Forget TLs Maximizer or Kjarhus Classic Limiter ..

[Roman Empire]

In Stardust go to a clean preset (the default "pumping house" is not a good starting point). Then try changing Threshold and Ratio values of the Multiband Compressor. That won't make your mix louder, but can improve the spectral balance of the mix. After that, tweak Bass and Treble enhancers to taste. Finally, to make the mix loud, you can either use the Output Gain knob on the Multiband Compressor or use the Wideband Compressor.

All in all, I have rediscovered Stardust yesterday! It can really bring life and clarity to a mix - I can hardly imagine how I was doing without it before!

I don´t get it... if I change output gain, the level just goes beyond 0, and I need to turn it down on the faders.
I tried increasing output gain by 10 db, decreased the master volume on wavelab´s faders by the same amount so it would just go up to 0 db on the peakmeter, and afterwards normalized.
The song wasn´t louder at all afterwards - it was the same as before the changes.

[Paulie Phonick]

The Multiband compressor won't make your mix louder (most probably the contrary), just improve the spectral balance. If you want to make the mix louder, use the Wideband compressor afterwards. Set Ratio to limiter mode (max value) then increase Input Gain, leaving Output Gain at 0dB. You should not get any distortion then - if there is any, try setting the Attack value to minimum. Still, the Wideband compressor in Stardust is not a mastering limiter, so it might be a better idea to put for example TLs Maximizer after Stardust instead.

BTW, if you're after recreating the Energize effect, remember that it limits the signal on entry, applies stereo widening, then multiband compression, then limiting again for each of the bands and finally wideband limiting again (have a look at the signal path description in EnergizeII manual). If you want to get as loud (and ugly) as that, you'll probably have to apply much more than just Stardust and TLs Maximizer

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[Paulie Phonick]

Multiband compression is different. TLs Maximizer is not. What do you mean exactly?

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[Paulie Phonick]

Oh, you mean EnergizeII It does way more than just limiting the signal (have a look at it's signal path descriptionin the manual). I would certainly compare it to a limiter.

If louder is better for you then I guess Energize can do better than BuzMaxi3. But Energize certainly is not as transparent - expect it to really alter your mixes.

Grab it and try for yourself. In my opinion it might be good for what it's been created - unifying tracks for radio broadcasts, but certainly not for mastering.

[Roman Empire]

The Multiband compressor won't make your mix louder (most probably the contrary), just improve the spectral balance. If you want to make the mix louder, use the Wideband compressor afterwards. Set Ratio to limiter mode (max value) then increase Input Gain, leaving Output Gain at 0dB. You should not get any distortion then - if there is any, try setting the Attack value to minimum. Still, the Wideband compressor in Stardust is not a mastering limiter, so it might be a better idea to put for example TLs Maximizer after Stardust instead.

BTW, if you're after recreating the Energize effect, remember that it limits the signal on entry, applies stereo widening, then multiband compression, then limiting again for each of the bands and finally wideband limiting again (have a look at the signal path description in EnergizeII manual). If you want to get as loud (and ugly) as that, you'll probably have to apply much more than just Stardust and TLs Maximizer

Ok, I tried what you said, but still get it all +10 db if I adjust the input gain to that, so it must be a bug in how wavelab is handling this plug.
BUT, if I throw Buzzmaxi3 in the chain after it, it won´t behave this way, but keep itself below 0!
So I tried this, and could see how I can get near energize, but don´t really think it sounds better.. after alot of careful adjusting, I got a result that had the same loudness and not sounding as squashed as if I would just be using buzzmax3 to achieve this, but still more squashed and ugly than with energize.
The best result I got to so far was using stardust on decent settings and some bass boost, putting buzzmaxi after it, then saving the result.
Then making another wave of the same material, but with energize and buzzmaxi3 in the chain, and at the end mix the two waves together.
I wish there was plugin that´d allow me to do something like that, building a chain like that of effects, but maybe that´s what Energy XT is capable of?

Then I

[Roman Empire]

The Multiband compressor won't make your mix louder (most probably the contrary), just improve the spectral balance. If you want to make the mix louder, use the Wideband compressor afterwards. Set Ratio to limiter mode (max value) then increase Input Gain, leaving Output Gain at 0dB. You should not get any distortion then - if there is any, try setting the Attack value to minimum. Still, the Wideband compressor in Stardust is not a mastering limiter, so it might be a better idea to put for example TLs Maximizer after Stardust instead.

BTW, if you're after recreating the Energize effect, remember that it limits the signal on entry, applies stereo widening, then multiband compression, then limiting again for each of the bands and finally wideband limiting again (have a look at the signal path description in EnergizeII manual). If you want to get as loud (and ugly) as that, you'll probably have to apply much more than just Stardust and TLs Maximizer

Ok, I tried what you said, but still get it all +10 db if I adjust the input gain to that, so it must be a bug in how wavelab is handling this plug.
BUT, if I throw Buzzmaxi3 in the chain after it, it won´t behave this way, but keep itself below 0!
So I tried this, and could see how I can get near energize, but don´t really think it sounds better.. after alot of careful adjusting, I got a result that had the same loudness and not sounding as squashed as if I would just be using buzzmax3 to achieve this, but still more squashed and ugly than with energize.
The best result I got to so far was using stardust on decent settings and some bass boost, putting buzzmaxi after it, then saving the result.
Then making another wave of the same material, but with energize and buzzmaxi3 in the chain, and at the end mix the two waves together.
I wish there was plugin that´d allow me to do something like that, building a chain like that of effects, but maybe that´s what Energy XT is capable of?

Then I