KVR Audio

CMJ · Post by **CMJ** » Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:32 pm

Is the McDSP ML8000 an update of the ML4000? Should I just buy the ML8000?

pekbro · Post by **pekbro** » Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:49 pm

ML8000 is an upgrade and probably negates the ML4000 for the most part. That said, the ML4000 is handy when you just want the ML1 limiter and not all the dynamics processing. E.g. you want to use another dynamics processor or you want to be able to control the stages some way. You can of course, pick up the ML4000 when it's sufficiently cheap.

plexuss · Post by **plexuss** » Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:51 pm

CMJ wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:32 pm Is the McDSP ML8000 an update of the ML4000? Should I just buy the ML8000?

Hello and welcome. No, they are very different:

ML8000: 8 band limiter, each band is a separate brick-wall limiter which is then output to a final stereo limiter

ML4000: 4 band dynamics processor, each band has each of a gate, expander, compressor and the same as ML8000 is output to a final limiter

I think the final limiter is the same or similar for each. But the mult-band implementation is completely different. In my use, the ML4000 is better as a track processor and ML8000 is a good buss or master limiter. The ML4000 has more colouration in general. I choose the 8k when I need, well, brick-wall limiting within bands. I use the 4k when I want to do multi-band dynamics processing and use the final limiter to control the over-all output level.

pekbro · Post by **pekbro** » Fri Oct 15, 2021 12:13 am

I still think it "is" an upgrade in a series, you can tell by the number. I have both as well, though I don't
really use either as a track limiter.

*Of course, I don't really use individual tracks either at this point, using pretty much all HW.

plexuss · Post by **plexuss** » Fri Oct 15, 2021 2:06 am

pekbro wrote: ↑Fri Oct 15, 2021 12:13 am I still think it "is" an upgrade in a series, you can tell by the number. I have both as well, though I don't
really use either as a track limiter.
*Of course, I don't really use individual tracks either at this point, using pretty much all HW.

The numbers represent the number of bands: 4 and 8. 4 of dynamics, 8 of brick-wall limters.

CMJ · Post by **CMJ** » Fri Oct 15, 2021 2:42 am

Thank you all!

plexuss · Post by **plexuss** » Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:29 pm

McDSP just put up this video of vocal processing with the ML4000:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azf9_RAZhas

Here are a couple that were already there for the ML8000. One is more track oriented, the other more buss oriented:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQUsyTo0cj0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeZPVGJT7lM

escalona · Post by **escalona** » Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:14 am

Both are amazingly useful to me. I honestly rarely go with the ML8000. Barely ever do I need that kind of precision, but I have it and keep it, nonetheless. And like all Mcdsp plugins, they run with magic (they don't even touch the CPU). I really enjoy using Colin's plugins, all of them. And I don't have any issues with iLok. Some do though.

McDSP ML4000 vs ML8000