Audio clipping: what it is, how to find it and how to fix it before mastering

October 26, 2026 · All posts

Audio clipping is what happens when a waveform goes past the digital ceiling, 0 dBFS, during recording or export, and its peaks are chopped flat. The flat tops make the sound harsh, and drum hits lose their snap. You can check a file for clipping for free, with no account. The best fix is to lower the level and export again. If the file is already clipped, the lab rebuilds short clipped peaks during mastering, but it cannot bring back what the clipping destroyed.

What clipping looks like

A clean recording has only a few samples at its highest level, with many more just below. Clipping stacks many samples at one flat value, the clip level. Look at the waveform and the tops of the loud parts form flat shelves. Listen and the hits sound crackly or hard.

Clipping is not the same as a squashed track. Heavy limiting makes a track loud and flat without any flat tops. That is a dynamics problem, and it needs a different fix, covered by restore dynamics.

Where clipping comes from

• A hot bounce. Peaks hit 0 dBFS when the mix is exported from the DAW without headroom.
• A file that was clipped earlier. Some generated exports arrive already clipped, and the master inherits the harshness unless you repair it.
• Lossy copies. Clipping can still show after a file was turned down or saved as MP3 or M4A, because the checker looks for the pile-up at the top of the signal, not for an exact 0 dBFS value.

Check your file

Run the clipping check on the export, not on the project. It returns three numbers:

Then check the true peak with the LUFS checker. A true peak above 0 dBTP means the file clips when it is converted or encoded, whatever the loudness.

Fix it at the source first

1. Lower the level in the DAW or remove the limiter from the master bus, so the export has headroom.
2. Export a WAV or FLAC and listen to the new file, not the project.
3. Check the clipping result again. If the spots are gone, you can master the file normally. The home recording guide lists the other checks to run before upload.
4. Keep both results. Write down the number of spots and the share of the audio from the first check. Run the check again on the new export and compare, so you can confirm the fix instead of guessing.

Worked example: a few hits in a long track

Suppose a three-minute bounce has a handful of clipped spots, and the share of the audio they cover is small. The clipping is in a few hits, so the restore can rebuild each short peak from the sound on either side of it, and the master can go ahead. Now suppose the share is large and whole loud sections are flat. Rebuilding many long flat stretches is risky, and the restore leaves long flat stretches alone. Re-export at a lower level in that case, and do not expect mastering to fix it.

What the restore can and cannot do

When clipping is found on the input, the restore runs as part of mastering, rebuilding each short clipped peak toward the shape it had before it was cut. It never goes below the clip level. A clean file passes through unchanged. The report shows the true peak before and after mastering, so you can see whether the restored peaks now sit under the −1 dBTP ceiling.

• It is not a time machine. Information that clipping has destroyed cannot be fully recovered. The restore reduces the distortion of short peaks. It does not restore crushed transients.
• It does not judge the mix. The check looks only for clipping. It does not say whether the balance or the loudness is right.
• It does not replace a good export. A clean bounce at a sensible level still gives the best master.

FAQ

Does the clipping check cost anything? No. It is free and needs no account, and the file is not kept.

Do I have to switch the de-clipper on? No. When clipping is found on the input, the restore runs as part of mastering. A clean file passes through without change.

Which loudness should I use after restoring a clipped track? Use a streaming target, and check the true peak afterwards. A restored file still has to meet the same −1 dBTP ceiling as any other master. For the numbers, see how to read a LUFS meter.