UnClip — Leit Audio
===================

UnClip is an automatic restoration plugin for audio damaged by short hard-clipped peaks.

Digital clipping cuts the top or bottom off a waveform and leaves a flat section
behind. Turning the file down afterward only lowers the level — the flattened
waveform and the distortion it created are still there.

UnClip detects those clipped areas and reconstructs a plausible continuation of
the waveform through them. There is no threshold, sensitivity or repair amount
to set. Insert UnClip on the damaged track, give the reconstructed peaks enough
output headroom if needed, and let it work.


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.


Licenses
--------

By installing or using this plugin, you agree to the terms in LICENSES.txt.
