<p>I don't think there's any value to relying on acoustic measurements from <strong>segments of</strong> the WAV file that are clipped. You can't trust any spectral info on a clipped segment, for example.</p>
<p>However, you can still work with the segments that are unclipped. The rest of this answer will depend on what your goals are with your soundscape analysis. If you are considering seabirds are part of the soundscape (this is appropriate, but depends on your project's goals), then run your third octave level (TOL) analysis or create your power spectral densities (PSDs) as you normally would, but only on the non-clipped segments.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-07-05T06:50:35.340Z
To add to this, I would also remove a buffer around your clipped segments.  For example, if you have a bird that is just sitting on the mic and screaming, and your file is clipping irregularly because of that, I would remove the entire time the bird is calling, not just the clipped parts because you are not able to capture the full range of the bird's vocalizations.  Including partial calls can skew your TOL analysis.
etgriffiths
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-07-04T14:51:10.633Z
2022-07-04T14:51:10.633Z
Chloe
<p>Not at all, be only carful on the results you present. For example, the frequency modulation should still be visible in your data. You only cannot determine the power level (only a lower limit). However, these type of signals are good for replica based filtering (i.e. classification by means of matched filter, cross correlation, etc). IMHO, clipped signals are much more useful than low SNR signals.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-07-04T14:55:37.290Z
2022-07-04T14:55:37.290Z
WMXZ
<p>I need to conduct some soundscape analysis collected in bird colonies on remote islets. Seabirds are loud! I end up with files with regular audio saturation/clipping. The waveform is pretty obvious. We reduced the gain but even though the birds move around and sometimes get very close and saturate the mic anyway.</p>
<p>My question is: which type of analyses are affected by audio saturation and which one are not and could be acceptable ?<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/bwcl7.jpg" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/bwcl7.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-07-04T13:21:44.903Z
Could you please explain in more detail what soundscape analysis entails. This will help targeted answers with relation to whether the analyses are/not affected by clipping. Additionally, a spectrogram of the same audio clip may provide more background if available.
Thejasvi
<bird><soundscape>
Should we just trash files with audio saturation/clipping?
# Should we just trash files with audio saturation/clipping?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-07-04)

I need to conduct some soundscape analysis collected in bird colonies on remote islets. Seabirds are loud! I end up with files with regular audio saturation/clipping. The waveform is pretty obvious. We reduced the gain but even though the birds move around and sometimes get very close and saturate the mic anyway.

My question is: which type of analyses are affected by audio saturation and which one are not and could be acceptable ?[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/bwcl7.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/bwcl7.jpg)

**Tags:** bird, soundscape

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Could you please explain in more detail what soundscape analysis entails. This will help targeted answers with relation to whether the analyses are/not affected by clipping. Additionally, a spectrogram of the same audio clip may provide more background if available.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2022-07-04. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

Not at all, be only carful on the results you present. For example, the frequency modulation should still be visible in your data. You only cannot determine the power level (only a lower limit). However, these type of signals are good for replica based filtering (i.e. classification by means of matched filter, cross correlation, etc). IMHO, clipped signals are much more useful than low SNR signals.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2022-07-04. Score: 3

I don't think there's any value to relying on acoustic measurements from **segments of** the WAV file that are clipped. You can't trust any spectral info on a clipped segment, for example.

However, you can still work with the segments that are unclipped. The rest of this answer will depend on what your goals are with your soundscape analysis. If you are considering seabirds are part of the soundscape (this is appropriate, but depends on your project's goals), then run your third octave level (TOL) analysis or create your power spectral densities (PSDs) as you normally would, but only on the non-clipped segments.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: To add to this, I would also remove a buffer around your clipped segments.  For example, if you have a bird that is just sitting on the mic and screaming, and your file is clipping irregularly because of that, I would remove the entire time the bird is calling, not just the clipped parts because you are not able to capture the full range of the bird's vocalizations.  Including partial calls can skew your TOL analysis.  

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