Brickwall limiter with sidechain?

[kod]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for a brickwall limiter with the option of sidechaining for stem master. I've looked everywhere, but the only one that seems to have this feature is Fabfilter Pro-L2, which sounds awesome but it's a bit of an overkill for my needs (stop rogue peaks on drum bus). I've tested ReaComp with an inf:1 ratio, but couldn't get it to sound very transparent.

Some of you will probably suggest that any compressor with sidechain would do the job, but I'm specifically looking for a quick-to-set brickwall limiter.

Any leads?

[Tricky-Loops]

https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_Protector

[kod]

https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_Protector

Thanks! That looks cool. I downloaded the demo but there's no side-chain option there. Do you know if it's a demo limitation?

Edit: I followed the instruction and MAN is that complicated to do sidechain with MIDI (!!). After 30mins of trying, I couldn't manage. Too bad, because the sound is right.

Guess I'll save money until I can afford PRO-L 2 then...

[kod]

For future reference, I found that Voxengo Elephant and eBusLim both have this feature. It's weird because it is not advertised as a sidechain limiter, but it works if you route the copy of your bus into the input 3 and 4 of the plugin.

[imrae]

I don't understand what this would be.

Brickwall limiters are designed to prevent the output signal from ever exceeding 0 dbFS (or some other threshold).

This is not guaranteed if you are looking at an independent sidechain.

What is the benefit of this being "brickwall" rather than just a compressor with high ratio?

[kod]

I don't understand what this would be.

Brickwall limiters are designed to prevent the output signal from ever exceeding 0 dbFS (or some other threshold).

This is not guaranteed if you are looking at an independent sidechain.

What is the benefit of this being "brickwall" rather than just a compressor with high ratio?

I needed something to put on the drum bus as the last effect, so it wouldn't exceed 0.1 or whatever I set.

I then have to bounce the single tracks of the drums separately. If the limiter has no sidechain (hence it reacts to the single tracks one by one) the sum of the stems will very well exceed the limit set by the limiter.

If you sidechain the sum to the limiter, it reacts consistently to the single tracks, as if it was reacting to the sum at all times. The sum of the stems does not then exceed the limit.

[mystran]

I then have to bounce the single tracks of the drums separately. If the limiter has no sidechain (hence it reacts to the single tracks one by one) the sum of the stems will very well exceed the limit set by the limiter.

The first thing to keep in mind is that unless you also limit the individual tracks individually, then it is possible that they will exceed the threshold even when their combined sum doesn't. This also applies to any sum of any subset of the tracks.

The second thing to keep in mind is that after limiting the sum using such a side-chain, you can't really touch the individual tracks in any way (except lower the gain of all of them by the same amount) without potentially increasing the combined peak amplitude.

I would imagine these are the main two reasons why imrae above was questioning the usefulness of the idea.

[imrae]

Well, now that I have the full context I'm wondering why they wouldn't just turn everything down a bit.

[kod]

I then have to bounce the single tracks of the drums separately. If the limiter has no sidechain (hence it reacts to the single tracks one by one) the sum of the stems will very well exceed the limit set by the limiter.

The first thing to keep in mind is that unless you also limit the individual tracks individually, then it is possible that they will exceed the threshold even when their combined sum doesn't. This also applies to any sum of any subset of the tracks.

The second thing to keep in mind is that after limiting the sum using such a side-chain, you can't really touch the individual tracks in any way (except lower the gain of all of them by the same amount) without potentially increasing the combined peak amplitude.

I would imagine these are the main two reasons why imrae above was questioning the usefulness of the idea.

All very valid points. Thanks for sharing them!

[Tj Shredder]

I also don‘t get why you want stems if you don‘t want to remix them! If you remix them they can hit the ceiling for other reasons. Whoever remixes the stems need to set her own limiter anyway. Limiting two times doesn‘t make it sound better...

[Ray12]

For future reference, I found that Voxengo Elephant and eBusLim both have this feature. It's weird because it is not advertised as a sidechain limiter, but it works if you route the copy of your bus into the input 3 and 4 of the plugin.

Hey kod,

I know this is an old thread...but I hope that you are still around. I had a look at Elephant 5.4 but can't figure out how to route everythin (in Logic X, in case that matters) to use Elephant as a sidechain limiter. Could maybe explain a bit more in detail how to do this?

Best,
Ray

[Ploki]

For future reference, I found that Voxengo Elephant and eBusLim both have this feature. It's weird because it is not advertised as a sidechain limiter, but it works if you route the copy of your bus into the input 3 and 4 of the plugin.

Hey kod,

I know this is an old thread...but I hope that you are still around. I had a look at Elephant 5.4 but can't figure out how to route everythin (in Logic X, in case that matters) to use Elephant as a sidechain limiter. Could maybe explain a bit more in detail how to do this?

Best,
Ray

you can't in logic because there's no sidechain input.
i'm also not sure where are the 3-4 inputs because i tried in reaper and it only shows two inputs.
the manual also states that it doesn't do side-chain (or m/s)