Over-processed

An over-processed track suffers from what audio engineers might consider to be too much of a good thing. Any process designed to improve, repair, enhance, or otherwise advance the quality of an audio track can, if used in excess, have the reverse effect and start to diminish its overall quality. The most common occurrence of over-processing is with respect to restoration tools.

In the first stage of over-processing, restoration tools designed to remove unwanted noise and anomalies will start to remove the natural ambiance and character of the source audio. This is sometimes referred to as "sucking the life out of the track,” or "clamping down on the track.” The next stage of over-processing goes beyond removing ambiance and character and starts to induce or add artifacts to the track.

A typical artifact from over processing with noise reduction, called "musical noise" has a dynamic phasing, swirling sort of effect. The problem with induced artifacts is that they cannot be removed with additional processing once they have been introduced into program. Artifacts from over-processing can be very obvious, distracting, and unnatural sounding.