One of your best videos ever! This was an outstanding explanation of terms and concepts that most of us hear, but never really understand. I especially liked the demo at the end of the effect of ‘clipping’ on the music. I learned more about harmonics, distortion, and clipping in ten minutes than I have in fifty plus years of being a musician and an avid listener of music. Thanks!!!
@ScottGrammer
8 ай бұрын
My pleasure.
@OfficeofImageArchaeology
8 ай бұрын
DITTO!👍🏻
@OfficeofImageArchaeology
8 ай бұрын
Absolutely fantastic, I ask and you provided. I don’t think I could’ve gotten a better explanation. Any place. In plain English and concise. Scott, you need to do this kind of thing way more often because you’re fantastic at it. I’d watch what music I put with this stuff though because eventually you’re gonna get monetized, and when you do this will hurt you. In short, I loved it. Thank you so much.
@ScottGrammer
8 ай бұрын
@@OfficeofImageArchaeology Thanks. The music is from an album I engineered some 41 years ago, and it's not in the KZitem music system. Not only that, but the artist and I are still friends, he gave me a new copy of the record, and gave me permission to post it. So KZitem can bite me!
@OfficeofImageArchaeology
8 ай бұрын
@@ScottGrammer love it😁👍🏻
@Sunnbobb
6 ай бұрын
Most excellent. Simple, direct Demonstration. thank you for valuing my time (and ears)
@ScottGrammer
6 ай бұрын
Thanks for your kind words.
@nosferatu_dracula
7 ай бұрын
Where do the harmonics come from? Is it a break down of the component frequencies? Why does clipping cause harmonics? Where do those frequencies come from?
@ScottGrammer
7 ай бұрын
Good questions all. The harmonics come from nonlinearities in the device (preamp, or power amp, or tape deck, or whatever) that you run your music through. By nonlinearity I mean that the waveshape of the signal is changed because the device is not linearly reproducing it for one reason or another. The nonlinearities cause harmonics because they tend to happen with every half-cycle of the signal, (in other words, once as the voltage is rising, and again when it is falling) and so this creates a second harmonic. (An entire cycle of a second harmonic fits perfectly within a half-cycle of the fundamental.) The second harmonic can then interact with the fundamental, creating a third harmonic (this is actually intermodulation distortion), and so on. Clipping causes harmonics because it is a very drastic nonlinearity - the input continues to up or down in voltage, but the output of the device "clips," or suddenly stops going up or down in voltage. This sudden, severe nonlinearity causes severe harmonic generation, and thus a lot of distortion.
@nosferatu_dracula
7 ай бұрын
Thank you for your reply. In cases where an over driven amplifier causes clipping, where does the excess power go? If my input signal has, say a power of 10 and an amp applying a power of 5 has a compression point of 12, where does the excess 3 power go? Sorry if this doesn't make sense. I understand now how the harmonics are generated but wonder what happens to the excess power? Is it heat? Is it used to create the harmonics? Does it never leave the amp?
@ScottGrammer
7 ай бұрын
@@nosferatu_dracula Amplifiers are rated for the amount of power they can supply WITHOUT significant distortion. Almost all amps can supply more power than that if driven past the clipping point and into serious distortion, and that (distorted audio) power goes to the speaker, like any other power supplied by the amplifier. Because most amplifiers generate a fair amount of heat within themselves in the process of sending power to the speaker, that heat goes up as well, when the amp is driven beyond its limits.
@nosferatu_dracula
7 ай бұрын
@ScottGrammer thank you very much for replying to my questions. I learned a lot and felt your explanation didn't require a STEM degree.
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