Limiter withe MLoudnessAnalyzer in Batch Mode

[mibby]

Is there a way to use a limiter with MLoudnessAnalyzer so if I render a file to say, the "Music recommended" preset of -16 lufs it won't have a chance of clipping? I may not understand the plugin well enough, but it doesn't seem to have a built-in limiter. (?) Thanks!

[DarkStar]

Hello mibby and welcome to the KvR forums.

No need for a built-in Limiter: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 8&t=472249

[mibby]

Hi and thank you for the reply. I have actually been doing just that - thanks to your thread. The problem is, I have been trying to "normalize" my audio files to -16 lufs, and it was pointed out that there were a couple of spots where this particular file clipped on a couple of snare hits. I had assumed MLoudnessAnalyzer would limit while it was increasing the volume. Again, I'm sure it is most likely that I am not using it correctly.

[MeldaProduction]

That's sort of the "problem" with all these loudness standards - you cannot limit it before nor after, because limiting may change the loudness . But -16 LUFS is a really good value, because it should almost never peak. Did you check yourself that the output was actually clipping?

[mibby]

Now that you say it, it makes perfect sense. Here is the image that was sent to me. Hopefully, you can see if well enough - the Peak and True Peak are just over. I guess my mix needs MORE headroom then?

[pumafred]

Maybe you could check which sources are causing those few peaks, and control THEM rather than the whole mix?

[mibby]

It was a couple of snare hits. I put a limiter on the snare channel to catch those peaks which has "fixed" it. But now I'm kind of wondering what the "best practice" is? Do you limit your drum tracks to a certain "acceptable" peak level or dynamic range. Should I always have a limiter on my drums?

[MeldaProduction]

It's hard to manage the integrated loudness from your screenshot as you don't have any target set, but I suppose the solution would be to measure the integrated loudness before. The idea is that if the target level is low enough, you should rarely need a limiting, so it won't really matter what kind of limiter you put in, since it wouldn't do much anyway. So:
1) Measure the entire song by reseting the MLoudnessAnalyzer (panic button "!" in the title or just click any of the units) and playing the whole song.
2) Set the target level and click "Auto-gain", so it will set the gain to get you the LU you need.
3) Put a limiter after it, just in case, it should rarely work with -16LUFS target.

There's certainly a possibility that the limiter will lower the overall loudness so that it would be needed to increase it afterwards, but that's like a neverending cycle . If the limiter would be working too much, then your song is probably still too dynamic. I very doubt that this will happen these days .

[mibby]

I was really just being lazy and using the Batch feature to "standardize" the loudness of my files. I guess laziness will catch up to you sooner or later.

Thanks for the replies and the instructions! So much to learn about these great plugins.

[MeldaProduction]

Well, you can certainly export everything in 32-bit wavs, match process it and check if there are overs and if so, then batch process it using a limiter

[mibby]

Well, you can certainly export everything in 32-bit wavs, match process it and check if there are overs and if so, then batch process it using a limiter

1. Export .WAV file. Got it.
2. match process (??) I'm not sure how I do this or what you mean. Match the .WAV to what?
3. Batch process using a limiter? Does MLimiter have batch processing?

I'm terribly sorry, but I'm confused. And just when I thought I was getting a handle on this topic...

[MeldaProduction]

Damn me , match = batch , Batch process button.

[mibby]

Ha! OK now THAT makes sense. ...and TOTALLY defeats my "fast-and-lazy-level-matching-batch-mode" approach. But, now this all makes sense. Thank you for the clarification.