UnClip

Controls

Output

Applies output trim from -24 to 0 dB after reconstruction. Default: 0 dB.

Reconstructed peaks can rise above the clipped plateau and may exceed 0 dBFS inside a floating-point DAW. Use Output to create headroom when the next processor or final export needs it.

Output never adds gain and does not affect what UnClip repairs.

Amber lamp

Bypasses UnClip. The lamp and your DAW's bypass control operate the same parameter. Lit means active; dim means bypassed.

Status

The display shows REPAIRING after repair activity. READY appears when no repair activity is shown or UnClip is bypassed; it does not mean the source is free of clipping.

How UnClip behaves

Clipping does not always remain at 0 dBFS. A recording may have clipped first and then been turned down, converted to another format or processed before it reaches UnClip.

UnClip therefore looks for the shape left by hard clipping rather than assuming a fixed clipping level. It looks for repeated evidence of a clipping ceiling and uses the surrounding waveform to decide which short flat-topped peaks are likely to be damaged.

When UnClip accepts an area as clipped, it uses the clean waveform around it as context to estimate a plausible continuation through the damaged samples. Only samples identified as clipped are replaced.

The original samples that were lost to clipping are unknown, so UnClip does not claim to recreate them exactly. It reconstructs a plausible waveform intended to reduce the damage caused by short hard-clipped peaks.

UnClip has no limiter, hidden normalization or automatic gain reduction. Reconstructed peaks can exceed 0 dBFS inside a floating-point host. Use Output when you need more headroom before later processing or export.

UnClip reports approximately 99.5 ms of latency at 44.1 and 48 kHz. Your DAW can compensate for this during playback and export. Bypass keeps the same latency and uses a short crossfade, so switching UnClip on and off does not move the track in time.

UnClip works in mono and stereo. Stereo channels are analyzed and repaired independently.

If a recording was clipped and then converted to a higher sample rate, the conversion can spread distortion beyond the flattened peaks. Repair may be less effective. For best results, apply UnClip at the recording's original sample rate, render with floating-point headroom, and then convert to the target rate.

It is intended for editing, restoration and mixing rather than latency-sensitive live monitoring.

UnClip repairs short hard-clipped peaks. It is not a general distortion remover and is not designed to repair saturation, codec damage, crackle or other kinds of audio damage.

There are no presets. UnClip has one automatic repair behavior.

Features

• Automatic reconstruction of short hard-clipped peaks.
• Detects clipping even when the file has been turned down after the overload.
• Replaces only samples identified as clipped.
• Uses surrounding clean audio as context for reconstruction.
• No threshold, sensitivity or repair amount control.
• Output trim from -24 to 0 dB.
• Host-linked, latency-matched bypass.
• Mono and stereo operation.
• Approximately 99.5 ms of reported latency at 44.1 and 48 kHz.
• Internal double-precision processing.
• VST3 for Windows, macOS and Linux.
• Audio Unit for macOS.
• Native Apple Silicon and Intel support on macOS.

Installing

VST3 (Windows)

Copy UnClip.vst3 to:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\

VST3 (Linux)

Copy UnClip.vst3 to:

~/.vst3/

macOS

Run:

UnClip-<version>.pkg

The installer includes both VST3 and Audio Unit. Use Customize during installation if you only want one of them.

Your host may need a plugin rescan or restart before UnClip appears. UnClip declares the Restoration category in VST3 hosts; the exact location can vary between hosts. Audio Unit hosts may also need their Audio Unit cache refreshed.