L316 Equivalent

[jmg8]

It says in the manual that it is a broadband limiter
It has one threshold and ceiling control like a broadband limiter
It sounds and behaves (in it's default state) exactly as a broadband limiter.
Broadband limiters are good as they don't change the balance of your mix.

The only difference with this is that waves are pulling the wool over our eyes, as it is really a 16 band limiter that behaves like a broadband limiter. It does this by making sure that all 16 bands apply the same amount of gain reduction. So it feels, behaves and sound exactly like a broadband limiter.

The reason for this is that it then allows for certain frequencies to "break out" of this broadband behaviour if the user so wishes.

In a nutshell it is easy to use like a broadband limiter but with the flexibility of a multiband limiter if you should need to tweak.


Vojtech, please please would it be possible to type in a value of gain reduction on the meters in MDynamics?
For example I might say I want exactly 4db of gain reduction. I can set the attack ratio etc. But when I click and drag on the gain reduction (or type in a value) it automatically lowers the threshold to the exact level to achieve the specified amount of gain reduction. This , if possible would solve the above problem of having 16 limiters all behave like 1 broadband limiter.
We could build in MXXX using just one multiparameter to control all the limiters gain reduction values. But we could then still have control of the individual bands to create the "priority" feature and we could also create a multiparameter of banks to flip through presets of auto release charecters.

[MeldaProduction]

Sorry but that's a total nonsense. First of all, you cannot say "I want this much gain reduction", that doesn't make sense at all. The gain reduction is a product, not a desire. And you cannot know how much gain reduction there will be if you don't know the complete material. That's the point of limiters... Just imagine you plugin in +20dBFS stuff and want 4dB gain reduction, obviously you'll get into a huge trouble.

And second - if you have several bands and apply the same amount of gain reduction to them, then you essentially converted it to the broadband limiter and the whole purpose of having multiple bands is lost! Sure we can write a limiter, that will measure the strongest band in the sidechain (that's what the "Use maximum frequency" switch in MSpectralDynamics does), but that's pretty useless. It won't defeat the distortion, it won't get you higher loudness, nothing... it's pretty much pointless imho.

[jmg8]

Ok firstly. What you say about the gain reduction thing I mentioned makes sense, thanks. Your use maximum frequency switch is right.
I also agree that the plugin in some aspects is a little pointless.
I think what the plugin has going for it though is that it is super easy to use (like a broadband limiter) and doesn't change the balance of your mix. Unless you feel that a certain area in the mix is being limited too much you can ask it to back off a little in that area.

I wouldn't like to comment if it has less distortion or not as in my original post I said that I only read the manual for it, because I was interested.

[Chandlerhimself]

I don't understand what this plugin does. Either people are confused about it or Waves is misleading people about what it does.

Anyway, if you want different attack and release thresholds for different frequency ranges you can use multiple instances of Mspectraldynamics. As I said above you can control the amount of compression for each frequency range using the threshold graphic control(I mistakenly said EQ earlier in this thread). Just have a number of MSpectral instances with different attacks and releases and then assign certain frequency ranges for each to compress.

On another note the idea of different tonal setting is interesting. I was thinking, if you ran white noise through and tape machine and then applied that curve to Mspectral would that give you a sounds close to tape(assuming you got the compression ratio correct). It would be an interesting experiment and might open up some new exciting uses for MSpectral.

[ZentralmassivSound]

I found this article which is pretty clear:

http://www.homestudiomastering.nl/en/bl ... -l3-series

[MeldaProduction]

I found this article which is pretty clear:

http://www.homestudiomastering.nl/en/bl ... -l3-series

Well, that looks like reciting manual (which is sadly what these reviews usually do ).

Anyway I may try the plugin when time allows and check it myself. To be perfectly honest, the field of limiters doesn't look very interesting to me... Unless you wants lots and lots of loudness, we have already covered it. And loudness war is hopefully ending so...

[jmg8]

With the 9.11 update all of the features in L316 are now possible in MSpectralDynamics.

If you click the "use maximum frequency" It will apply the same amount of reduction to all frequencies (like in L316)

You can then override this behaviour with the threshold (priority) and EQ (Gain) curves.
In L316 these 2 parameters are best used with the link feature, so any changes of threshold shape, copy to the EQ. As the EQ in MSpectralDynamics is already set to 0db. I find it better to use the snap feature to set it to -20db and then set the output gain to +20db, this gives more room to change the EQ shape.

Then there is now the custom shape for attack and release. L316 only uses frequency dependant auto release. I guess attack is at 0ms as it is a limiter. If you set release to auto and then change the graph it should change the auto release speed relatively. I guess the ratio is set to infinity.

[vectorwarrior]

Yeah, I was messing around with this much of yesterday, I managed to get some pretty close interpretations with it. I'd even say I prefer spectral dynamics now as its so much more flexible.

[jmg8]

Yeah, its nothing short of amazing!

I'd say MSpectralDynamics is my favourite plugin of all time (not counting MXXX of course)

It is so flexible, can be used as an EQ, compressor, expander, (both upwards and downwards), limiter (both broadband and spectral), gate, de esser, exciter, de noiser.

[MeldaProduction]