The Ultimate Tool for Louder Mixes (Without Losing Punch)

☛ Check out Clipper and all the Black Salt Audio plugins at blacksaltaudio...
For years I simply could not achieve modern loudness without completely destroying my mixes with limiting…
Until a mentor told me how to do it. And now, I'm sharing it here with you.
In this video you’ll see:
- The ‘normal’ way for getting loudness that makes your mixes suck
- How to do it without sacrificing any impact or punch
- Examples of where you’d use clipping in a mix
- A new plugin that makes clipping simple, easy and satisfying
☛ Music in this video - Jevani Sanders / ritoruborazaofficial

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

BSA Clipper is available now. Check it out here ---> blacksaltaudio.com/clipper/ 14-day trial available!

[@xmarioxde]

Great info. For all Reaper-Users: give JS Event Horizon Clipper. Works kind of similar, except for the lack of a fancy interface :)

[@reddotrecording]

...and for everyone else: Event Horizon in Reaper was made by the guy who makes Stillwell Plugins. He has a plugin called Stillwell Event Horizon (wonder where they got that name?) with a great interface and exactly the same clipping algorithm. It's awesome!

[@insertanynameyouwant5311]

@@reddotrecording I wonder if more expensive clippers like Flatline or others are any better than Event Horizon?

[@reddotrecording]

@@insertanynameyouwant5311 Hard to say. I can hear JST clip being different than Event Horizon. Pro L2 has a clipping mode that I haven't used (so it could be tested). Kush Audio's Omega Twk is a saturation/clipper and I use it sometimes to clip special effect stuff like impacts. It sounds different than the other two. So I'm not sure if price is correlated to effectiveness in any way. But between the clipping options I have in Reaper, JST Clip, and Kush Twk I feel pretty solid. A few folks have recommended Flatline to me saying it's good. I don't need another clipper. If I had to buy a clipping plugin today without demoing anything I'd get the Boz Digital Labs Big Clipper. The other Boz plugins I have are all super awesome and an absolutely killer price. They're worth way more than he's charging and they always sound great.

[@escalator9734]

@@reddotrecording I've only tried flatline, and it can be "nasty" sounding or too noticeable even on a ~3dB of clipping. I don't know if that's just the way clippers go but the one in this video seems "cleaner". The shape knob on flatline can resolve the issue somewhat, but it felt a bit weird that a mastering focused clipper would be so un-transparent so easily

[@reddotrecording]

@@escalator9734 Interesting! I sometimes really like when I can hear a plugin breaking. It's like: "here's the edge of where we stop sounding good...don't mess it up!" Softube's Console 1 plugin American Class A is that way, too. The drive/saturation is really great sounding but when you push it too far you INSTANTLY know it. 3db of clipping isn't a small amount either. I really try not to do that much all at once. I don't ever really like the sound of it. I typically clip and compress in a few spots all over and on a lot of different sources in track. My thinking is if I shave a little of the big peak off then compress a little to bring back some of that transient shape only for it to hit a little clipping and a little compression and some limiting and some more clipping, etc. I can - by the end of the whole process - have a pretty loud master that doesn't sound like it's been demolished by loudness maximizing efforts.

[@TheMixAcademy]

Love it. My OCD thanks you for not making the lights red. Option-c in Pro Tools has become a twitch I can’t get rid of. 😂

[@tylergunn733]

Literally 30 minutes after trying the free trial for this plug-in I can’t imagine life without it, thank you Jordan for this and all your teachings 🙏🏾 a couple years ago I wouldn’t have imagined getting this far

[@solaceprevails]

I use gclip on my drum busses and on my master right before a limiter. It was a game changer for me.

[@voidboi0]

You're a godsend for indie home artists. Each video I've seen so far has been a much needed source of answers for my mixes.

[@incaseofelimination7804]

You and me both!

[@timbenton617]

To start, I never bother to comment, I just don’t. But I just found your channel and in the last few days you have cleared up several issues for me. (I’m about 1-2 years into learning how to mix). We all know that there are a million different videos from a million different people with a million different mixing tips but yours are very clear and concise. Thank you!!!!!

[@zeclomal2265]

I remember 4 years ago, listening to my first mixes (they were the definition of "horrible") and watching Jordan's videos. Nowadays I'm so fucking proud of how I mix and I'd say at least 50% of it is thank to this guy!

[@brianvillage5]

Newfangled saturate is a pretty great clipper. You can really push it hard without it destroying your mix. It’s also included in Elevate which is a great mastering limiter.

[@PEZBEATS]

Where is this plugin in there web site ??? I see only LOW CONTROL ESCALATOR OXYGEN

[@mataya909]

Not yet released, as said in the video.

[@gulagwarlord]

Low Control is one of my new favorites for taming the low end. Very nice...

[@HardTimesStudios]

I started using clipping last year, I make electronic music and it's made such a huge difference, I really wish I had learned this years ago.

[@jonathanoates1972]

I work in dance muisic and realised this clipping business after watching the amazing series by Baphometrix. I can't reccommend this series enough. Massive detail on how to do this right. 22 episodes and about 35 hours. But it's a gamer changer. So if any of your subscribers want to see how this is done in huge in depth detail then this will show them. Kazrog clipper is one of the simplest to use and has a wave form showing you the clipped peaks. If i was going to use BSA clipper i would have to use an ocilliscope to see what's going on.

[@jakobole]

Regarding clipping in general : You can often see the tracks that benefit from it. If you see a lot of very fast/short spikes on a track, it's a candidate. You can't hear them anyways - they are too fast for that.

[@alainlondero1562]

Sonox Oxford Inflator ;)

[@hammerofgodminiatures]

But what is that song? i need it now. whats the band ...where do i get it?

[@ANDYWOUNDSABRXS]

i used a trimmer on my black metal demo it went from Darkthrones trans hunger to Architects latest album! it was the worst thing ever!

[@BrainDeadTX]

It sounds awesome, really love that energy/aggressive character that it adds to the drums.

[@great_peace]

This video right here. Super helpful. This adds a whole new level of confidence to making music and I like how you clearly defined the difference between just squashing everything with a limiter vs trimming the unwanted information with a softclipper and keeping the integrity of the track and even adding energy to it, not taking energy away. Thank you!!! I'm gonna check your softclipper out👍

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

Thanks dude! You'll love it!

[@gulagwarlord]

I use OVC-128 by Voxengo. It's 3 knobs. Input Gain (clipping), knee softness, and output gain. It's oversampled by 128x. I've tried almost every clipper out there and it sounds most transparent to my ears. Newfangled Saturate is amazing too because it actually puts the detail back onto the clipped waveform so it's not just a square wave at 0 db.

[@ronaldirawan3643]

Is it really good? The ovc

[@Reggi_Sample]

KClip3 is great but I appreciate this video a whole lot

[@BobBogus-ue6zi]

As mentioned...physics CANNOT BE CHEATED! Simply turn it up...any intervention, music, medicine whatever has a cost. Don’t get fooled, do double blind tests on equal loudness...the louder master always looses because it sacrifices dynamics (that’s why k-12 STILL WORKS) thanks bob katz...the first voice of reason. (Reasonable loudness relative to the context and genre of course) Apogee soft limit is my go to for drums...and it’s free :) just enough tweak and ui

[@RocknRollkat]

MUSIC doesn't sound like this. NOISE sounds like this. When are you getting back to music ? You know, the signals with melodies, harmonies, DYNAMICS, life, SOUL ?

[@andthensome512]

Your plugins rule. Clipper saves my snare from getting squashed into oblivion from mastering. I use Landr for mastering and my snare always gets smashed and quiet compared to my mixes. Clipper and Softube Saturation Knob saves it.

[@isaacgrinsdale3201]

'Weak and wimpy and quiet'. No... It's not 'weak' or 'wimpy', it's just quieter. So... just turn it up? 🤔 The loudness wars have wreaked so much music. And Metal fans complain the loudest. (No pun intended). Once it sounds great.... let it be.

[@sword-and-shield]

"Crack" is what transfers energy from the snare, raping the transients destroys it. Dull but punchy snares sound for crap to me, UNLESS you are not concerned about the snare bringing or carrying energy in the tune, many don't..biased old school Hardcore drummer.

[@Theactivepsychos]

Snip the extremes with a clipper Boost with a limiter Finish with a subtracting EQ if needed.

[@holdenm9361]

BSA is your company? Had no idea :) I’ve been enjoying your clipper for a while now

[@29djandy]

Hello. Why does it ask for authorization Everytime i open an instance? I logged in and it works but after few days it unregistered again???

[@michaelborggren3745]

Hi Jordan. Why would I need louder mixes. I mix to - 5db and I have 4,9db headroom for my master. If I mix it louder, I will loose headroom and dynamic range. Sorry, I dont understand your lesson🤔

[@Fire-Toolz]

You're mixing to a peak level, not a loudness level. -5db peak level could be as high as maybe -9 LUFS, or as low as -16LUFS depending on the audio material. What Jordan is showing us is how to get louder mixes when we want the sound to be more intense, dense, in-your-face. He isn't really concerned with peak level as much as he is concerned about loudness. If the kind of music you are mixing is not the kind of music where you would want it louder and more in-your-face, then you probably don't need to worry much about this video. But if you are mixing rock or metal and want your mix to be super full and intense *without* clipping the master bus and ruining your transients, use a clipping plug-in! This is what I do.

[@DaveyDoodle]

Is clipping (plugin) the same as turning the fader up until it's hitting the red?? I don' t understand.. I always thought clipping was bad but this seems like a different kind of clipping altogether.

[@Mbregs28]

When you A-B’d it I’ve never heard two instruments dip out of a mix faster 😂

[@daviskvlt2142]

GClip is super simple + visual and free

[@nofood1]

clipping was a secret for a long time, it wasn't until 10 years in the game i found out about it lol

[@eeetube1234]

It will be good if your plugin would display the actual wave form that was before and after the clipping.

[@souletunes]

I just tried this out, you have a very fine plugin, it's quite amazing what it does, especially on drums! Thank you :)

[@MonTadas]

I used to worry about sounds peaking above 0db. A few months ago I discovered soft clipping on my own. For me it was Fruity Soft Clipper - 2 knobs - only found threshold useful for production, post gain could be good for mastering. Put it on master of project template and never worried about peaking again. Now I struggle to reach Spotify's preferred -14 db integrated loudness, always hitting like -10 😂

[@djdeathcore5731]

Wow.. I've struggled with this for years. Just clipped everything and my track sounds almost twice as loud. Thanks HCMS!

[@systemx7960]

Do yourself a favor and get this plugin. It's super easy to use and makes a tremendous difference in the quality of your mix

[@frytor2240]

Hey man i would pay good money for rock organic drums, splice don't have it ;)

[@ImaginaryFriendsgang]

should a limiter go after the clipper in the mastering chain anyways or does the clipper take the limiters place completely?

[@mrmorpheus9707]

Standard clipper into weis limiter..and im " gucci!! Lol

[@cosmo11cosmo21]

bruh Spotify has loudness equalization

[@CarloCabiling-r6r]

why mine when i using BSA and bringing down the ceiling it start to distort. it just a reducing a few db.

[@dio.saurus]

It needs auto gain.

[@LeFeversAudio]

Hot savory damn. This'll be a day one purchase from me; this is the plugin I've been requesting from BSA since the moment they launched. I've never found a clipper I liked using and this looks like what I was imagining in my head all along.

[@Kin_G_JLab]

Yeah, I also frustrateded. Audio industry has that effect I see.

[@davidhayman9330]

Really appreciate the clear and straightforward explanation (referring to your experience helps to clarify too). This is great tip...have been using a limiter up till now.

[@davidkelly2891]

Thanks for sharing! Been sending my music to a mastering engineer hoping he would make it louder but it usually is not much louder than what I send him. He does a great job and It sounds fantastic but it is a little softer than most professional recordings. I can't stand limiters and don't understand why studios use them. There are so many professional recordings where I can hear the limiting on it and it sounds horrible. Been looking for a solution like this. The music sounds natural with no artifacts. Going to try this technique on my next mix! Thanks again!

[@JerryHodensack]

whats the difference between doing this instead of use a little but saturation?

[@MarcelloDiLorenzo]

Does _MasterPlan_ belong to the same category?

[@SteveOuimette]

Sounds really great but I don't see Clipper on your site. Can you let me know which one it is?

[@mixermantim]

Love the video thank you so much for putting this up. You should put a link to your website in the description. Thanks

[@jonsmeeguitar8665]

Cant handle how much 200 you have in your snare 😭

[@xaviervently781]

Couldn't find it on the website!!!

[@stevendevries1395]

Extremely clear and no nonsense explanations. Thank you. Wish I would have found your channel sooner. Keep it up! You're helping a lot.

[@aaronyoungs4870]

dude i love you

[@toddpurnick5848]

A good plugin but a POS company.

[@gaetanclybouw]

What about SIR Clipper?

[@onejohnonenine]

Thank you! I've been using standardclip and yes it is extremely ugly. I'm going to try your plugin rightaway. I would have liked to hear something about using it on other tracks than drums. It is recommended / usefull to clip guitars and basses also to reduce peaks and optimize levels? What about vocals?

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

No, just drums or overall mix.

[@onejohnonenine]

@@hardcoremusicstudio Thank you for taking the time to answer!

[@sagarchawla8145]

Man those faders so bouncy bouncy

[@xsonicassassinx]

there was a warren huart video where the guy used a clipper before Pro-L and set Pro-L to monitor ONLY the overs. turned the clipping threshold down until nothing was in the limiter, then used the limited like normal. HUGE difference. it's boz little clipper for me.

[@daztheproducer]

Link?

[@silasschramm]

dont we need oversampling on a clipper?

[@Advanced_Spirituality]

Thanks man! I really needed that.

[@dylanlundgren]

This was sooo illuminating, and the BSA clipper looks awesome! I've only ever used StandardClip, and while it sounds great, there's just so much info on screen in that plug-in, and a lot of red lol Edit: if you were just using parallel comp right on your drum bus, would you clip before or after the compressor?

[@ctsguitar]

Where would you recommend placing the BSA Clipper in the mastering chain?

[@klausmatrajt8480]

Once the mix is approved, do you take out the clipper on the mix bus before you send it to the mastering engineer?

[@TheMixAcademy]

Great question. Personally, I send both… My version with the clipper into a limiter for reference and then a version without them.

[@klausmatrajt8480]

@@TheMixAcademy Nice, thank you!

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

Yes, I would take it off before sending to mastering

[@Fire-Toolz]

@@TheMixAcademy This is it!

[@IanJamesBeats]

That song is sick! Great tips as well man.

[@austinthebeast33]

What a difference thanks man

[@BrandonShere]

It's funny how I've been looking for this solution for years, but wasn't able to find it until recently is insane. Every time I asked the internet throughout all these years, it was the same answers, then after spending so long working on my mixes and mastering chains I just couldn't get it. I came to the conclusion the loudness was only possible by people who are wizards when it comes to mastering. Finding out now, that they're all just clipping everything is great to know but also disappointing that no one told me this sooner. People even got offended at the idea I was asking how to get louder masters, it was always just basically "get better" LOL

[@Hassan_Omer]

Can you name any particular hardware clippers ? I searched for it and didn't find any. I understand that analog gear brings out its flavour when audio is clipped through it but i didn't find any hardware clippers or maybe they are called saturators in the hardware world ?

[@orphic-trench]

Here's something I learned from reading Bob Katz: if your session is in 32-bit float, you can clip the channels all you want, but if you lower your master, you will have the exact same unclipped signal. For the trim thing to work, you would need to have your session at 24-bit fixed point.

[@FrankTheSmithTV]

I think you can still do that with channels in most daws in 24bit

[@orphic-trench]

@@dnthrx If you're not going OTB, 48k at 32-bit is perfectly fine. I wouldn't go any lower, but higher is not needed.

[@orphic-trench]

@@dnthrx 32-bit floating point is more important than 96k or more. At least in my experience. I tend to be very pragmatic about this. Saving disk space is a good thing.

[@chrisknight3734]

Converting to fixed point should be the very last step in mastering. This is why plugins exist, to do the work without degrading the bit resolution

[@keptonhold]

Dude. So helpful. Thank you. Can’t wait for the plug-in to come out already 😭

[@launchpadmcquack98]

Software Engineers: Spend years crafting the perfect limiting algorithm Mix Engineer: Clips trim plugin instead

[@YeahButStilll]

Man I love the simplicity of your clipper and totally agree why does everyone choose to make such a simple concept complicated? Like, just give me a knob and tell me how many dbs I’m shaving off. That said, I can’t afford to drop $50 on a clipper but please email me if you ever have a sale lol. Also, does anyone know what a “soft” clipper is vs a “hard” clipper? From what I understand a hard clipper is what it sounds like but a soft clipper seems more like a limiter/compressor and it doesn’t actually clip it? But then why call it a clipper?

[@vectragt2310]

Is this plugin - and also the others - also availabable/working with Cubase/VST?

[@piotrbukowski9566]

L2 is just a terrible limiter. Can't understand why anyone would want to use it :)

[@piotrbukowski9566]

@@DerSilvano Invisible Limiter

[@chrismillett]

Is this basically like limiting or compression? I’m just confused because I didn’t know about this either.

[@DeltaWhiskeyBravo13579]

Excellent demo. I've never been in a pro mix situation, just building a home studio with the Studio One DAW. I learned pretty quick limiting alone wasn't cutting it. I'm not certain who did a tutorial about a clipper into a limiter on the 2 bus, but it changed the end result greatly. It's not for everyone though. Checking your plug-ins out. It sounds, works, and looks great.

[@chinmeysway]

Can you quantify a target loudness metric in say LUFS though? How loud did your mic end up exactly. It’s still arbitrary otherwise w what the goal is. I end up turning things down a lot on mic bus via trim or and limiter bc 10 lufs is not necessary bc of say streaming normalization (14 lufs) type a thing

[@aippmosiidm1359]

Mastering audio in the present era is different from ancient and antiquated times. Nowadays, it relies on the broadcasting platforms where you desire your songs to be played. Each platform has its own Loudness Units Full Scale (LUFS) standard, and you cannot defy or oppose the sound levels they have set. You must adhere to the LUFS requirements of the platform. If you still adhere to the principle that louder audio is better, you need to revert to the era of CDs and cassettes, as they do not have standardized sound levels, giving you the freedom to adjust the audio according to your preference.

[@GoodxJ]

👀

[@Benji2N]

I'm so confused, if anyone can help me out. What is the functional difference between this clipping plugin and something like a Limiter? Like what is the plugin actually doing to "clip" it past the threshhold? I have assume it's using some form of compression or limiting right? Or am I completely misunderstanding what happens when something "clips" past a certain threshold. Is it like a saturator/distortion where it just rounds or squares off the top of the waveform? When he clipped the master bus using the trim plugin, how is that different than just turning up the master until you see it redline on your meter? Does this boil down to just "digital distortion isn't necessarily bad" or am I fundamentally misunderstanding something about what happens when it "clips"?

[@Spider._.dust_music]

Hi.. do you have versions of your plugins that work on older mac OS 9.5? Thx

[@BillGraper]

I've never used a clipper before. I couldn't figure out why my limiting sounded like it was getting the loudness, yet it was still too soft on KZbin, compared to other songs. I didn't like the idea of clipping off the transients. I thought it would ruin the sound, by taking away necessary elements. I'm going to start using a clipper & see if I get better results.

[@yarncroft6692]

Nice. Few questions 1. whats the difference in "soft clipping" 2. I dont quite get the concept of the ceiling. If a kick is peaking at -12 and I add the clipper, and I add perceived volume of 6db (is this perceived or actual?) would I reduce the ceiling by 6db to volume match? I understand my question is kind of loaded and will be difficult to answer here

[@listencarefully23]

It should Be Free, Considering It Has One Purpose and is Only Two Dials.

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

A shovel only has one purpose and two ends... should all shovels be free?

[@EthanRom]

Make your own then

[@drrodopszin]

Baphometrix has an excellent tutorial on clipping, in which he claims and with some friends prove, that you are better off clipping in small increments. So put clipping on every drum you like it before you do the final clipping. Yet another mastering engineer was also using clipping _before_ limiting, so the limiter does not need to work hard (and heard hard).

[@giordash]

I see more importance for dedicated clippers now more than ever - which I believe has a lot to do with 32bit DAW environments. You can very easily fool yourself into thinking you are clipping something when you aren’t ie. seeing overs lights may not actually mean you’re over 0dbfs. I think this is the reason pro tools changed their overs indicators on each channel from red to green. That’s what made me wonder if the Trim plugin you brought in was clipping anything because the audio would have to be hitting your converters above 0 to clip. Either way, I think this is a great conversation and it stays interesting as tech changes. Love the video!

[@mitchmarsili]

FREE CLIP by Venn Audio is exactly the same but free...I tried them together with the same settings and one of the two with inverted phase and they canceled each other out.

[@Six2Nine]

i dont use clippers on stereo out. Why? It kills the punch. Every DAW has got an internal clipper. Try this out! Clip the master and then bounce the mix! and hear.

[@levonsarkissians]

Thanks a lot! purchased and it works very well! no complicated knobs and tweaking required:) easy to use and certainly made a difference when I applied in my final mix.

[@theriffdjenerator2213]

Clipping is a game changer, just installed Kazorg Kclip on my drums and master chain for a djenty/Thall number and it's phenomenal.

[@mixermantim]

Thanks for the video I’m gonna try out your product. How can I buy the song in this video I just love it.

[@rome8180]

Just bought your Clipper. I recently bought a couple other clippers I won't name. They distorted or changed the sound too much for my liking. Also, like you mentioned, one didn't have any sort of display to let you know how much you were actually shaving off. I'm hoping I end up liking yours enough to use it over Fab Filter L2.

[@CharLessMajor7Music]

compared it with fire the clip from acustica and this sounds close. I actually prefer this bcoz of cpu usage but the details are still retained even without oversampling options

[@rome8180]

@@CharLessMajor7Music I can't run most acustica plugins on my laptop. I assume the Clipper is a bit less CPU-heavy, but I did laugh when I saw it described as low latency.

[@DennisBergDrums]

Dang! Im definitely gonna try that! I am always struggling to get my drum mixes loud enough. And thats mainly because I cant hit the limiter hard enough because of the snare transients. I was thinking of trying multiband compression. But clipping sounds way easier. And as you said I of course dont wanna loose the attack of the snare completely.

[@screendrem]

I dig how simple your clipper is. I got k clip 3 for $40 and it has mb mode which I love.

[@Zibo100]

So far you are the best channel for tips and lessons to mixing engineering.congratulations and well done for your job!

[@particlejones]

So if using the trim plugin, u must use the master fader and turn it down? To properly soft clip with it? Driving the input basically and using the fader as the limit/ make a ceiling?I usually use a soft clipper, but just curious about this process that you used before creating your plug

[@ryleydlugi4357]

song so good made me itchy

[@maximrecords5492]

Just purchased your plugin. Thank you!

[@mjk9833]

Best plugin commercial. Have to get it!! Love your videos ❤