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Free Audio Clipping Detector: find distorted moments in your video

Choose a video or audio file and see every moment where the sound is clipped, with the time stamps, so you can jump to each one and hear it. It finds flat-topped peaks, audio that was clipped and then turned down, and peaks beyond full scale in compressed files. Everything runs in your browser: your file never leaves your device.

Updated · Built by Kevin Tabares, long-form YouTube editor at Umbrella Creators.

Find clipping in a video or audio file

Your file stays on your device. Nothing is uploaded: your browser decodes the audio and checks every sample right here, in this tab.

How to use it

  1. Choose the file: the raw recording to check the mic, or your finished export to check the master (MP4, MOV, WEBM, MP3, WAV or M4A, up to 60 minutes).
  2. Press Find clipping. The browser decodes the audio and scans every sample of every channel; a long file takes a few seconds.
  3. Read the verdict, look at where the red marks fall on the strip and click any time stamp to hear that moment in the player. Download the list as a CSV to fix them in your editor.

WAV files from a recorder or OBS give the clearest answer, because their flat tops are untouched. In MP4, MP3 and other compressed files the codec smears the flat tops, so the detector also counts samples beyond full scale; clipping that was turned down and then compressed can slip through, so check the raw recording when in doubt.

FAQ

What is audio clipping?
Clipping happens when the signal is pushed past the loudest level a recording can hold. The tops of the waveform get cut flat, and you hear it as crackle or harsh distortion, often on shouts, laughs, plosives or a mic gain set too high. Once a recording is clipped, turning it down later does not bring the cut tops back.
How does this detector find clipping?
It reads every sample of every channel and looks for two signs. Flat tops: eight or more samples in a row at the file's own peak and practically equal, which is what a cut waveform looks like. And overs: samples beyond full scale, which is how clipping usually shows up after the audio was compressed to AAC or MP3, because the codec smears the flat tops. Hits less than a quarter of a second apart count as one moment.
Why does it say my audio was clipped and then turned down?
Because the flat tops sit below 0 dBFS. That happens when the clipping was recorded (for example the mic gain was too high) and the clip was lowered later in the edit. The flat tops stay flat at the lower level. The fix is not the volume: it is re-recording with less gain, or a declipping tool in your audio editor for short moments.
Does it upload my file?
No. Your browser decodes the audio and scans it on your own device; the file never leaves this tab, and nothing is downloaded either.
Is a true peak above 0 dB the same as clipping?
Not exactly. True peak measures the highest point between samples, and many finished videos go a little over 0 dBTP: in my study of 50 big-channel videos, 29 had a true peak above 0 dBTP. Clipping is when the waveform was actually cut flat, which is what you hear as distortion. For the loudness and true peak of your file, use my LUFS meter.

Who made this

I'm Kevin Tabares. I've edited long-form YouTube videos since 2015 (1,277 videos and 152.2M+ views tracked on YT Jobs) for channels like Rex & Alexa, Puff and Mud. A clipped laugh or shout is one of the first things I listen for in the raw files, so I built this to find every one in seconds, without uploading anything. If you want an editor for your channel, get in touch.

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