[Trevor]

On 14/10/2015 5:21 AM, wrote:
At what point does limiting end and clipping begin?

there __is__ a definitive answer to that question

with clipping , the gain changes fast enough to follow the cycle by
cycle waveform ____and therefore creates harmonic and intermodulation
distortion___. If you clip a sine wave, you can hear the harmonics.
Mathematically, this is a non-linar process.

Anything slower than that, is limiting, compression or AGC. These are
mmathematically linear process and do not create harmonics or
intermod. If you limit or compress or AGC a sine wave, you will not
hear harmonics.


(I'm not saying these are good, they can still ruin the aesthtics by
squashing the dynamic range, but they do not cause harmonics or
intermod.

Clipping casues harmonics and intermod.

Matematically, clipping alone creates new frequencies, The others do
not.

Fourier would disagree with that analysis. Take an easy example, hard
limit a sine wave, it is no longer a perfect sine wave and therefore
must contain harmonics. The others will all do the same to a lesser degree.

Trevor.