Detecting and Marking Clipping

Tools Menu

The clip indicators in the channel meters help you determine whether clipping occurs in your file, and you can use the Find command to find audio that matches levels you specify. For more control, however, you can use the detect clipping tool.

Sound Forge Pro clippedmeter Detect Clipping

From the Tools menu, choose Detect Clipping to scan a selection of audio for clipping and add markers where clipping occurs.

Markers can be quickly selected from the list in the Go To dialog. Also, markers are displayed in the Regions List for quick playback.


  1. Select the audio you want to scan.

  2. From the Tools menu, choose Detect Clipping. The Detect Clipping dialog is displayed.

  3. Choose a setting from the Preset drop-down list or adjust the controls as necessary.

  1. Drag the Threshold fader to determine the sound level you want to find.

  2. Set a value in the Clip Length box to specify how many sequential samples must meet the Threshold setting to constitute clipping.

  1. Click the OK button.

    The selection is scanned, and markers are added whenever the software finds a number of sequential samples (determined by the Clip Length setting) with the same value above the Threshold setting.

Sound Forge Pro tip Detect ClippingUse the Detect all clip-related plateaus preset to detect clipped peaks that may exist in your file after decreasing the levels in the file. You can then use the Pencil tool or the Clipped Peak Restoration tool in the Sony Noise Reduction plug-in to restore the clipped peaks.

Detect Clipping