Clipping (signal Processing) - Avoiding Clipping

Avoiding Clipping

Clipping can be detected by viewing the signal (on an oscilloscope, for example), and observing that the tops and bottoms of waves aren't smooth anymore. When working with images, some tools can highlight all pixels that are pure white, allowing the user to identify larger groups of white pixels and decide if too much clipping has occurred.

To avoid clipping, the signal can be dynamically reduced using a limiter. If not done carefully, this can still cause undesirable distortion, but it prevents any data from being completely lost.