Alternative to Boost11 for master bus

I have used this Modern Plug In limiter with some success.


http://antress.blogspot.com/



Also George Yohng's W1- Limiter used to be a freebie.  I would really love to see Cakewalk produce a real high quality limiter.  

That's a symptom of an unlinked limiter, which is to say the left and right sides are working independently of one another and potentially shifting the center when one side is compressed more than the other.

However, this is the first I've heard of Boost11 possibly being unlinked. (Mostly we just hear about how awful it is, in a more general sense.)

I have no experience with FG-X suggested above, but I hear good things about it. Here are some suggestions based on products I do have some familiarity with:

1. If you can afford it, the best mastering limiter I've ever tried has got to be Pro-L from FabFilter.

2. For about the same price as Pro-L, you can get a whole suite of tools with Ozone from iZotope. Its limiter is nearly the equal of Pro-L (my opinion, others may disagree) and is easier to use. Plus you get a multiband compressor, a versatile equalizer, a harmonic exciter, stereo width tool and reverb.

3. For less money than either of the above, there is Elephant from Voxengo. I have only demoed it, but I know it's a favorite of many around here.

4. For even less money - as in free - there is George Yohng's W1 limiter. It's a simple plugin, not many options. But it does a superb job. There is a version out there (BetaBugs) that wraps a pretty UI around it, but it's a purely cosmetic enhancement.

5. Another good freebie is MLimiter from MeldaProduction. This one has some interesting features: it lets you define the harmonic content of the distortion inherent in all limiters. It's a fun one to play with.

These suggestions barely scratch the surface. There are easily a dozen worthy Boost11 alternatives out there, from respected vendors such as Blue Cat, Sonalksis and Wave Arts.

The problem with the free stuff is... well, it's free. I'd say it's wise to invest in a high quality plugin, esp if you're whole mix is going to run through it.. Waves L3, FG-X etc.

Boost 11 is not great and not worth using. It will only destroy your music. I recommend the PSP Xenon.

http://www.pspaudioware.c..._processors/psp_xenon/

Danny Danzi and I have had some discussion about this on another thread.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2393504

He suggested it and I respect his opinion a lot. I have heard good things about the Slate limiter too so I would not be surprised if it is also very good. The PSP costs $249 though but worth every dollar of it. I have just mastered an album with the PSP and it sounds fantastic.

It has got more control over how it actually sounds while it is limiting compared to nearly all other limiters out there. It is complex and needs a little bit of learning. Once you understand what the controls do you can start to shape how it sounds depending on the music. It also produces an insane level of final signal WITHOUT destroying the music in any way. It does not colour the sound in any way, it is transparent and that is how a limiter should be. It does tip toe around distortion when you are in this mode (super loud) but you can still just keep clear of it. Something nearly every limiter out there cannot do. You can match any commercial CD with ease if you are careful. It also includes high quality dither features and can dither down to 16 bit all from 24 bit. It won't convert sample rate down but it does change down bit depth nicely. It also eliminates intersample peaks etc.

It is expensive I suppose and meant for more serious professional applications I guess but if you can afford it then you will love it. The demo is fully working for 2 weeks and this particular product does not need the USB dongle as well.

The reason why people have problems with limiting is that no free or cheap limiter will be able to even come close to this. You get what you pay for. But be careful though. I preceeded this amazing device with a super expensive analog compressor (Smart C2) and that made a big difference. That final sound is combination of both. The limiter will not solve all your loudeness problems on its own. It needs the compressor or a great compressor plugin.

Skyline_UK


Some good recommendations above.
  I also use TRacks3 Deluxe which is excellent.  I know these aren't free but this finalising stage is crucial and ought to be allocated an appropriate portion of any project studio's budget if possible.

If it's possible to have affection for a few lines of code, then I'm totally besotted with the T-Racks limiter.

I won't go past any of the above recommendations as they all have their place and I use several of them myself.

My one suggestion is to go to the iZotope site and download their Mixing and Mastering guide which is one of the best primers of any sort going. While you're choice of plugin may have an impact, by far the greatest impact will come from how you use the tool. It really covers this final aspect of mastering very well. You will end up benefitting from any of the plugin choices you end up making.

Voxengo's elephant.  It is realtively cheap and does a good job.  It can color the sound, but can also do fairly clean.

Keni, give the meldaproductions MLimiter a try. I really like that plugin, especially when I want to add a little grit.

Another one that I use a lot, but exclusively on drum busses, is LoudMax. It's a dirty, in-yer-face effect and I wouldn't ever use it on the master bus, but it's wonderfully aggressive on drums.

I use boost more on some tracks when i want a hard limiting ...boost is only on my master for protection , but for real transparent limiting nothing comes close to the sonnox limiter ....