Tutorial: Fixing Clipped Audio with iZotope RX3
We've all had the misfortune of recording clipped, distorted audio from a signal that's too hot, resulting in time-consuming retakes or total disaster if the audio is from a live event. The Declip feature in iZotope RX3 can reduce that disaster to a quick and easy fix.
Declipped Audio in 10 Seconds or Less
You can apply the Declip filter to the entire file very quickly. First, select the entire file in the application, choose Declip, let iZotope choose the settings by clicking the Suggest button, then choose Process. For my 22-minute clip, processing took less than 10 seconds (Figure 4, below), leaving the entire file declipped and all the distortion gone.
Figure 4. Running Declip.
This 10-second fix saved me at least 30 minutes of work re-recording the file, plus the editing time I had already invested, plus the frustration of having to redo a completed task.
While you probably won't experience the same exact circumstances that caused my problem (cough, producer error, cough), you can run into this problem any time you record audio that’s too loud and is clipped at the peaks. Regardless of how your audio gets clipped, Declip is a great feature that can help save your work, so give it a try.
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