If you have an individual instrument "clipping" (and it's not actually clipping until it's bounced or hits the DAC) at +2 dB, then lowering the output gain of that instrument is a perfectly valid way to prevent clipping on the master. In fact, you should rarely have the entire output chain of any instrument cranked all the way up to 0 dB. Lower the fader of the loud channel, and lower other channels to compensate if necessary.

I would not fiddle with the master itself. It is "OK" to do technically, but it's bad to get into that mindset, because you'll end up lowering the master, then cranking up other instruments to get them loud again, then lowering the master again, then cranking up instruments more, and so on.

If your master is in the red, take a step back, fix your mix. Don't just sweep the problem under the rug.

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But what if nothing sounds wrong? I cant hear any clipping occurring so am i ok?

quote:

Originally posted by sako487 But what if nothing sounds wrong? I cant hear any clipping occurring so am i ok?

First of all, I was responding to the OP.

Second, just because you can't hear it doesn't mean that there's nothing wrong; in most cases the rule is "if it sounds good then it is good", but when it comes to clipping, you don't want to mess around, because (to name just one reason) too much of it can actually damage certain equipment, like the sound system at a club.

Third, there may actually be nothing wrong when you play it out of your sequencer while it's still floating-point data if your audio interface's master volume isn't cranked, but that will all change once you actually bounce it out to a 16-bit PCM.

You really should dig up some of the old threads on this where a lot of this has already been hashed out. Search for "clipping".

___________________
My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here