Clipping signal processing

1. What is clipping of a signal?
2. What causes signal clipping?
3. What is clipping and saturation?
4. What is clipping and why should it be avoided?

What is clipping of a signal?

Clipping may occur when a signal is recorded by a sensor that has constraints on the range of data it can measure, it can occur when a signal is digitized, or it can occur any other time an analog or digital signal is transformed, particularly in the presence of gain or overshoot and undershoot.

What causes signal clipping?

Clipping occurs when more power is required from an amplifier then it is able to deliver. Once the maximum amount of power supply voltage has been reached, it becomes impossible to amplify the incoming signal without compromising its form. This means that the signal is amplified but in a very distorted form.

What is clipping and saturation?

Saturation in general adds harmonics without losing bottom end and I often use it to beef up a sound (drums, vocals, synth, guitar). Clipping is a more transparent saturation and hard clipping in particular is a clean way to shave off transients without affecting the sound considerably and giving more headroom.

What is clipping and why should it be avoided?

Clipping is a destructive change to an audio signal that happens when the level is too high for the system it's passing through. This could mean recording the levels too hot on your audio interface or pushing your master fader into the red in your DAW.