Free Clip 2

8/5 Free Clip 2 is the clipper I load first, and my overall pick for 2026. It ships as part of Venn Audio’s nine-plugin Free Suite, so a single install covers clipping and a stack of other mixing tools. What makes it an all-rounder is the insane range of clipping curves. You get a transparent Hard Clip for shaving peaks before a limiter, then five progressively softer shapes (Quintic, Cubic, Hyperbolic Tan, Algebraic, and Arctangent) that move from clean to warm.

When you push it hard, the Arctangent curve behaves like a saturator, so the same plugin handles surgical peak control and creative drive. The interface is the other reason it stays on my template. It resizes, and the zoomable waveform shows exactly how much you are clipping, which makes it easy to set by eye. Oversampling goes up to 32x, with post-oversampling clip options to catch the inter-sample peaks that sneak past on a master.

The main weakness is metering. There is no built-in LUFS or output meter beyond the waveform, so you will want a separate loudness meter for mastering. High oversampling also puts a heavy load on CPU, so 16x and 32x are best saved for the final render rather than for a busy real-time session. Best for: producers who want one free clipper that does everything, on any operating system, with no sign-up. Hard + 5 soft curves · Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon native), Linux · VST3, AU, AAX · up to 32x oversampling.

Verdict: the most complete free clipper available, and the one I recommend to everyone first.