Clipper

Name: Clipper
Price: 79 USD
Author: Softube

by Softube · Clipper · Soft/hard clipper

vst3s Score 8.2/10 · rated #7 of 10 clippers

Softube's clipper blends between hard and soft clipping and shows clearly how much of the signal is being shaved off.

It was released alongside Softube's Widener and is aimed at transparent peak control on the mix bus and master.

Best for: Mix Bus, Mastering, Drums, Vocals. Genres: Pop, Rock & Indie, Electronic & EDM.

Keywords: bus processing, mix bus, drums, full mix, hard clip, oversampling, transparent, analog-sounding, corrective, harmonic enhancer, mastering, mixing, single-band, soft clip, synths, vocals, wide.

What it does

Softube's Clipper is built to control peaks immediately, without the pumping or level drop of a limiter or compressor. It has two clipping stages that work together.

RMS stage: a soft, dynamic saturator that shapes the body of the sound before the peaks are dealt with.
Peak stage: works "like a limiter with infinitely fast attack and release", with an optimised soft knee.
Analog Color: adds even-order harmonics, with Headroom and low- and high-frequency targeting to focus the distortion.
Anti-aliasing: multiple stages of 4x oversampling.
Integration: works with Softube's Console 1 hardware.

Source: Softube product page

When to use it

Softube Clipper treats clipping as tone shaping. The RMS stage adds density before the Peak stage trims transients, so you can go from transparent control to thick, musical saturation. It has no multiband or mid/side processing, unlike KClip 3 or bx_clipper.

Best for: the mix bus and master (taking load off the limiter), drum buses, synths and instrument groups.
Tip: use the filters on each stage to aim the clipping at the transients or at the rest of the waveform.
Price: often discounted well below its list price.

What producers say

Reviewers see it as a character clipper rather than a purely technical one.

Plugin Nerds recommended it for producers who want clipping as "a tone-shaping tool", especially at sale prices.
gearnews included it in its roundup of the five best clipper plugins.
Criticisms: fixed 4x oversampling with no user control, and no multiband or mid/side options.

Where to buy

Tutorials and reviews

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