping will occur...

Clipping

I originally presented this is part of noise elimination.
However, it is so fundamentally important to the GT-3/5.
Some people would perhaps consider clipping as noise but
it isn't really.
Let's use an analogy here. We are going to drive a double-
decker bus underneath a bridge designed to accommodate a
single-decker. No, I'm not into violence. There are no
passengers and the driver is a stunt driver who knows what
he is doing! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! OK. Here we
go, 30mph. 50mph. 70mph (its a good bus!). BANG. The
Bus has comes out the other side. Hang on a mo. Half the
upper deck is missing! The top is now rather ragged and
mangled. Other than that the bottom half of the bus is OK.
If you take a loud signal and pump it into a 'space' designed
for a not so loud signal the top will be lopped off! Clipping
is the audio term for such an event.
Clipping alters the sound you hear, manifesting itself as
speaker rumble, harsh clicks or even distortion. In fact the
principle of clipping is behind every distortion or fuzz we
have today. However, there are times when this clipping is
undesired—this is unwanted distortion. For instance we
want a nice clean warm sound. Any clipping that occurs will
cause distortion and will ruin our clean sound.
© Copyright 2000-2002 Barry S. Pearce et al. 19