An introduction
Chop n Dice is our very first product that we are releasing for our customers. It is a clipper plugin. But not just any clipper plugin. Our Chop n Dice clipper has some features that are not commonly seen on any other clipper plugin in the market. Read about these features in the following section.
Why you need a good clipper
But first let us talk about why you need a good clipper. Having dynamic processors on the master bus is very common. These processors need to be fed a signal that is not too dynamic. Feeding a compressors with such a signal will make it work a lot harder and make create what is commonly called pump effect. Or if it is a limiter it will just distort when the signal is pushed too much into it. Producers use clipper plugins to chop off the peaks of there tracks before it hits a limiter or a compressor stage. Doing this eases the load on the limiter and also decreases the distortion that you get by pushing the limiter too hard. A good clipper is a must have for a Producer/Engineer in his/her arsenal of tools. Weather it be for increasing the over all RMS level of your track or for any creative purposes. We think that our Chop-n-Dice clipper will be a good tool for you to have. Following are some features that makes our Chop-n-Dice plugin stand out.
Chop n Dice – A simple yet elegant solution
Chop n Dice has a user interface that could not be more simpler and straight forward. Looking at a plugin’s GUI it is common to imagine it as a box or a unit that changes the sound in a some way. The audio gets in this unit from the left end, it gets processed inside the unit and then it gets out from the right end. We made Chop n Dice such that the workflow is similar to analogy. You have an input gain module in the left controlling the audio getting into the clipper unit. Then it goes through the side chain high pass filter (if the HPF control is enabled) and the clipper module where the actual processing happens. It is then mixed with the dry signal with a Mix module. And then finally it comes out of the plugin after being gain staged with an output gain module. Look at the picture below to understand the internal workings of the Chop n Dice.
How to use the unique feature of the Chop n Dice
Unlike other clippers, Chop n Dice has a side-chain high pass filter. This filter lets the plugin listen to only the high frequencies of the audio. You have the control to set the cut off frequency over which the clipper module will listen. You can then see the arc meter (the white meter along side the ceiling slider) to set the ceiling accordingly. This approach of clipping just the high frequencies is especially helpful when working on a track that has very loud low end for example Tech House tracks, Hip Hop tracks and other sub genres of Dance Music. In such case, just enable the HPF toggle along with the Solo HPF toggle. Solo HPF will allow you to listen to just the high frequencies that the clipper will listen and process. Then while listening set up the cut off frequency so that the bass is no longer audible. Disable the Solo HPF toggle to listen all of the audio and set the Ceiling slider according to your track’s requirement.
Note: when tweaking the cut off frequency slider while HPF is Soloed, keep ceiling at 0dB and mix at 100% to listen to the actual high passed audio without it being distorted by the clipper.
Available Clipping Algorithms
- Hard Clip
- Variable Soft Clip
- Foldback
Features
Below are some of the noteworthy features for our chop n Dice clipper.
VARIABLE CEILING CONTROL
SIDE CHAIN HIGH PASS FILTER
