RMS Limiter/Compressor - does that even exist?
- KVRian
- 1283 posts since 10 Oct, 2002 from Barcelona
Update.
Going offtopic. Thanks.Vortifex wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2022 5:10 pmI am also hearing reports that Catherine Howard, wife of the king, has been executed for adultery.wikter wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 12:51 amGVST moved...sboullion wrote: Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:21 pm GVst compressors are rms/peak compressors.
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://homepages.tesco.net/~graham.yeadon/gvst</span>/
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">https://www.gvst.co.uk/gcomp.htm?pagevi ... ctos</span>
Another great ear protection tool for developers testing plugins: RMS Limiter.
That avoids clippings that occur in alpha/beta to harm your audition.
Think about it while testing plug-ins. it just an RMS limiter away to avoid breaking things.
So? Which news?
For testing purposes & ear care, limiting RMS per plug-in is safer than peak limiting. Enough to justify an update on an old thread.kingozrecords wrote: Sat Feb 05, 2022 2:28 pmI learned how to make one two days ago. Albeit it rms limits and dbfs peak limits. I made it though so that you can set the dbfs limit to +6 for the limiter to prevent it ruining your peaks and dynamic. The dBFS limiter interestingly also uses rms to ensure that the ceiling has a natural decay and the keepalive is sustained when using aggressively. I made it from scratch. The limiter used for the RMS is an old code example made by Bootsy.
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">https: ... lug</span>
Old post, relevant question.
Too many vultures around here looking for corpses contributing zero.
With heavily distorted/clipped signals, the difference between Peak & RMS signals is essential, to the point of blowing speakers or headphones.
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- KVRAF
- 4720 posts since 26 Nov, 2015 from Way Downunder
To protect speakers from spikes, you will want to peak limit.wikter wrote: Mon Feb 14, 2022 4:41 pm For testing purposes & ear care, limiting RMS per plug-in is safer than peak limiting. Enough to justify an update on an old thread.
Too many vultures around here looking for corpses contributing zero.
With heavily distorted/clipped signals, the difference between Peak & RMS signals is essential, to the point of blowing speakers or headphones.
"RMS Limiting" is maybe only good for "worst case scenario" plugin testing. To get down to the RMS average, you need to get the threshold well below the peaks, which means it is heavy limiting all the time, well beyond the optimal range.
But it is kind of cool as a lofi crush distortion effect as it creates "drop-outs" and other artifacts.
I'll swing back to my original response which is that most/all limiters can be RMS Limiters if you set the threshold deep.
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- KVRAF
- 4720 posts since 26 Nov, 2015 from Way Downunder
Pro-L 2 RMS limiting


- KVRian
- 1283 posts since 10 Oct, 2002 from Barcelona
Root Mean Square is not Max.
GLimit is free, and for testing purposes, more than enough.
The idea was to find something to put after Shortcircuit XT while it's being developed from a early alpha stage. But anyway, any plugin being tested, specially samplers, generates a burst every now & then.
GLimit is free, and for testing purposes, more than enough.
The idea was to find something to put after Shortcircuit XT while it's being developed from a early alpha stage. But anyway, any plugin being tested, specially samplers, generates a burst every now & then.
- KVRian
- 1314 posts since 7 Apr, 2019 from Canada
RMS is an interesting method, it sounds nice. But development wise, what I had to do to ensure that it is not hyperactive, is I set it to affect any volume levels above that same level in dbfs, which is a safe bet; because the resulting true peak rms will always be higher.
I think tbh, this is why most products employing this idea seem to be so destructive. By allowing it to set the floor and ceiling it's attack and release are just too irregular and would ruin a master or a reference. If however, you set a threshold of what it can impact, suddenly it is very viable.
Most times dsp dev and post processing go hand in hand, so I mention this as brain food.
I think tbh, this is why most products employing this idea seem to be so destructive. By allowing it to set the floor and ceiling it's attack and release are just too irregular and would ruin a master or a reference. If however, you set a threshold of what it can impact, suddenly it is very viable.
Most times dsp dev and post processing go hand in hand, so I mention this as brain food.
I don't make audio products anymore. I sell furniture & smart products.
- KVRian
- 1283 posts since 10 Oct, 2002 from Barcelona
RMS detection for peak limiting is an error. As it allows for values to exceed the limit threshold when the average values are low enough.
Maybe compression has a reason to use rms when there's a need to tame a signal, but it's very important to allow adjusting the detection buffer size to stick the process to the incoming signal.
Maybe compression has a reason to use rms when there's a need to tame a signal, but it's very important to allow adjusting the detection buffer size to stick the process to the incoming signal.
