Limiting, - still quiet! - best limiters?

[JumpingJackFlash]

I've produced a track, paying especial attention to volume as I go. It's as loud as it can be in the first place without clipping, then I've put a limiter on it, set to high, but the track still sounds quiet compared with commercial tracks.

What can I do to make it sound louder?

Also, are there any really good freeware limiters that might help me? - What are the best?

[justified]

Check your tune with some spectrum analizer and compare to commercial releases in the same genre. Works for me.

[Rozzer]

Some multiband compression before your limiter will help.

Don't expect to get near the volume of some comercial CDs with a few plugins though. Those CDs have been run though some *very* expensive hardware.

[IIRs]

To be honest, most commersial tracks these days have been squashed far too much.

If your CD sounds good, but too quiet, the listener will turn it up.

If your CD is too compressed, it will just seem irritating, and the listener will turn it down. (or off.)

Which would you prefer?

Highly recommended reading!!

[Spe3D]

I don't know about best free limiters - but the one I found to be cheap and of high quality is this

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/589.html

Well worth saving up for.

Best regards,

Spe3d

:O)

[jdg]

loudnessrace . net is gone

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/spe ... endsP1.php

http://www.soundmirror.com/articles.html#current

http://www.geocities.com/mjareviews/rant7.html

[P.T.]

You might want to check to see if you can do some cutting of low frequencies. If you filter out everything below what you can actually hear you will free up some headroom and be able to go louder without overly squashing your sound.

Though I agree with the people who are saying that this loudness mania is simply idiotic and serves no purpose.

I wish everyone would stop it.

I can't even listen to the radio anymore because everything sounds so terrible.

[rpc9943]

i use tls_maximizer i like

Ronc

[LBN]

loudnessrace . net is gone

But its ghost lives on:

http://web.archive.org/web/200312190015 ... srace.net/

[citizenchunk]

level is not always equivalent to loudness. think about it.

== chunk

[dvdvelde]

If you have wavelab (or AAMS) , try out to read RMS loudness instead of levels. You can check a commercial track and your mix, and see the difference.
or check out my site!

[PeterL]

Still the best free Limiter without coloration:
http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-master-limiter.php
You should also try to cut the low frequencies under 30-40 Hz, which consumes a lot of unnecessary energy.
For commercial Limiter try Voxengo's Elephant.
Also a good one to try is PSP VintageWarmer.

[useruseruser]

I've produced a track, paying especial attention to volume as I go. It's as loud as it can be in the first place without clipping, then I've put a limiter on it, set to high, but the track still sounds quiet compared with commercial tracks.

What can I do to make it sound louder?

Also, are there any really good freeware limiters that might help me? - What are the best?

Limiter?
Don't you mismatch anything here?

What you need is an (additional) loudness maximizer (even also maybe a multiband compressor) to push your songs the required way.

ps: I am often somehow "confused" here inside the fora, because most ppl obviously don't really know something of the differences in dynamics modification and mastering tools (expanders, compressors, limiters, saturators and so on).

.

[herodotus]

On that note, try this

[justified]

Read this.