Soft Clipper (Native)

Parameters

Drive — Pre-clip gain in dB. Pushes the signal harder into the clipping curve — low values barely touch the peaks for gentle level-evening, high values squash everything into a saturated wall. Drive is what turns this from a peak-catcher into a tone-shaping effect. Pair with output to make up the level you lose as the signal compresses.

Threshold — The level where clipping starts to bend the waveform. Lower values clip earlier so even quiet material is shaped; higher values leave most of the signal alone and only catch the loudest peaks. Think of it as how much headroom you’re giving the signal before the ceiling starts pushing back.

Hardness — Shape of the clipping curve, from a gentle tube-style roll-off (0) toward an aggressive near-hard-clip edge (1). Soft settings add warmth and even harmonics, useful on drums and bass. Hard settings sound brighter and more aggressive — closer to the buzz of a fuzz or a clipped converter — which works for distorted leads and lo-fi character.

Output — Post-clip makeup gain in dB. Clipping reduces peak level, so use this to bring the output back up to match the input — or push it past for parallel-style loudness tricks. Set this last, after dialling drive and threshold.

Dry/Wet — Blend between the original signal (0) and the clipped signal (1) using equal-power crossfade. Useful for parallel saturation: keep dry transients intact while a heavily-driven copy adds harmonic body underneath. Unlike the other parameters, dry_wet is specific to this node — when the same effect is loaded into a Player FX slot, the slot handles its own wet/dry at the mixer level.

Additional controls

Mode — Selects the underlying clipping algorithm. Tanh is smooth and warm, well-suited to bass and full mixes — uses anti-aliasing that runs efficiently. Polynomial has a more natural, slightly punchier curve. Sine is the softest of the three with a rounded saturation character. Polynomial and sine use oversampling at high drive levels to keep harshness from aliasing back into the audible range.

Oversample — Forces 2× internal oversampling on polynomial and sine modes. Aliasing happens when distortion creates harmonics above the sample rate’s reach — they fold back as inharmonic noise. Oversample on for cleaner, more expensive processing; off for lower CPU. Tanh mode handles aliasing differently and isn’t affected by this switch. The processor also enables oversampling automatically when drive exceeds 12 dB.

About Soft Clipper (Native)

Native Soft Clipper is the lightest member of the distortion family — peak management first, harmonic coloration second. Three curve models: Tanh (smooth, warm, bus-friendly, with built-in anti-aliasing), Polynomial (slightly punchier, oversampled at high drive), Sine (softest of the three). Use as a final-stage limiter alternative on busses (catches peaks without the hard ceiling of a brick-wall limiter), as a transparent saturator on individual tracks (low drive, mild hardness), or pushed harder for parallel-clip thickening. oversample is auto-engaged above 12 dB drive on polynomial/sine modes to keep aliasing in check. Compare with Native Saturator (more curve options, more focused on color than peak control) and Native Distortion (heavier still, designed for amp-style aggression rather than peak management).

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