Audio terms glossary

The real catch

In the world of Audio, there are many terms that are used to describe different things. This is a list of terms that I have found useful to know and understand. I will be updating this list as I learn more about the field.

Soft clip

Soft clipping is a type of distortion effect that occurs when a signal level exceeds the maximum level allowed by a device. Unlike hard clipping, soft clipping gently rounds off the peaks of the signal, rather than the tops being cut off abruptly. This results in a more natural sounding distortion.