The limiter seems to behave a bit differently when playing back an arrangement and when a mix-down is being generated. An audio capture of the arrangement being played back shows no clipping on the waveform. But an imported download from a published track from the same identical arrangement will show clipping in the waveform. There will be also small differences in the amplitude of both waveforms.
Comments (7)
I remember this being talked about a while ago, about the differences in the sound - arrangement and mix-down.
Andre told that time it's something to do with the soundcard.
Like: The arrangement and the publishing are technically identical, but the audio stream might get manipulated on your side after you listen to the mix-down.
I may be wrong.
Yes, you're right. I think I found the topic where this was discussed: https://www.audiotool.com/board/bug_reports/limiter_can_t_be I've found other puzzling differences between mix-down and playback. For example, I have a fast fade-in at the beginning of my latest track done by automating the volume of the Master Output. On the mix-down, the audio appears earlier than on the playback, as if the fade-in would happen sooner.
This one as well https://www.audiotool.com/board/bug_reports/booster_vs_publish
I played the same arrangement from within Studio and from the published mix-down straight from the track page, no downloads. I captured both playbacks in Audacity and compared the wave forms. Playback from Studio shows no clipping. Mix-down playback from the website shows clipping and a slightly increased amplitude. I'll try to attach screenshots.
The bottom stereo pair is the captured playback from within the Studio. The top stereo pair is the exact same arrangement played from the track page (published mix-down). The bottom wide image is a zoomed in version of the start of the audio shown in the top square image, so that you can compare the peaks and amplitudes better.
Maybe related: the published version has undergone a lossy compression.
As far as I know, my Studio sessions are always 44,1 kHz.