Digital Limiters - recommendations?

[jonathansorensen]

Hi all,

I'm demoing the: Sonnox Limiter, the PSP Xenon and the Waves L3, Ultramaximizer.

It seems like only the Sonnox allows me to set the attack. They all have plenty of nice presets but .. .. .anybody have a "druther"?

Thanks all.

Jon

[mazz]

I use Digital Performer by Motu and so have access to their Masterworks Limiter. They also sell their mastering processors, of which this limiter is one, as a bundle outside of DP. Might be worth a look

http://www.motu.com/products/software/mwc/

I only use it to keep things from clipping above 0dbfs, I try not to touch the mix too much because I can hear it working.

The others you mention are highly regarded but I've not used them.

Hopefully others will chime in.

Good luck!

Mazz

[eeoo]

I use Waves L1 and the Massey limiter. I like them both but I'm so not a mastering guy...

eo

[mojobone]

Those are all good, and if you do this long enough, you might find uses for all of the above, and a few more. The Waves stuff is the most ubiquitous, at present, but Sonnox is a close second; any of the above can more than get most jobs done. If you need a more "pull-up" kind of limiter, check out Kjaerhus Classic. Personally, I'd prefer to never hear a limiter engage; they all have a sound, and in a perfect world, I wouldn't use 'em, but there are some classic, (and classy) sounds you won't get any other way.

[Len911]

Jon, I have the sonnox. I am not familiar with the others you have listed. I bought the "enhance" bundle first when there was a group buy and then the next year bought the "essential" bundle when they were on sale again. So that makes it the "elite" bundle I suppose. If you catch them on sale and bundled, you can save nearly half price, and they are definitely worth it.
I'd say they are mostly transparent, and difficult to distort anything, so the presets are really handy in making sure you don't "hot and pumping your classical orchestra". I generally use all three of the modules in the enhance bundle when mastering. The transient module is nice, you can increase or decrease the transients which means that sometimes if you bring them up, you don't have to use so much compression, the inflator adds some tube-like harmonics and also acts like a general bass and treble control, sort of. The biggest problem is that it is difficult sometimes to choose settings, because none of them sound bad or distort, so you really have to think about which setting is most appropriate for the song you have. If you are looking for "classic" compressor emulations, this probably isn't the one you want.

[Cruciform]

Flux PureLimiter II

[jdhogg]

I dont know anyone who has not been blown away by how this works in limit mode.

read the testimonials............very famous engineers.

Try the demo

http://www.proaudiodsp.com/products/dsm/


Also check the limiting on this beast which is primarily sold as a compressor.......lets not forget that limiting is just high ratio compression.

http://www.dmgaudio.com/

I have the DSM and will be buying the Compassion Comp in the next few days as it is on offer.

The Flux PureLimiter II is also great.

[jonathansorensen]

I dont know anyone who has not been blown away by how this works in limit mode.

read the testimonials............very famous engineers.

Try the demo

http://www.proaudiodsp.com/products/dsm/


Also check the limiting on this beast which is primarily sold as a compressor.......lets not forget that limiting is just high ratio compression.

http://www.dmgaudio.com/

I have the DSM and will be buying the Compassion Comp in the next few days as it is on offer.

The Flux PureLimiter II is also great.

Yeah, that DSP is amazing. I'm thinking seriously about that. The only one I think is in contention is the Sonnox. It's just such a clean, transparent function and simpler to use. I would probably get into less trouble.

[jdhogg]

the flux is on sale at the moment and I would chose that over the sonnox but both are totaly pro tools. flux maybe cleaner and nice graphical display.

http://www.fluxhome.com/products/plug_ins/purelimiter

what the dsm can do is if the peak is just eg a hh it will just limit that part of the signal and not pull down all the instruments...so its leaving most of the signal untouched and results in a real clean limit.

you might find this interesting.....voxengo and fabfilter......
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/masterin ... lugin.html

[jonathansorensen]

Thanks everybody for the great suggestions. I'm demoing about 5 limiters now and I'll get back on what I end up choosing.


Best,
JS