Home Studio Setup, Pt. 5

In this series, we’re covering the basics of getting your home music studio set up correctly. Last time, we talked about the importance of acoustics in your music space.

In this final article on basic home studio setup, I wanted to address maybe the most common flaw I see in DIY home recordings: digital clipping and setting levels.

Here’s another full article on setting levels, for further reading.

Let’s summarize.

What is digital clipping?

Digital clipping can happen anytime you’re using a computer to do audio. It sounds super bad, and is very not pro.

To avoid digital clipping, your pre-mastered mixes should be hitting at around -6 dB in their very loudest parts.

So, keep your master track well in the green. Nothing close to 0 dB.

It should look like this!

Not like this!

Don’t worry, your music won’t sound too soft, because your mastering professional (like me!) is an expert at getting your music as great sounding as possible everywhere, while also avoiding clipping. Once you hand them your mixes (or if you master yourself), they’ll add additional volume to get your track up to a pro level.

Your finished masters should never have digital clipping upon delivery. Here’s how to check for that yourself, if you’ve got an Apple computer. Just scroll down to “How to check for digital audio clipping”.

What’s the difference between analog distortion and digital clipping?

But wait, you might say-don’t we use distortion all the time in music production? Well, yes, but analog and digital distortion are not the same thing. They sound different, and they have different technical causes. We very rarely use digital clipping as a creative effect, because it doesn’t sound very good or add anything interesting.

But, analog distortion: analog tape saturation, amp distortion, guitar pedal distortion, cassette tape distortion, tube or transformer distortion, etc, is used all the time.

Use analog distortion as much as you like, within your taste preferences. It often sounds cool.

The complete series on home studio setup

At this point, you should know all of the fundamentals of your home music studio setup:

What kind of home studio am I building? Demo space or pro facility?

How to choose the right speakers to invest in.

How to properly set up the acoustics of your music room.

How to avoid unflattering digital clipping.

Have fun!

And don’t forget to support this channel!

I’ve got a whole book diving deep into all these topics and more. It’s called DIY Music: A Practice Field Guide. Enjoy!