Leveling Tool

Perhaps I don't have the "right" to review studio gear, since I can't pursue it on a FT basis; home recording is relegated to being a hobby for me. Although I have been multitracking off and on beginning with cassette 4-tracks in 1981, then on to an ADAT/mixer/compressor rig for a time, and then some Boss BR stuff.

I only got into DAWs and VSTs 2 years ago, just to make my friends STFU. I was aghast at the notion of trusting a computer with my tracks. But I tried free Mixpad, and then I got Reaper and Mixcraft 8. My fears have actually been semi-realized at times; never once do I remember any other recording rig apart from a DAW not being able to keep tracks in time with each other, not even once do I recall my ADAT crashing, and then when I bring it up again, only the MIDI tracks are left; the audio tracks have vanished. Never had to go find some 11-year-old whose thinking is convoluted sufficiently to be able to understand the complexities (read "stupidities") of the cyber realm to come and fix one of the myriad ludicrous problems which are retarded...I mean, unique, to DAWs.

Anyway, this tool is MAGIC. I put it at the end of my master track, and my sucky, pathetic music has undergone one of those chrysanthemums where a worm turns into a butterfly, or something like that. Very "tubey". Actually gets me close to the armhair-standing type of 4-dimensional yet lo-fi sound of ... The Doors' 1st album and "Fresh Cream" come to mind. I love the sound of those and certain other 60s albums. You can feel the tubes glowing as you listen. Even the urinals in whatever studios those were done in must have been all-tube, I mean...

So yeah, this ADHD tube limiter is 100% recommended from here. I crank the "drive" to high; often to 100%. And I crank the gain as high as it's practical to do before I must apply too much reduction and the sound gets too flattened. I just adjust with respect to any compressor VSTs I have applied to audio tracks, so they work together and don't clash. I can't believe it's free. Many thanks to this ADHD lot. They're geniuses, and they're generous. Well done.