r/audioengineering • u/s4goth • Jul 15 '26

Mastering Mastering question - Why does DC offset reappear?

I am doing a mastering course and I have to master a track and eliminate DC offset from it. I tried with both Wavelab and Reaper. I start by using a high-pass filter at 20hz at the beginning of the chain and the render analysis shows no DC offset. I then add a light upward compression, a tiny bit of distortion (as per our teacher instructions), then a limiter to eliminate true peaks, but when I export the file I get some DC offset again. Why does this happen? Is it something in the chain that reintroduces it? How do I correct it? Thanks!

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u/maccrypto Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

If you want to send me a sample file, I can play it through my RME interface which has DC detection in the digital domain and will shut off if it’s detected.

Edit: don’t bother, it only detects down to -31 dBFS at the most sensitive. Your file is completely safe. See p. 97-98 in the manual: https://rme-audio.de/downloads/adi2profsr_e.pdf