I think you mean clipping, which is when the peaks hit 0dB and are flattened. Are you seeing this in the timeline when you look at the tracks (before any processing)? Are there areas where it looks like the peaks have been sliced off to produce flat lines? If so, then that's the way the CD was mastered. The ripping (extracting) process does not alter the signal in any way, so what you get is what was on the CD. SonicFoundry sells a Noise Reduction plugin that also offers clipped peak restoration and it can help a lot in this situation. It's a tad pricey, but you can try the demo for 15 days before deciding to buy it or not.

If you don't see the peaks cut off in the original clips then you've probably got a volume slider in Vegas set too high somewhere. You can adjust the volume in several places, including the track header, in each individual audio clip, on busses, and on the master control. If any of these are set higher than nominal level then you'll be increasing the level and possibly introducing clipping.

Yes, the peaks are clipped at the tops. I was wondering myself if it was the CD, because the sound is "fuzzy" at parts. (This is Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack). You can see what one WAV file looks like (I just included the top half, given that it is stereo) at:

http://www.alixnorth.com/tmp/ClippedPeaksOnExtractedAudio.gif

That's without processing. If this doesn't match what you're describing, let me know.

I really appreciate you helping me with the terminology. I need to educate myself more than a little bit in this arena! Also, thank you for the information about the noise reduction filter; I will look into that.

Alexandria

Yes, the levels peak above 0 dB...thanks to Chienworks, I now understand that I'm talking about clipping.

I went ahead and extracted some tracks from other CDs with similar booming music (oh, I know, my audio vocabulary is stunning...not!) and I did not have anywhere near this amount of clipping occuring. So, yes, it appears to be the way the CD was mastered...bummer.

Thanks for responding!

Alexandria

Sorry we couldn't perform a miracle for you. That's rather disappointing that Disney couldn't do a better mastering job. Their audio department is supposed to be a very top-notch operation.

Well, I really appreciate knowing what's going on, because at least I can stop beating my head against the wall. :-)

My theory is that they really rushed the soundtrack out the door. I know that they didn't finish the film until the night before the late June premiere at Disneyland. The soundtrack is in the most bizarre order I've seen, but even more noticably, the names of the tracks do not match the contents in any conceivable way...thus my thought that this was fast and dirty. Maybe they'll expand and remaster it later.

Thanks again.

>>http://www.alixnorth.com/tmp/ClippedPeaksOnExtractedAudio.gif<<

Well it looks terrible! Like many of the current "loud is better" mastering disasters. At any rate, its easy to see why it sounds bad - it is!

drbam