[Sean Conolly]

wrote in message
...
There is a fundamental technical difference clipping the A/D compared to
clipping in the analog domain and that difference is due to ALIASiNG.
Consider clipping an 8 kHz tone in the analog domain. The harmonics are 16,
24 etc. Everything above 16 will be filtered off by the anti-alias filter.
Now consider clipping the same 8 kHz tone in the A/D. The same harmonics
are created but since we are now after the anti alias filter, the higher
harmonics are not removed and they will be in fact aliased or folded back
down into the audible range. The aliased tones are not even harmonically
related after folding and will sound particularly nasty.

I'm not saying you should never clip the A/D, but be aware of the
technology. If the clipping is very brief or if you want grunge, then go
for it.

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I believe most modern converters are running the A/D at a higher sample rate
and then filtering down to the specifed sample rate, instead of relying on
an analog filter only.

But even without that I can't see how clipping the wave at them moment it is
converted to digital is going to cause aliasing. The truncation is just data
until something converts it back to analog.

Sean