I’m in the process of gathering reference tracks for mixing. Because playing an audio CD from CD drive is noisy and not so convenient I am importing audio CDs to my Cubase project.
I found that all of the tracks from both of CDs from Depeche Mode - Singles 86-98 clip after import (although I do not hear it, it is clearly visible on almost every hit). What is the reason of that? May I somehow import the CD without clipping? Is it really possible that such a commercial and well known CD was recorded with clipping? Tracks from other CDs reach -0.1dBFS after import as expected.
Thanks in advance for your clarifications!
I found that all of the tracks from both of CDs from Depeche Mode - Singles 86-98 clip after import (although I do not hear it, it is clearly visible on almost every hit). What is the reason of that?
Is it a remastered CD? Then it is a loudness war issue…
Is it really possible that such a commercial and well known CD was recorded with clipping?
Oh yeah! A lot of recent commercial albuns sounds like that. Check Rush (Vapor Trails), Metallica (Death Magnetic), Iron Maiden (Dance of death), and even Depeche Mode (Playing the angel)
Good point. Well, everyone says how bad is clipping and I would have never imagined such a serious (clearly visible on a waveform) clipping could take place on a released CD.
This CD was released back in 1998, I thought loudness war has been an issue since 5, maybe 10 years. Seems I was wrong.
Btw, the dynamic range of a whole CD is really smashed: 5 to 7dB all the time…