Everyone i talk to is saying that it's more of a gear thing. Overloading the outputs of the lavry's that are so popular with ME's. I'm not really sure what this means, and was wondering if someone could explain this to me, and possibly a way to emulate this, without buying a $10,000 D/A converter. thanks

Overloading (clipping in many cases) the input (not the output) is (very unfortunately) a fairly popular way of gaining a little extra volume without "screwing" the dynamics as much as other techniques.

No way to emulate - It's all about headroom (far beyond digital) and the hardware that will handle digitizing the signal which is too hot.

And on that note, keep in mind that the additional volume needs to come from somewhere - It's going to be an additional analog gain stage -- and it has to be a ridiculously clean analog stage with ridiculous amounts of headroom.

So you're not looking at an input converter - You're looking at an output converter that handles reconstructive distortion in "style" along with an additional gain stage, along with the input converter that *also* must handle ridiculous levels without audible distortion.

And depending on the music, more than one set. Lavry for instance -- Great for open, airy stuff (acoustic, jazz, etc.) but falls apart under "metal" pressure. The HEDD, which handles the "rough stuff" very well will also color the signal to some extent while "rebuilding" the clipped information.

There's always a trade, and the trade is always worse than just having the material at a "decent" or "normal" level.

quote:

There's always a trade, and the trade is always worse than just having the material at a "decent" or "normal" level.

+1

Heres a free vst plug that does clipping.
It will give you an idea of whats happening with clip distortion.

http://www.gvst.co.uk/gclip_screenshot.htm

It has a gainstage and a ceiling of cliping amount plus a knee control.

Cool. I don't even begin to pretend that I have the capabilities to master my clients' mixes well, but have been looking for ways to make my mixes a bit more loud and 'exciting' sounding so that the client will approve the unmastered mixes faster. Typically, I'll use just the T racks clipper, perhaps a comp/limiter to emulate a tape like compression. . . .any tips/tricks? again, i'm just looking for some things to make my unmastered mixes a bit more 'exciting' for the purpose of proofing only.

it seems like the a1 by mcDsp could help you...