Description

cphn - auto clip

Automatic clip-gain staging for Ableton Live 12+.

cphn - auto clip is a Max for Live utility that listens to the audio passing through its track, estimates a calibrated VU/RMS-style average, and writes a static Clip Gain correction to the relevant audio clip. It is designed for fast pre-plugin gain staging before analog-modeled compressors, saturators, channel strips, and console-style processors.

What it does:

- Measures incoming track audio with a 300 ms VU-style RMS window.

- Uses a rolling gated average to ignore silence, tails, and tiny noise.

- Lets you choose a target reference level such as -18 dBFS.

- Applies the correction directly to Ableton Clip Gain.

- Passes audio through transparently; it is not a compressor, limiter, or live gain effect.

UI guide:

- Target: choose the reference level you want the clip to average around.

- Enable: turns the analysis/control behavior on or off. Audio still passes transparently.

- Apply: writes the calculated Clip Gain correction to the clip.

- RMS: current calibrated rolling average estimate.

- Peak: recent sample peak safety readout.

- Correction: proposed Clip Gain change.

- Pred Peak: estimated peak after correction.

- Clip / Current / Proposed: selected or detected clip info and gain state.

- Status: tells you when the device is ready, waiting for audio, or has applied gain.

Workflow:

1. Place the device before your level-sensitive processors.

2. Play a representative section of the audio clip.

3. Wait for the correction readout to settle.

4. Click Apply.

5. Replay the same section to verify or apply a fine trim.

Best for:

- Fast -18 dBFS-style gain staging.

- Preparing clips before analog-modeled plugins.

- Session View clips playing on the same track as the device.

Notes:

Arrangement View has a Live API limitation, so select the target clip when working in Arrangement. MIDI clips are ignored.