Hello,

I need an easy solution to get my sound louder without being destructive.
(I say "easy" because a friend of mine will take care of the mastering later, but I want my pre-masterings to be louder)
What is for you the best "maximizer" VST? (payware or freeware)

OK, I guess I'll do it...
Slate Digital FG-X.

Hands down - Waves Ultramaximizer

Thanks
Any more options?
Or does it mean I'll have to spend at least 300$ to get a good plug?

The freeware W1 Limiter is supposed to produce bit-identical output to the Ultramaximizer, so it might be worth looking into.

IL Maximus
http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php?mode=show&id=2933

Try the free version containing four of the presets
http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php?mode=show&id=4270

Well, without being destructive seems irrelevant with what you ask for.

That said, for a fair price, you could get IK Multimedia Brickwall Limiter.

It's $99/€74.99

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/trsingles/moreinfo/moreinfo5.php

And it sounds great, really. One of the best brickwall limiter IMHO, especially with the different modes (Clean, Advanced, Clip, Sat).

Voxengo Elephant.

Thanks everybody!

Slightly cheaper at only 10 euros but worth a look, you could try Jeroen Breebart's "Barricade Pro" : http://www.jeroenbreebaart.com/audio_vst_barricade_pro.htm

He also does a freeware version that is available in the downloadable bundle on his sie.

Ozone 4

If you don't mind the offensive limiter sound of losing peaks, you could just use the free Loudmax. I don't limit without clipping or saturating to eliminate the "sound" of the limiting.

+1

Elephant is the most transparent maximizer I've found.

What's "pre-mastering" anyways ?? Maybe just use the volume knobby thingy ???





NOT CALLING ANYONE A NOOB ; This is just the only anti-loudness KAT that I found !!

Just out of curiosity, is it common practice to send a mix to someone to master that's already gone through a master channel limiter like any one the options mentioned above? Shouldn't the mastering engineer do this? I do this stuff myself because I don't have a mastering engineer but I'd assume I would want to disable all the plugs on my master channel if insert to send a mix off to a mastering engineer to give him the most flexibility.