Limiter Shootout

[bmanic]

Looks like the poll is still going.. oh well, as long as not mammath or torben edits their posts we'll have a reference.

Cheers!
bManic

[Dandruff]

Both Aleksey and Torben seem to have found their own limiters among the bunch and they obviously liked their own the most.

and you should know why:

Nope, I didn't cut them but FL Studio (where this was rendered) doesn't have automatic PDC. That's probably the reason. Sorry about that.. I could have manually of course aligned them but as they are generally in the same part of the clip it should be enough to evaluate the differences.

Cheers!
bManic

no wonder, why torben and aleksey recognized their own limiters and found them to be the "best" ...

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Dandruff, I was choosing between B and C originally. I disliked A immediately. D also sounded a bit not in my taste (aggressive as I've posted earlier). I had a clue that C was Elephant (because bmanic seemingly used its oversampling mode) - but I was not completely sure. Anyway, I still heard that B compresses transients and then relaxes quickly - I disliked such behavior. And I also liked rounder sound which C resembles (and that's close to the original clip in my opinion). Of course, I mainly did comparison with the original clip - not comparing A, B, C, D to each other and deciding 'what sounds best to me'.

[Torben]

Both Aleksey and Torben seem to have found their own limiters among the bunch and they obviously liked their own the most.

and you should know why:

Nope, I didn't cut them but FL Studio (where this was rendered) doesn't have automatic PDC. That's probably the reason. Sorry about that.. I could have manually of course aligned them but as they are generally in the same part of the clip it should be enough to evaluate the differences.

Cheers!
bManic

no wonder, why torben and aleksey recognized their own limiters and found them to be the "best" ...

I did not need to do any analyzes in order to spot the MPL-1; actually I was the first to vote and I did not know about the above as I was playing them in realplayer. Listen to A and B and you will hear they both got more of the original "body" in the kick drum compared to C and D. The hardest choice for me was between A and B.

I think this test shows a clear winner in MPL-1. It is funny to see how bmanic and a couple of others suddenly are trying to explain the non-importance of this test, though I probably would have done the same if I lost. It is a little like politicians; no matter if they win or loose they will always tell you they had a victory.

Torben

[defjamm]

^^how old are you?

[Kingston]

I think this test shows a clear winner in MPL-1.

You're forgetting two things already basking in the glory, although bmanic has been trying to point it out in almost every post of his already.

1. It's bmanics limiting settings - his preferences.
2. The choice of those parameters would be different on any other music.


One can easily demonstrate why this test would have completely different results if someone else had chosen the parameters on a different style of music/mix.

[Dandruff]

Dandruff, I was choosing between B and C originally. I disliked A immediately. D also sounded a bit not in my taste (aggressive as I've posted earlier). I had a clue that C was Elephant (because bmanic seemingly used its oversampling mode) - but I was not completely sure. Anyway, I still heard that B compresses transients and then relaxes quickly - I disliked such behavior. And I also liked rounder sound which C resembles (and that's close to the original clip in my opinion). Of course, I mainly did comparison with the original clip - not comparing A, B, C, D to each other and deciding 'what sounds best to me'.

yeah, there's a hidden in my previous post

[starla*]

of course there's no clear winner. i liked the elephant best so i guess thats the winner for me. you cant compete in music, its something personal.

[Boulotaur2024]

I'm going to be shot for such a noobish question, but... as I hardly heard any differences between the differents soundclips -then again I neither have the right equipment (crappy headphones here) nor the ears, probably- and as I overall prefered the original, I'm really wondering what a limiter is supposed -as an effect- to add to the original sound ?

I thought it was a device that prevented, limited clipping, I thought it was a sort of 'inverted compressor'.

I'm kinda confused now

[bullshark]

Thank you bmanic for making this test.

Firstly, I am totally amazed that 2 dev were able to pick their own in such a blind test. Goes to show they code their plugs according to their own preference, not a bad thing at all.

This was helpfull to me in many ways. First the difference between even the ones called Heavy were subtle, it takes concentration and a good monitoring environment to spot them. So it's highly improbable that average Joe listening on a typical home Hi-Fi would notice if I used this or that limiter. So I'm gonna stop agonizing over which limiter to buy and use and just use the ones I have and always used (Sony's Wavehammer and dBx); I'm just gonna take time to learn them better. Just saved some money here.

Then, I realized how destructive using limiters can be, even good quality ones, when pushed even mildly hard, so I will, from now on, ease up on the "gain" button.

Then, it illustrate very well how subjective taste in sound can be, so I will stop agonizing about what will other think of the sound, and just do what sounds good to me. If nobody else but me likes it, that's fine too.

Thanks again.

[4damind]

Torben, whatever... your limiter is very, very good there is nothing to say against. I've tested this some days ago with Elephant (which I own) and your MPL-Demo. I found MPL a little bit more transparent but it needs more tweaking to become the loudness-level I prefer. Elephant listens something "rounder" and I found it easier to setup.

In this test I voted for MPL and with my private tests I was not sure... But I love Elephant

At all we can say: Voxengo and Kjaerhus playing at a high level where the differences are small. If Alexsey means "there is a place for enhancement in Elephant's design" then I know that there comes shortly a new Beta

[bmanic]

I think this test shows a clear winner in MPL-1. It is funny to see how bmanic and a couple of others suddenly are trying to explain the non-importance of this test, though I probably would have done the same if I lost. It is a little like politicians; no matter if they win or loose they will always tell you they had a victory.
Torben

Where have I suddenly tried to explain the non-importance of this test? I clearly laid out my feelings of the test in the first post .


Torben, are you having your periods or something? Frankly, I'm quite suprised by your words. Your loss. You constantly judge other people, you jump to conclusions, you refuse to read what they really write (that is LITERALLY).

This has never been a competition. Why are you so damned defensive all the time? You still seem to think that I have some negative bias towards MPL-1 even though I've never, ever, even from the start has had any. You keep confusing my critique over your "test" to being bias against the MPL-1 itself.

My advice to you, learn to read, then contemplate what was said, then read again, relax, go take a coffee, then try to read one last time objectively without distorting the text with your emotions.


It's sad to see you like this.. sad indeed.

- bManic

[Len]

I think this test shows a clear winner in MPL-1.

You're forgetting two things already basking in the glory, although bmanic has been trying to point it out in almost every post of his already.

1. It's bmanics limiting settings - his preferences.
2. The choice of those parameters would be different on any other music.


One can easily demonstrate why this test would have completely different results if someone else had chosen the parameters on a different style of music/mix.

Indeed - perhaps we should try a limiter test by using some objective criteria like.... oh, I don't know..... sine waves/test signals?

[Torben]

^^how old are you?

39, and you?

I think this test shows a clear winner in MPL-1.

You're forgetting two things already basking in the glory, although bmanic has been trying to point it out in almost every post of his already.

1. It's bmanics limiting settings - his preferences.
2. The choice of those parameters would be different on any other music.

One can easily demonstrate why this test would have completely different results if someone else had chosen the parameters on a different style of music/mix.

Let me start by quoting bmanic after he ended this test:

"I want to emphasize once more that this test is in now way proofing anything else than that everybody has f**ked up taste and that I can't set a limiter properly! "

I just wonder if he said the same if the test turned out as he expected. But lets just stop this here; I can sense that the hooligans are on the street trying to start a fight and I see no reason to that.

Torben

[Patrik.L]

Torben, are you having your periods or something?

Maybe we need a PMS output meter on the MPL-1 instead...

Patrik