Clipper: Dual-Stage Peak Clipper Plugin by Softube

Clipper's peak stage works like a limiter with infinitely fast attack and release. It shaves transients off the signal without the pumping or gradual level reduction that a limiter or compressor can cause. This helps when a few transients would otherwise force a limiter to pull down the overall loudness of a track.

Before the peak stage, Clipper offers an RMS stage that gently shapes the material. In smaller amounts it stays transparent. When pushed hard, it breaks into a thick distortion. Clipper uses multiple stages of 4x oversampling and anti-aliasing techniques to reduce artifacts, which helps keep the clipping clean.

The Analog Color controls increase the even-order harmonics generated by the RMS stage, which is useful for changing the tonality of an 808 or a drum bus. Headroom, Low and High frequency settings let you focus the distortion on a specific frequency area.

Softube describes Analog Color as a name chosen for how the sound is experienced. The controls are not based on analog circuits.