Best limiter?

[The Chase]

I can't get enough of Barricade Pro. It was one of Joroen Breebart's very good commercial plugs that he later released for free. I consider it the best comprehensive limiter by quite a margin.



http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?pl ... ro&id=2061

For a more straight forward limiter, Yohng's W1 is also very good. Betabugs made a better skin for it but I can't seem to find a download link.

http://www.yohng.com/software/w1limit.html

[Harry_HH]

I´m happy with my present mastering limiter, Pro-L2, Ozone 8 adv. maximizer, IKM Stealth and KClip2 Pro.

But what I´m looking for, is a handy mixing limiter, for protecting my ears and speakers for the high peaks.

The trouble with the light limiters is, that they don´t work well in the master bus: e.g. if you are mixing a heavy drum track and and piano track, the drum takes over the limiter, and affects to the piano sound, typically adding a pumping sound.

E.g. Joey Sturgis Tones Finality Lite or Live 9 factory Limiter are such a light CPU limiter I have tried for this purpose.

The point here is, I don´t want to put a limiter to each mixing track, but to the master bus.
I will have one limiter, which does the job during the whole mixing process.

I know, that the solution is either a good multiband limiter, where you can set separately the treshold, attack etc. to each frequency, in the way that a loud instruments such as drums with a heavy bass, does not affect to the whole mix.

But I haven´t found a very good, one, transparent, and which you don´t have to tweak all the time, with a low CPU.

I have tried a limiter, where you can high pass some part or the signal. But this is not a solution, because I will protect the mix over the full spectrum.

Any recommendations for a protection limiter, for mixing, master bus.

[Apratim]

I´m happy with my present mastering limiter, Pro-L2, Ozone 8 adv. maximizer, IKM Stealth and KClip2 Pro.

But what I´m looking for, is a handy mixing limiter, for protecting my ears and speakers for the high peaks.

The trouble with the light limiters is, that they don´t work well in the master bus: e.g. if you are mixing a heavy drum track and and piano track, the drum takes over the limiter, and affects to the piano sound, typically adding a pumping sound.

E.g. Joey Sturgis Tones Finality Lite or Live 9 factory Limiter are such a light CPU limiter I have tried for this purpose.

The point here is, I don´t want to put a limiter to each mixing track, but to the master bus.
I will have one limiter, which does the job during the whole mixing process.

I know, that the solution is either a good multiband limiter, where you can set separately the treshold, attack etc. to each frequency, in the way that a loud instruments such as drums with a heavy bass, does not affect to the whole mix.

But I haven´t found a very good, one, transparent, and which you don´t have to tweak all the time, with a low CPU.

I have tried a limiter, where you can high pass some part or the signal. But this is not a solution, because I will protect the mix over the full spectrum.

Any recommendations for a protection limiter, for mixing, master bus.

Mlimiterx from melda
Is what comes to my mind

Look ahead
Transparent (could add character if you want)
Oversampling up to 16x
Good metering
Can be Resize
Light on cpu

[Harry_HH]

I´m happy with my present mastering limiter, Pro-L2, Ozone 8 adv. maximizer, IKM Stealth and KClip2 Pro.

But what I´m looking for, is a handy mixing limiter, for protecting my ears and speakers for the high peaks.

The trouble with the light limiters is, that they don´t work well in the master bus: e.g. if you are mixing a heavy drum track and and piano track, the drum takes over the limiter, and affects to the piano sound, typically adding a pumping sound.

E.g. Joey Sturgis Tones Finality Lite or Live 9 factory Limiter are such a light CPU limiter I have tried for this purpose.

The point here is, I don´t want to put a limiter to each mixing track, but to the master bus.
I will have one limiter, which does the job during the whole mixing process.

I have to demo this. How does this differ from other non-multiband limiters, for the purpose I´m looking for (see above)?

I know, that the solution is either a good multiband limiter, where you can set separately the treshold, attack etc. to each frequency, in the way that a loud instruments such as drums with a heavy bass, does not affect to the whole mix.

But I haven´t found a very good, one, transparent, and which you don´t have to tweak all the time, with a low CPU.

I have tried a limiter, where you can high pass some part or the signal. But this is not a solution, because I will protect the mix over the full spectrum.

Any recommendations for a protection limiter, for mixing, master bus.

Mlimiterx from melda
Is what comes to my mind

Look ahead
Transparent (could add character if you want)
Oversampling up to 16x
Good metering
Can be Resize
Light on cpu

[EnGee]

Any recommendations for a protection limiter, for mixing, master bus.

For ears/speakers protection, there is a free plugin:
https://pluginboutique.com/product/3-St ... /2759-Ice9

(I wrote the above link because the KVR link doesn't work anymore)

[Harry_HH]

Any recommendations for a protection limiter, for mixing, master bus.

For ears/speakers protection, there is a free plugin:
https://pluginboutique.com/product/3-St ... /2759-Ice9

(I wrote the above link because the KVR link doesn't work anymore)

Thank you for the hint. I just installed and tested the Ice9.
Its OK as one-purpose plugin, the protection. The problem is, that in everyday life, you need for you mixing limiter more than just a ceiling. You need to increase some track elements temporarily, when you do the mix.

I took randomly 5 ready-made factory samples, and 4 of the 5 did not pass over the Ice9, althought that was set the lowest ceiling before zero (- 1 dB). It seems that samples are often recorded at -0,5 - -0,9 dB level. Ice9 has only valus below -1 dB (and the values over 0 db), for some reason no decimals under 0 dB level!!!.

I´m looking for a limiter, which includes compressor, where you can, not only protect and lower the highest peaks, but also increase the lovest signal, in this way you can hear at the mixing stage each track element.

[pekbro]

The McDSP ML4000 maybe.

https://mcdsp.com/plug-ins/ml4000/

[EnGee]

Any recommendations for a protection limiter, for mixing, master bus.

For ears/speakers protection, there is a free plugin:
https://pluginboutique.com/product/3-St ... /2759-Ice9

(I wrote the above link because the KVR link doesn't work anymore)

Thank you for the hint. I just installed and tested the Ice9.
Its OK as one-purpose plugin, the protection. The problem is, that in everyday life, you need for you mixing limiter more than just a ceiling. You need to increase some track elements temporarily, when you do the mix.

I took randomly 5 ready-made factory samples, and 4 of the 5 did not pass over the Ice9, althought that was set the lowest ceiling before zero (- 1 dB). It seems that samples are often recorded at -0,5 - -0,9 dB level. Ice9 has only valus below -1 dB (and the values over 0 db), for some reason no decimals under 0 dB level!!!.

I´m looking for a limiter, which includes compressor, where you can, not only protect and lower the highest peaks, but also increase the lovest signal, in this way you can hear at the mixing stage each track element.

I'm not an expert in compression or/and limiting, but what I use is mostly is Maximizer on every track I need to push the volume up (with limiting). I use the native maximizer in Cubase or Reason. I found them good. While I use a brick limiter on the master bus. It is just a quick and lazy way, but it works for me

[Harry_HH]

Any recommendations for a protection limiter, for mixing, master bus.

For ears/speakers protection, there is a free plugin:
https://pluginboutique.com/product/3-St ... /2759-Ice9

(I wrote the above link because the KVR link doesn't work anymore)

Thank you for the hint. I just installed and tested the Ice9.
Its OK as one-purpose plugin, the protection. The problem is, that in everyday life, you need for you mixing limiter more than just a ceiling. You need to increase some track elements temporarily, when you do the mix.

I took randomly 5 ready-made factory samples, and 4 of the 5 did not pass over the Ice9, althought that was set the lowest ceiling before zero (- 1 dB). It seems that samples are often recorded at -0,5 - -0,9 dB level. Ice9 has only valus below -1 dB (and the values over 0 db), for some reason no decimals under 0 dB level!!!.

I´m looking for a limiter, which includes compressor, where you can, not only protect and lower the highest peaks, but also increase the lovest signal, in this way you can hear at the mixing stage each track element.

I'm not an expert in compression or/and limiting, but what I use is mostly is Maximizer on every track I need to push the volume up (with limiting). I use the native maximizer in Cubase or Reason. I found them good. While I use a brick limiter on the master bus. It is just a quick and lazy way, but it works for me

Yes, have correct.
This is the traditional way. My ideal is, that I didn´t have to put limiter/compressor to every track when mixing, only to the master bus.

But maybe there aren´t such a limiter, which worked well in this set up.

Basicly it is all about GAIN STAGING. The more you work with audio, the more important the proper gain staging becomes, I think. For me this in not only the optimized levels for e.g.not to distord your audio, or optimized VU-levels for you vingtage-emulation plugins, but optimized level for your ears, for listening, when you are building a song, when you are mixing. The optimized listening level a the mixing stage may not be the same as optimized level in the final mix.

The first thing I do in every project, is to set a VU-meter (calibrated to -18 dB), peak-meter, RMS-meter (or LUFS) and (stereo) frequency spectrometer to the master bus.

Next thing to do, is set the correct volume levels to all the material you import/play in you tracks. Your track faders are NOT basicly for this purpose, you use the faders for some minor adjustments during the mix, but the basic level you have to do by different means.

Then you put compressor, limiter or whatever volume-controlling utility to each track.

Back to the master bus limiter: my idea was, to replace some gain staging tools in each track via a limiter in the master bus, which works as a high peak protector, as well.

But as said, maybe this is unrealistic, which means, back to the traditional gain staging

[Magnut]

FabFilter Pro-L2 & TB Barricade. Unbeaten imo.

[Max el Belga]

Considering price/quality, without any doubt : George Yohng's W1 Limiter !!!... .. .

[Silaris]

PSP Audioware's Xenon has been my go-to mastering limiter for a few years. Overall, it is extremely flexible and gets the job done. Please note that I have never jumped on the loudness wars bandwagon and unsure how well the said plugin limiter would perform under extreme conditions.

Several other limiters I use regularly include IK Multimedia Stealth Limiter, iZotope Ozone 7 Maximizer, iZotope Ozone 7 Vintage Limiter, McDSP ML8000 and Wave Arts FinalPlug 5.

[simon.a.billington]

PSP Audioware's Xenon has been my go-to mastering limiter for a few years. Overall, it is extremely flexible and gets the job done. Please note that I have never jumped on the loudness wars bandwagon and unsure how well the said plugin limiter would perform under extreme conditions.

Several other limiters I use regularly include IK Multimedia Stealth Limiter, iZotope Ozone 7 Maximizer, iZotope Ozone 7 Vintage Limiter, McDSP ML8000 and Wave Arts FinalPlug 5.

I try to avoid the whole loudness war too. I try to find that balance between being loud enough and decimating the the peaks.

Somewhere in the middle is where I typically aim.

[axb312]

I like TDR limiter no. 6 GE

[Mea Thrills]

DMG Limitless for the mixing, FF Pro- L for mastering purposes. Izotope Ozone Maximizer is also great for that last step.