"Ryan" wrote in message
om

Could anybody tell me why clipped to hell is bad?

It's obviously a matter of taste. Think of it as an effect, like reverb.

I know that it is but I have problems trying to figure out how I can
explain this to
him.

Depending on what your musical goals are for this recording, clipping the
$#@!! out of it might not be a bad idea.

Are there really artifacts that happen from this?

Of course. If someone takes a fairly dynamic recording and clips it
moderately, the recording takes on a characteristic that I perceive as being
"hot" or "burning my ears". As a recording is progressively clipped more,
there is more intermodulation of the sounds, and the timbre gets changed.

OTOH, if you have a 3 minute piece of music that is clipped for 5
milliseconds total in 3 different places, you probably won't notice it.

Clipping often makes music sound louder than you might expect given its
actual level. IOW if you play unclipped music at 85 dB peak, it will sound
softer than clipped music played at the same peak level. That makes some
sense because tolerating clipping allows you to bring up the average
loudness of the music. However, clipping can also make music sound louder
even when the average level is the same.

In extreme cases, clipping gives you sonic mud. Heavily-clipped music will
lose some of its high end, if it had any. Clip a snare drum and it will
sound like a garbage can.

Someone suggested I'm too far down the path, but I would say I'm not far
enough down it.

As long as the unclipped mixdown tapes exist, you have options.

I'd really like to learn what this stuff sounds like
and how to identify it.

Different music reacts differently to clipping.

Not all clipping is the same - you get vastly different results if you try
to clip something by overloading an analog tape machine, as opposed to
clean, symmetrical clipping as often found in solid state studio equipment
with push-pull amplification (e.g. ICs). Tubed equipment that is also not
push-pull, is likely to clip asymmetrically, and that produces a different
kind of clipped sound.

If it really ruins audio, it seems to me the problems should be rather
easy to point out.

Get some equipment and figure out how to set levels so that some part of it
clips internally. Have a means for getting the speaker levels down so that
you can listen to it comfortably.

For example, take an equalizer with an input level control driving a power
amp that has an input level control. Turn up the input gain on the eq way up
but first turn the input level way down on the power amp. You should be able
to get the eq to clip internally. You should be able to get a range of
clipping and loudness that you can listen to.

If you have a DAW, there may be a function that simply clips. If not take a
file that is in a fixed point format (i.e., 16/44). Amplify it lots of dBs
to clip it and then attenuate it so it has a normal level. Listen to it.

If someone can't identify an exact problem, than it must be hypochondria,
right?

The audible effects of even modest clipping aren't imaginary. I haven't seen
any scientific papers about how much clipping it takes to be audible. That's
probably because the degree to which clipping is audible has so many
variables built into it. It depends on the music, and it depends on how the
clipping is administered.