Waves L1 limiter distorts the sound?

[sir-haver]

Hey guys,

I'm trying to use the Waves L1 limiter, I'm new to using limiters so I went through the manual, but I don't understand the behavior of this one. The more I lower the threshold the more I see gain reduction in the meter on the right (which makes sense), but the more I do it, the sound becomes louder and also instantly distorted. The sound sounds fine and not distorted only as long as there is no gain reduction.

Shouldn't lowering the threshold make the signal more quiet and dynamically balanced?

I'm using it on a single channel, last in chain if it matters, and with Ableton Live's stock limiter it works fine.

Thanks so much in advance

[trusampler]

It's about getting a cleaner sound in, how hot is the source?

Try lowering the source down by at least 3db to start with / depending on the mixdown, I personally never push out a mix before mastering at 0 db, I leave that up to Mastering/ limiting.. I personally would try to lower the source by 6 db, but that's my own taste. Point is, don't have the source too hot,before limiter..

[imrae]

L1, like many other limiters, has a fixed threshold and the "threshold" control actually increases gain. This can be compensated by reducing the output gain.

Like you, I find this workflow a bit of a nuisance. But Waves have provided a way to control the input and output gain together by clicking and dragging the "link" (arrows) button between the two sliders. This is effectively the same as changing the threshold without altering the gain.

As for distortion: limiters do distort the sound. So do compressors. They try to sound clean, but it is a difficult task for more than a few dB of gain reduction.

[sir-haver]

It's about getting a cleaner sound in, how hot is the source?

Try lowering the source down by at least 3db to start with / depending on the mixdown, I personally never push out a mix before mastering at 0 db, I leave that up to Mastering/ limiting.. I personally would try to lower the source by 6 db, but that's my own taste. Point is, don't have the source too hot,before limiter..

Hey thanks for your answer I tried as you suggested, lowered the source down by 6db+ and it's still the same (of course I have to lower the threshold more to get the same outcome).

With the stock limiter it behaves normally so I guess it's something about the L1? I could just use another limiter but I wanted to explore this one and I can't get it to work properly

Thanks again in advance!

[sir-haver]

L1, like many other limiters, has a fixed threshold and the "threshold" control actually increases gain. This can be compensated by reducing the output gain.

Like you, I find this workflow a bit of a nuisance. But Waves have provided a way to control the input and output gain together by clicking and dragging the "link" (arrows) button between the two sliders. This is effectively the same as changing the threshold without altering the gain.

As for distortion: limiters do distort the sound. So do compressors. They try to sound clean, but it is a difficult task for more than a few dB of gain reduction.

Thank you very much you're right I did manage to get a better result by Linking the threshold to to the output!
I did try it before but it seems that you need to pay close attention for it not to produce audible distortion, and I wasn't used to it as in other limiters the distortion is much less pronounced.

Thanks guys

[Gruh]

All of Waves' L series limiters use that basic control scheme whereby makeup gain is bootstrapped to the threshold and you have separate (or linked) control over the output level.

The L1 is very old and flagrantly not-transparent, and you really can't push it past 2, maybe 3dB of gain reduction before distortion becomes unacceptably audible audible for most musical applications (it's not even a pleasant sounding distortion); however it doesn't "pump" at all in that sickly way that most limiters do when they're pushed too far. I look at is as somewhere between a limiter and a clipper--gentler than the latter but dirtier than the former. I like it for that reason, and it's terrific for SFX design (especially stuff like gunshots) and limiting certain musical elements with very loud, high frequency transients (e.g., slap bass, castanets, etc...) as it clamps down on the peaks whilst maintaining their "bite"; but keep it the hell away from your busses or master, nothing'll spoil them quicker. It's well worth having for its own peculiar behavior, but very much a 'know your tools' proposition.