KVR Audio

orangesuite · Post by **orangesuite** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:19 pm

Been doing some mastering for some demos over the weekend would like to hear some opinions on the benefits of one over the other. I like neo's interface and it makes much quicker work out of raising levels and I find Elephant quite good but I seem to be able to push Neo further.

So far the chain is soniformer > colouring EQ (Hydratone or Vintage Warmer) > Neodynium. WIth Neo dynium there is the limiter so Im not sure if i even need elephant after it.

Any opinion on methods of applications of both?

Cheers

Aleksey Vaneev · Post by **Aleksey Vaneev** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:24 pm

AFAIK Neodynium is a compressor and Elephant is a brickwall limiter. These are different processes in their cores. First of all, Elephant is 'look-ahead' limiter, its knee is fixed 'hard knee' with 'inf:1' ratio. With Neodynium you may adjust the knee and ratio, and vary attack together with release freely.

Of course, this all does not mean much if you get better results with the one than the other.

Usually compressors do not deliver good brickwall limiting performance necessary for 'clean' peak prevention. That's why dedicated brickwall limiters like Voxengo Elephant are necessary. Neodynium may have limiter built-in, but you should carefully examine its effect on your mix.

Funkybot · Post by **Funkybot** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:43 pm

Finalis would actually be Elental Audio's closest competitor to Elephant, and I find it does the job rather well, but in all honesty I've been using BuzMaxi3 for the clean stuff or the TLS Audio Pocket Limiter for when I want coloration. And you don't get simpler or quicker than Buzmaxi3. Though, let me state Finalis is quite good, and certainly has it's place, as does Elephant which I'm meaning to pick up one day as well (lots of nice features that the other limiters don't offer, and good sound). Just try a bunch of stuff and experiment with what's out there. You'll be surprised too at how well some freeware holds up to the more expensive commercial stuff (though this is sometiems at the expense of features).

Spe3D · Post by **Spe3D** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:45 pm

Elephant is one of the cleanest limiters on the market – for me one of the effects I would never part with – it’s a real must have for its transparent and effective master limiting.

I know that some prefer VW for its colouring – but colouring is the last thing I would want in a limiter.

Neodymium is a compressor I sure would not use it as a master limiter, but instead for track compression – if a want a ‘master compressor’ I use SonicFormer 2

Best regards,

Peter

Left Headphone · Post by **Left Headphone** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:59 pm

To enable a limiter mode, click the corresponding button. Each mode has its own “sound.” You may switch between modes at any time. As indicated in the chart above, Neodynium's Auto-Limiter is a brick wall limiter. When the Auto-Limiter is on, no matter what the setting, it will not allow your audio to exceed 0 dB. Neodynium User Guide

You should probably set it to "M". I think it sound great. The cloud meters are brilliant...

Spe3D · Post by **Spe3D** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 8:07 pm

I like the way Elemetal does the meters – so much so I got the dedicated meter pack – Inspector XL – just for meters

http://www.elementalaudio.com/products/ ... index.html

But it still does not change my views on what effects I use, and where I place them

Best regards,

Peter

defjamm · Post by **defjamm** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 8:11 pm

finalis sucks for today common levels, elephant is much much better in el3-mode to get volume and a nice sound together.

kylen · Post by **kylen** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 10:41 pm

I'm an Elephant Man...uh I mean I prefer Elephant for mastering limiter after having tried both!

orangesuite · Post by **orangesuite** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 2:48 pm

defjamm wrote:finalis sucks for today common levels, elephant is much much better in el3-mode to get volume and a nice sound together.

I agree, Finalis find it difficult to push beyond -12dB without farting out. I'm going to try some tests where I'll use Neo without the limiter and followed by Elehant and then with the limiter in and see how it goes.

verstaerker · Post by **verstaerker** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 3:02 pm

BuzMaxi3 is really a great limiter - i compared very carefully the UAD precision Limiter and BuzMaxi3 - the difference is only in a few cases noticable - so BuzMaxi is always a good choice especially cause it's free

kaufi · Post by **kaufi** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 1:29 am

PSP Mastercomp (with Limiter "off") thereafter L2 or L3 (just as a limiter: Threshold at 0, Ceiling -0,1)

Neodynium vs Elephant