Hey Phil,
Please don’t take it in a wrong way, but I have noticed that in many of your projects (especially older tutorials) even though you have turned down the master fader, you are clipping at the plug-in level.
I might be totally wrong, but judging by my mixes and being told by many independent engineers that it makes a big difference when you are following proper gain structure and not clip at any stage (especially via plug-ins).
I know that if you do clip on the channel fader stage, but not clip on the master, the output wont be affected by digital distortion, but what about plug-ins? Is this the case? Have you possibly done any tests to confirm that what I am saying is true?
Many thanks and happy new year,
PS: great job on the Main Room House tutorial!!!
-OB
Don’t wanna whine, but it seems like many Subscriber forum topic go unanswered by tutors. Could you guys address more topics please 
[quote]beepbeep (31/12/2010)[hr]Hey Phil,
Please don’t take it in a wrong way, but I have noticed that in many of your projects (especially older tutorials) even though you have turned down the master fader, you are clipping at the plug-in level.
I might be totally wrong, but judging by my mixes and being told by many independent engineers that it makes a big difference when you are following proper gain structure and not clip at any stage (especially via plug-ins).
I know that if you do clip on the channel fader stage, but not clip on the master, the output wont be affected by digital distortion, but what about plug-ins? Is this the case? Have you possibly done any tests to confirm that what I am saying is true?
Many thanks and happy new year,
PS: great job on the Main Room House tutorial!!!
-OB[/quote]
good practice to avoid clipping at all. but use your ears, if it sounds distorted then correct the clipping issue.
maybe some earlier tuts run hot into plugins, but you dont always have to do things by the book 
a little distortion here and there is sometimes desirable to get some grittiness, but it may not have been desired in the tuts you are referring to.
in a nutshell, its not the end of the world if you run slightly hot into a plugin if it still creates the sound you are looking for, and yes if its hot at plugin level then you are at risk of digital distortion even if you bring down the master fader.
Yeah what bry said… I come from an analogue mixer era where i ran most things hot to get some saturation.
Most plugins have a soft clipping limiter… If you actually where digitaly clipping you would really know about it. It dosnt just sound a bit overdriven it crackles and pops and is very noticable.
Bottom line as always if it sounds ok then its ok… Ears! Ears! Ears!
got it, thanks guys