Most transparent Maximizer / Limiter - freeware? POLL ADDED

[sinkmusic]

"shootout" was the keword... thanks !

[bduffy]

Bang bang!

[alphavoyager]

TLS maximizer is really, really transparent, but has trouble coping with lots of subs. It works well for rock and metal, but fails with bass heavy electronic music. It adds a distortion to 808 style kicks that sounds like if the kick was sent through a subtle very fast slapback delay. It happens even with only 1db of limiting. For electronica I use Pocket Limiter. A punchy little beast that colors the sound in a very pleasant way.

[MogwaiBoy]

Serious thread ressurection skills!

This is a good rundown:
http://www.producerspot.com/best-free-l ... au-plugins

In short: LoudMax and Limiter No6 at the top of the pile.

[shoma]

This is a good rundown too...for those who care about ISP detection

https://www.saintpid.se/en/isp-true-peak-limiters-test/

[do_androids_dream]

By far the best one out there - I'm not sure if it was around at the time of the poll. A.O.M Invisible free:

http://www.vstplanet.com/Effects/Dynamic8.htm

It's not far off the payware version. I have a feeling it uses a combination of soft clipping and limiting as all the other free limiters can't hold a candle to it.

[soulone82]

those who care about ISP detection

can use the free Bitter to test their plugins.

[Hermetech Mastering]

Digitalfishphones Endorphin (not listed), used it as my only limiter for a few years.

[do_androids_dream]

Also, it's worth noting that if it's transparency you want then a soft clipper or even hard clipper is a better choice than a limiter.

[Hermetech Mastering]

I dunno, clippers can be more transparent at low GR settings, but I find limiters much more transparent for heavy reduction (or a combo of the two).

[do_androids_dream]

I dunno, clippers can be more transparent at low GR settings, but I find limiters much more transparent for heavy reduction (or a combo of the two).

It depends on the material of course. In a way it's a subject area that's something of a paradox. In general all limiting/clipping aims to be transparent I guess - unless you're looking for a certain 'sound'. If I'm going for a super loud master I'll often use a soft clipper pushed to the max of where it can go without audible distortion - then do a further dB of gr with a limiter. There are some very transparent limiters - but they all falter before a soft clipper will. A.O.M Invisible is the only one (imo) that gets into the same ballpark - which is why I think there's some soft clipping going on in that algo.

[Hermetech Mastering]

Disagree, but as you say it's subjective and every track is different. On a lot of the electronic music I'm working on, (trap, edm, industrial etc.) where it needs to be super loud, I'll do 1 to 1.5dB of clipping with StandardCLIP at 128 or 256 OS, which is completely transparent to me (I can start to hear it after about 1.5dB, always hard clipping as it's way more transparent than soft clipping, I really don't want my clipping to have a "sound"), then the heavy limiting is done with DMG Limitless, tweaked for the track. I'll sometimes do more than 6dB GR with Limitless (plus the clipping!) I can't ever imagine a scenario where I'd want to do 6dB of clipping and only 1dB of Limiting, it would sound like arse. Of course I can hear the limiter working at this kind of GR, but it sounds far more transparent than that much clipping.