The only thing i notice about the producer designed
plugins, is that a lot if them are actually developed
by the same guys over and over. So you gotta figure,
at least programatically, they should be pretty similar,
even beyond the clipping is clipping thing. heh

Grabbed it with a F29 coupon. You can't have too much soft-clippers, right ?
FWIW, I suggest anyone to give ApShaper a try, it has become my go-to. Sounds ace, super versatile (I love the Tape transfer curve) and it's antialiasing routine rivals Standard Clip's for a fraction of the CPU.

Unfortunately, you (read: we) very much can

I agree. it's not an instant buy but it's not ridiculously priced, either.

180$ for a clipper... well, umm, kinda made me think about Frau Farbissina from Austin Powers : RRRREALLY ?...

This is how I feel. I think I paid like under $30 for JST Clip and while I wish it had some visual feedback, it simply does what it’s supposed to do and nothing else: clip.

If I need more I’ll reach for more. If I need clipping, give me 2-4 features under $30

Big fan of that one… but never considered it a clipper, albeit in fact it can be… any tricks?

I love to (ab)use the "in + out -" position for filters : easy and effective pre/de-emphasis EQ before and after the waveshaping stage. I love shelves there, and the tilt-shelf is super useful to achieve a lot with a single filter.

The Dynamics modulation can also target transient or body and leave the rest untouched if mapped to saturation's floor, knee or drive (depending on what you want to achieve). Keep in mind you can set the Dynamics to modulate the filter's gain, or the Harmonics themselves... so you can dial some nice program dependency here

I like the straightforward "Saturation" mode a lot, with Type set to Tape and a generous knee. With some adequate modulation you can tailor ApShaper to the source with awesome musicality. "Tube" can be exactly what's needed too, depending on the task.

If you have Plugin Doctor, it can be quite insightful to spend some time with Hammerstein analyzer to check how you can shape the harmonic behavior with the modulators.

Finally, with regards to its antialiasing settings, max / lin-ø sounds pristine to my ears (and from my subsequent tests looks flawless in PD). I work at 96kHz, my own music + mastering (mostly experimental electronic music). I'd rate it as equally useful as Kelvin while being its own thing.

Oh and its developper listens to user feedback. I suggested a couple of additional options, they made sense to him so he's seriously considering them. That's awesome.

Sorry for the Off-topic, hopefully it's a useful post.

Other clippers at my disposal I use regularly : the ones in Limitless, Limiter 6 GE and Molot GE, OVC-128, GoldClip (though mostly for the Gold knob). I've replaced Standard Clip with ApShaper.

Well, most clippers do actually sound the same, provided that they are set the same. Most use the same generic way of "shaping the wave" (= waveshaping) based on the same DSP principles.

Hardclipping is always the same hard-knee shape and will not sound different from product A to product B. With softer clipping curves it will depend on the softness / hardness. Many clippers allow you to set the curve from totally soft to totally hard and everything in between. So provided that you use the same amount / mixture between the hard and soft-clipping, you will end up with the same waveshape and sound, unless a developer completely reinvented waveshaping and added some intricacies / oddities to his algorithm.

So, yes: most clippers sound the same and there is no difference between 100 bucks Flatline "mastering clipper" and freeware GClip. Sorry to burst your bubble here!

(Fair enough: Some differences can exist in the way that oversampling is implemented, which can also affect the sound slightly. Some clippers also have different modes, which boils down to different pre- and post emphasis EQ curves, which can also be manually set up with two instances of any EQ)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Cpek7driI

Excuse my lack of knowledge, but what is "Nova Clip"?

Most also have some form of saturation algorithm, either in serial or parallel. This, combined with the oversampling implementation, can easily end up contributing more to the sound of a clipper plugin than the peak shaving itself.

Can you name an example for one of those clippers with saturation algorithm that you are thinking of? I assume that you are aware that saturation itself is a type of waveshaping?

The bx clipper has a "clean" mode as well as diode circuit emulation. Boz Big Clipper has a tube saturation emulation that can be blended in various ways. Kazrog Kclip has a number of different circuit emulations...

I understand that saturation changes the shape of the waveform, from soft knee compression to clipping (and other factors such as sag etc.).

Yes, but based on your participation here over the years, I generally think you have good taste when it comes to audio, so statements like the one you made provide me with more encouragement to look into something I otherwise wouldn't spend the time on.

It’s a clipper that was released a little while ago by Modern Metal Songwriter.

I have a couple of clippers, This one sounds a little different again, which is a good thing. It should make a great addition. Choice can be a wonderful thing.

Is this worth getting if I already have BX Limiter True Peak?

Yeah it does a different thing. It soft clips, like tape, as opposed to hard clips like a regular limiter. Aesthetically they sound different, functionally you can actually chain both together for complementary results.

Just got this little bugger ..

and I must say, I like how it sounds and
differs from my go to :KClip

Different approach and I like the M/S mode.

AND the WRAP around if you go past 100%
..a little here can really add some nice character!

...nice one (unexpectedly ) to have in the toolbox

I got it for free, so I don't have any "hard feelings" about it.

Why does it boost the signal by 0,45dB by default? If I want to shave off a few peaks, I have to set the output to -0,45 dB. What a stupid idea to put such a cheesy and old 'trick' in a clipper.
It also seems to work in 44.1 kHz internally + oversampling. Tested with 96kHz file, anything above 22kHz is removed by the antialiasing filter.

I always set up my own defaults with most plugins. But then I don't often use any other presets, unless it's an instrument patch.

Other plugins I tend to build the sound from scratch about 95% of the time.