I've been trying all the free ones but I'm ready to buy one or two. What is popular and what is good bang for the buck?
thanx!

Free

TLS Maximizer

http://www.tinbrooketales.com/

Budget

Voxengo Elephant 3.2

http://www.voxengo.com/product/elephant/

High End

PSP Xenon

http://www.pspaudioware.com/

don't forget to look at stillwell's event horizon, at 40 or 50 dolllars, its a great deal. It has some character, won't pull off Xenon, but might give the sterility of elephant, a different option.,,,,

I've found no free limiters with a good quality.

1. Elephant 3
2. Sonnox Limiter
3. UAD Precision Limiter
4. Flux Limiter
5. PSP Xenon

I like the Kjaerhus Classic Master Limiter. It's not transparent at all, but it's free and it sounds good IMO.

BTW, why would you need to buy two? Brickwall limiting is not somewhere someone would normally need variety.
Last edited by afreshcupofjoe on Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:06 am; edited 1 time in total

- Voxengo Elephant 3
- UAD Prexision Limiter
- Digidesign Maxim
- Sonnox Limiter (not the Inflator, the Limiter sounds much better to my ears)
- VSL Suite Limiter
- McDSP ML4000
- Waves L3

I've tested all and Voxengo Elephant is very good. And it is cheap.

I'd say just get elephant and be done with it. You can go for hours testing these things but in the end elephant is excellent. I actually like waves L2 but it isn't worth the price when there is an awesome alternative like elephant.

That said, I haven't tried xenon or the uad stuff but I haven't felt the need to.

A big Voxengo Elephant fan here too, super tweakable now in ver 3 and can be both very transparent, or very colourful too

However.... Ozone4 is on the way with a new Intelligent mode, will be interesting to see how that one sounds when its released....

Worth trying: WaveArts Final Plug. I use it in my live laptop rig.

another vote for stampy the elephant here. Very impressed with it, and quite cheap too.

The new limiter in T-RackS 3 Deluxe sounds great too.

elephant 3.. at 90 bucks its a no brainer.

If you are going to choose only one, go with Elephant. It remains excellent while changing character depending on which settings you use.
If you want all bases covered, technically I think the Sonnox is better than the UAD precision limiter, but both are great. Out of all the suggestions I think the Sonnox is best, but again I'd choose the Elephant if I had to use only one.
L2 is nice. In fact, I like it as if choosing an outboard limiter. It has a sound and character, and if a client hasn't already destroyed their mix before I get it, it can give some very nice weight to a thin mix without many dB's reduction. I'd hardly ever use it if I were stuck with L2 alone, though.

If you are mixing all of your own music, using Elephant you can benefit every mix by using a little of each proper setting on individual tracks. By the time you are bussing and at your master, you may not want more than 1/2dB just to control overs.

Aleksey deserves the business more than the other options!

Am I the only one who experienced latency that is too high in elephant? Is it strickly a mastering BWL?

My favorites for my music are the Flux PureLimiter and McDSP ML4000. Elephant 3 and Sonalksis' MaxLimiter are growing on me though.