Sound & signal
True peak
True peak is the highest level a waveform actually reaches between the samples that describe it. A file whose every sample sits below the ceiling can still overshoot it once a player reconstructs the sound.
In practice
A file can read under the ceiling on every sample and still clip the moment a player turns it back into sound.
Nothing a DJ does in a booth fixes this, so it is a buying and preparing concern rather than a performing one. The useful habits are ordinary: leave the mixer some headroom rather than assuming a commercial file is safe, and treat a track that sounds brittle on a big system as possibly clipped at the source rather than as something the EQ can rescue. Mastering engineers ceiling at −1 dBTP for exactly this reason, which is why the loudest masters you own still leave a sliver of room.
−1 dBTP
The mastering ceiling
0 dBFS
What a sample meter shows
Between samples
Where the overshoot lives
Where these come from: Conventional mastering targets and the arithmetic of reconstruction, not catalog figures. Our own reading cannot see this at all: we store an average level (RMS in dBFS) rather than a peak, so nothing we publish describes how close a track comes to the ceiling on any single sample. For what we can measure, see what happens when it goes over.
Why it matters
It explains a failure that looks impossible: a track that never reads 0 dBFS on any meter still distorting on a club system. The samples are only points on a curve, and the curve between two points can rise higher than either of them. The converter has to draw that curve, and if it goes above full scale, something clips.
It matters more on lossy files than on the master they came from, because an encoder redraws the waveform. A file that was exactly at the ceiling before encoding can come back out fractionally above it, which is why mastering leaves a decibel of room rather than filling the scale.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between true peak and sample peak?+
Sample peak is the highest value stored in the file. True peak is the highest value the reconstructed waveform reaches between those stored values, and it is always equal to or higher than the sample peak.
Why do masters stop at −1 dBTP?+
To leave room for inter-sample overshoot and for what a lossy encoder does to the waveform. Filling the scale exactly means any of those steps pushes the file over the ceiling.
Can a DJ fix true-peak clipping?+
Not in the booth. It is baked into the file. What you can do is keep headroom on the mixer so you are not adding to it, and prefer a lossless source where the encoder has not redrawn the waveform.
Related terms
Clipping
Clipping is what happens when a signal exceeds the maximum a system can carry: the peaks are cut flat, adding harsh harmonics. In digital audio the ceiling is 0 dBFS and there is nothing above it.
Headroom
Headroom is the gap between where your signal is sitting and the point where it distorts. It is the room left for the loud parts, and for whatever you do to the channel next.
LUFS
LUFS means loudness units relative to full scale — a loudness measurement weighted to match how ears hear rather than what a peak meter reads. Streaming platforms and DJ software both normalise to a LUFS target.
Limiter
A limiter is a compressor with an absolute ceiling: it lets everything through until a set level, then refuses to exceed it. Mastering engineers use one on every record you own.
Explore: Clipping · Mixing guides · How the analysis works · All DJ terms