Something like Ozone's Maximizer, or the Waves L-series plug-ins, are not traditional limiters but multiband limiters. This is why the sound is louder but doesn't sound "squashed." I use limiters like the Concrete Limiter for individual tracks, but not for program material as Multiband Limiters give a more transparent sound. There is no multiband limiter per se in SONAR although the LP-64 Multiband Compressor takes you most of the way there.
 
The most recent SONAR update had multiband processing track templates, and as pointed out above, there is a tip on how to create multiband dynamics processing in Friday's Tip of the Week. There's even an audio example, although it's kind of exaggerated to show a dramatic difference...normally you'd use it more subtly.
 
Now that Patch Points exist, I really should make a multiband limiting track template. 

dantarbill

AllanH
Audacity has the ability to scale a finished audio file so that max peak is e.g. at -3 db, 0 db, or whatever you choose. That's a simple way to not deal with absolutes while creating, and simply post-process to level tracks to a particular db.

In SONAR that would be Process/Apply Effect/Normalize...

Interesting - thank you. I always thought that required rendering everything to audio, then Process/apply.../Normalize followed by Export, but if it can be done as part of the rendering/export process, that sounds good. I'll take a look.

Craig, I may be missing some cleverness, but with the available tools I don't think it's possible to "create" a true multiband limiting track template, at least not in the way the Waves L-series and its ilk work - intelligently compressing different frequency ranges while aiming at a set total loudness output. How would you go about this?

Sanderxpander
Craig, I may be missing some cleverness, but with the available tools I don't think it's possible to "create" a true multiband limiting track template, at least not in the way the Waves L-series and its ilk work - intelligently compressing different frequency ranges while aiming at a set total loudness output. How would you go about this?

Split the audio into four tracks using patch points. Insert an LP-64 into each track, but set up as a crossover instead of as a compressor so you have four independent frequency bands. Apply a Concrete Limiter at each band's output and voila, multiband limiting.
 
Check out the multiband track templates in the last update, although they use the Sonitus multiband compressor as a crossover. Same principle, though.

Different strokes for different folks I guess but.... I use the Concrete Limiter for Mastering bus limiting all the time. I love it. I used to use Sonnox and Waves limiters but, I like the CL better.  Whatever....

Craig, I understand what you're doing here but while that will limit individual bands perfectly, every individual band doesn't know what's happening in the other bands and none of them see the "total picture" which I think is the idea behind the L-series. Your mid band peak might be offset by your sub band dip for instance. Hope you understand what I'm getting at.

Anderton

Sanderxpander
Craig, I may be missing some cleverness, but with the available tools I don't think it's possible to "create" a true multiband limiting track template, at least not in the way the Waves L-series and its ilk work - intelligently compressing different frequency ranges while aiming at a set total loudness output. How would you go about this?

Split the audio into four tracks using patch points. Insert an LP-64 into each track, but set up as a crossover instead of as a compressor so you have four independent frequency bands. Apply a Concrete Limiter at each band's output and voila, multiband limiting.
 
Check out the multiband track templates in the last update, although they use the Sonitus multiband compressor as a crossover. Same principle, though.

Mister Craig,
it seems that you prefer a multiband Limiter over a "normal" limiter.
If so this is astonishing me cause til now I avoided to use multiband compression during the mastering process
remembering a basic sentence which I heart in every mastering class aso I visted:
If you have to use a multiband limter during the mastering process,
it´s a sign that the mix is not well balanced - or a similar assertion.
 
What do you think about it?
 
 
 

Sanderxpander
Craig, I understand what you're doing here but while that will limit individual bands perfectly, every individual band doesn't know what's happening in the other bands and none of them see the "total picture" which I think is the idea behind the L-series. Your mid band peak might be offset by your sub band dip for instance. Hope you understand what I'm getting at.

Yes, according to a review of the L3 in Sound on Sound, "The clever part of the design lies in the relationship between the peak detection and the attenuation. Conventional multi-band limiters split the signal into separate frequency bands and then limit each band independently. Here, however, the level in all five frequency bands is summed using a patent-pending algorithm Waves call the Peak Limiting Mixer. If, at a given instant, this sum exceeds the Threshold value, L3 works out the amount of attenuation that is needed and intelligently distributes it across the different frequency bands. By default, the bands that are attenuated the most are those that contain the most energy, but it's also possible to instruct L3 to concentrate the gain reduction in frequency bands where you think it will be less noticeable. The result, at least in theory, is that you can apply more overall limiting with fewer audible consequences."
 
It's true that a conventional multiband limiter does not do exactly the same thing. However if you don't apply much limiting, being able to "apply more overall limiting with fewer audible consequences" may or may not matter to you.

Pragi
it seems that you prefer a multiband Limiter over a "normal" limiter.
If so this is astonishing me cause til now I avoided to use multiband compression during the mastering process

 
I don't use multiband compression during mastering, the purpose of the multiband compressor mentioned above is to serve as a crossover to split the audio into bands; there's no compression applied. I use multiband limiting to keep peaks under control and get a little more level.
 

remembering a basic sentence which I heart in every mastering class aso I visted:
If you have to use a multiband limter during the mastering process,
it´s a sign that the mix is not well balanced - or a similar assertion.
 
What do you think about it?

 
Two things.
 

• If you're a mastering engineer, you will receive mixes that are not well balanced. In that case, multiband limiting is sometimes used more like a multiband equalizer that happens to be able to do dynamics control.
• In order to be competitive in "the loudness wars," multiband dynamics can take a well-balanced mix and make it a louder well-balanced mix. Whether you want to be competitive in the loudness wars is a whole other discussion, but for DJs who need to crossfade between cuts, or typical consumers who use playlists, you don't want an extreme volume drop when the song you mastered starts playing.

 

thanks for your patient and  rapid reply.