Input Clipping Thread

[Jason]

My main guitar has a Bare Knuckle Holy Diver pickup in the bridge. I was using the default A/D Sensitivity setting of 50% and thought I was "tickling the red". But to avoid triggering the new clip indicator I had to set it to 5%. Unlike many others, I can clearly hear the effect on my cranked Plexi preset. Some mid and high frequencies were reduced. These cannot be recovered in the same way by increasing the amp gain or using a pre-amp boost, so I'm in the process of reworking my presets. It's a bit painful, but I expect I will get to a point where my tone is better than ever, because digital clipping is never the best way to add harmonics.

 

[jamesmarshall]

My main guitar has a Bare Knuckle Holy Diver pickup in the bridge. I was using the default A/D Sensitivity setting of 50% and thought I was "tickling the red". But to avoid triggering the new clip indicator I had to set it to 5%. Unlike many others, I can clearly hear the effect on my cranked Plexi preset. Some mid and high frequencies were reduced. These cannot be recovered in the same way by increasing the amp gain or using a pre-amp boost, so I'm in the process of reworking my presets. It's a bit painful, but I expect I will get to a point where my tone is better than ever, because digital clipping is never the best way to add harmonics.

I use the Holy Diver set in my EPI Les Paul Silverburst custom and had set my A/D sensitivity to 5% for them and my PRS with the SD JB.
Since I did it that way from the beginning and haven't seen the clipping alert in FW 22, I haven't noticed anything like you have, for this update.
I usually use a TS 808 with the Holy Divers in front of a plexi or the 800 and that seems to help what you are describing. I noticed that originally when I first started playing with A/D sensitivity back during FW16 or 17. Also try a boost in the input tab of the amp block between 600 and 800 along with the TS808/your fave boost. That can help get some of that fat mid grit back. Just play with the frequency you boost until it gets what you are looking for.

 

[moregear]

I just tested the 22.00 beta 6 and had the same issue. I have Suhr Doug Aldrich bridge pickup in a 2008 USA Charvel SoCal and Seymour Duncan JB in and ESP Eclipse. I have the I/O input at 50%. Have never received the clipping warning until testing the new dyna cab firmware. The pickup height for both is 5mm from low E string.

Made this 20 years ago lol.

 

[oldstar1975]

What about input 2? I use 2 guitars - one to input 1, another to input 2. Put clipping message appears only at input 1. I think that I need to plug second guitar to input 1, find the correct input level and copy it to input 2, right?

 

[jamesmarshall]

What about input 2? I use 2 guitars - one to input 1, another to input 2. Put clipping message appears only at input 1. I think that I need to plug second guitar to input 1, find the correct input level and copy it to input 2, right?

You could do that or connect it to USB and record the guitar on input 2 (just the DI) and see if you are clipping the input. Just plugging into input one and finding the correct A/D sensitivity is probably the easiest.

 

[State of Epicicity]

What about input 2? I use 2 guitars - one to input 1, another to input 2. Put clipping message appears only at input 1. I think that I need to plug second guitar to input 1, find the correct input level and copy it to input 2, right?

I do wonder about the secret sauce on Input 1, if whatever that is could possibly change the best input level setting too. So I think James is right here, that just looking at the waveform empirically will give you what you need.

 

[OrganicZed]

Even Mark Day clips the input. The tone still sounds great.

 

[sprint]

Even Mark Day clips the input. The tone still sounds great.

Not noticable to me with gain or at eob - just on pristine cleans.

 

[Shahar]

Not noticable to me with gain or at eob - just on pristine cleans.

 

[DougB415]

Just turn down the Input Sensitivity until the message goes away. If you feel the signal is then too weak, bump up the Input Gain a little to compensate. Done.

Edit: BTW for the spreadsheet above, I've lowered mine from 15 to Lucky 13 as I was still getting the pop up once in a while on hard hits.

For those folks who don't know where to find this:

Open Axe-Edit.
Click on 'Setup' in the far-right corner.
Click on the 'Input Levels' tab.
Look under A/D SENSITIVITY. 'Input 1 / Instrument' is most likely at 50%. Turn this control DOWN until the Flashing Red Beacon of Death goes away.
As mr_fender says, "If you feel that the signal is then too weak, bump up the Input Gain a little to compensate." Input 1 Gain is in the lower right area, and is currently set at 1.00.

 

[scottp]

There are way too many variables to make any conclusions from a post like this.

You are going to get so many different answers.
Also, remember this is not input gain, it is adjusting how you are hitting the A/D converter and it is the input sensitivity for the A/D.

https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Connections_and_levels#Main_input_level

Axe-Fx III and FM9: the Instrument input on the Axe-Fx III is more sensitive than the Axe-Fx II's, but it has more headroom / dynamic range. Do not set it below 5%, because at this point gain may be affected. The front panel LED meter bridge provides instant visual status for the inputs.

When using a mono instrument, do not set the Input Mode to Stereo or Sum L+R. Select Left Only (default). Otherwise the level will be attenuated.

Input levels can be also controlled via MIDI CCs.















Firmware 22 for the Axe-Fx III and later add an on-screen warning about input clipping, because signal peaks can clip the signal, even when the Input LED meter doesn't flashes red.

@jamesmarshall Question for you. Are you talking about the Amp Block here for Left only?
Reading through the Blocks Guide it says SUM L+R is the default.

FRACTAL AUDIO BLOCKS GUIDE
ADVANCED PAGE
Input Select – The Amp block processes audio in mono only. This control determines how an incoming stereo
signal will be processed. You can set it to accept “LEFT” only or “RIGHT” only, or “SUM L+R” (the default setting)

 

[unix-guy]

@jamesmarshall Question for you. Are you talking about the Amp Block here for Left only?
Reading through the Blocks Guide it says SUM L+R is the default.

FRACTAL AUDIO BLOCKS GUIDE
ADVANCED PAGE
Input Select – The Amp block processes audio in mono only. This control determines how an incoming stereo
signal will be processed. You can set it to accept “LEFT” only or “RIGHT” only, or “SUM L+R” (the default setting)

That post is referring to Input Mode of the inputs, not effect blocks. See the wiki link he included...

 

[lastcaress83]

My 57 Classic Plus has to be down to 3% to not clip on a low string palm mute

 

[Orvillain]

FWIW, my Duncan Distortion has to be down at 5% to not clip on a big GROOONNGGGGG boomer chord.

I don't play those that often though, fortunately.

 

[Scott Peterson]

Running my Anderson Drop Top Classic with an HC3, I have the A/D input at 9.5%.

Everything is working and sounding fine.

 

[unix-guy]

Running my Anderson Drop Top Classic with an HC3, I have the A/D input at 9.5%.

Everything is working and sounding fine.

I've got a Lil Angel and a Drop Top, both with HC3 in the bridge and with mine set at 50% neither triggers the clip warning... Nor any other pickup positions.

It really seems like it's got to be a combo of strings (gauge, material), setup (action, pickup height), pick material (or lack of) and playing technique.

 

[Scott Peterson]

I've got a Lil Angel and a Drop Top, both with HC3 in the bridge and with mine set at 50% neither triggers the clip warning... Nor any other pickup positions.

It really seems like it's got to be a combo of strings (gauge, material), setup (action, pickup height), pick material (or lack of) and playing technique.

Less technique than playing style; I smack the hell out of it when I play hard. That's how I set the levels.

I use Tortex .73, 10-46 strings, and I set the pickup height at 4mm below the bottom of the strings when fretted at the last fret.

 

[unix-guy]

Less technique than playing style; I smack the hell out of it when I play hard. That's how I set the levels.

I use Tortex .73, 10-46 strings, and I set the pickup height at 4mm below the bottom of the strings when fretted at the last fret.

I'm using 9-42 pure nickel strings and play with 1mm Tortex Jazz or the JP Jazz III picks or fingers.

I'm not sure the pickup height because I haven't measured and adjusted by ear.

I play with a fairly light touch but I could get the clipping to happen around 75-80% if I pick very aggressively in certain spots.

I also think the transients of the pick attack are what's triggering it in that case.

 

[Sfalsetto]

Thought I would chime in with this as I experienced it for the first time at a gig the other night. I had my input sensitivity set at 31% as that seemed to have plenty of headroom when playing at home. When I play at home I usually use a regular cable or a little NUX wireless system. When I play live, I use a Shure GLXD16 system. I noticed within the first couple of songs that I was getting the warning like crazy. It didn't really have any effect on the sound from what I could tell on stage, but the warning on my FM9 did keep drawing my attention. I dropped it down to about 18% which seemed to take care of it for the most part, but not completely. Hooked everything up the next day at home and decided to use my live wireless rig (duh). Anyway, I discovered that the Shure receiver had a gain setting, which seems obvious now, but not something I ever really worried about. It was on its default of 0. I pulled up the input page and watched the meter there, comparing it to my other input methods. Just had to drop the Shure to -2 instead of 0 and all seems to be consistent now.

Just thought I would share. Definitely consider, especially if you're using a wireless system, any sort of gain staging that might need to be done with that as well. The meters on the input page are super handy. Be sure to check things with the whole rig in play. In the grand scheme of it all, it didn't have any effect on the sound that I could tell during the performance. Like most, it just annoyed me that it wasn't "right." Seems good now though.

 

[MackieFX]

Running a Bareknuckle Nailbomb 7 string and im at 7.5% to avoid the warning.