SKYE Clipper: Clipper and Saturator Plugin by Signum Audio

SKYE Clipper includes seven clipping types, covering both hard and soft clipping. Signum Audio describes clipping as a way to shave off peaks and add body through harmonic saturation, which can give a sound more punch and fullness.

The same controls work as a saturator for adding grit and crunch to instruments. The developer notes that pushing the signal into clipping can emulate A-D converter clipping when the plugin sits on a master bus.

To keep high-frequency distortion under control, the plugin uses Signum Audio's proprietary real-time anti-aliasing. According to the developer, this reduces aliasing artefacts without relying on high upsampling ratios, which can increase CPU load.

The control panel gives access to Pre-gain, Threshold, Clipping Type, Gain Link, Post-Gain and Dry-Wet Mix. Pre and post gain can be linked, and the dry/wet mix makes parallel processing straightforward.

All parameters are automatable in your DAW. Holding Shift while dragging fine-tunes any control. The metering range can be scaled freely, and a full or compact view helps optimise screen space.

The resizable history view shows a timeline of your processing, which is useful for checking changes as you work. A preset manager is included for saving and recalling settings.

This listing covers the stereo version. Signum Audio also offers SKYE Clipper Surround for multichannel work. The developer states that it supports up to 7.1.4 configurations, including Dolby Atmos, as well as stereo and mono setups. Mac and Windows versions are both available for each edition.