the.com/clipping
the sound of audio screaming past its limit and breaking into ugly square edges
means the distortion that happens when an audio signal exceeds the maximum level a system can handle, flattening the peaks of the waveform into harsh, squared-off edges.
from From the verb "clip," which comes from Old Norse "klippa," to cut or shear — the same root behind clipping hair or hedges. In audio, the metaphor is literal-minded: the tops of the sound wave get sheared off flat, as if snipped by scissors, when they push past the gear's ceiling. The term migrated into electronics and recording in the 20th century, where engineers watching a waveform on a scope could see exactly where the peaks had been cut away.
- waveform shape
- peaks get flattened into harsh square tops
- new harmonics
- distortion adds frequencies that were never recorded
- speaker killer
- sustained clipping can physically burn out tweeters
- genre fuel
- hard clipping defines fuzz guitar and grindcore
- game collision
- objects passing through walls share the same name
clipping path — digital image editing technique using photoshop to isolate objects from backgrounds