I have a question about the use of limiters.  I’m working on a piece that could be described as classical electronica.  It’s being done is sections that will be assembled when all sections are complete.  So far, the track levels in all the many sections are such that I have had zero need of limiters anywhere, not even on the master bus.  I'll be using a limiter in the final assembly, but for now I mostly have safe amounts of headroom.

But I’m now working on a very climactic moment where all guns are blazing.  There are a couple tracks of high-energy bass content and a couple of loud chord tracks.  I expect to resort to the use of some usual techniques to make them all fit together in the final mix (thank you, MSpectralDynamics!!!).

I’m finding myself putting limiters on the individual high-energy tracks to coax everything I can out of them, and no doubt a limiter will go on the master bus when I do the final mix of this section.  My question is this: is using multiple limiters in this fashion considered bad form that should set off alarms that I’m doing things all wrongly?  Or are there some situations, like that I just described, where limiters on individual tracks could be considered a valid solution?
 
Thanks in advance for any wisdom here.

I'm sure you will get a lot of great advice.... I can only give you mine :)
 
I try to avoid limiting during tracking and mixing... I'd rather use compression at this stage. Any compression I apply is lightly used. Many tracks will get individual treatment, then I run a light Master Bus compressor on the mixdown... but I still leave a lot of headroom for mastering.
 
Mastering is where the limiter(s) come into play. I don't master much of my own work, but when I do I first run a multi-band limiter followed later by a brickwall limiter - usually a Waves L2. Both do a little of the heavy lifting rather than leaving it all for one to manage.

Hi man, I have started using limiters at bus level recently, I only use them on my drums bus and bass bus and it's not to achieve more volume it's just to catch peaks from the drums and bass and treat them at bus level rather than the mastering engineer having to deal with them when mastering. I did a short video on it which you can have a look at here -----> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_5D6-sc9Hk
All the best,
Andrew

As a general rule, I avoid limiters on individual tracks because it often results in a cumulative deadening of dynamics in the final mix. 
 
But for every general rule there are 99 exceptions, one of which is very loud passages in a very dynamic song. In that case, you don't expect to retain dynamics. It's going to flatten out because that's what it means to take it to the max. In that context, I'd have no problem with a limiter on every track if that's what it took, as the limiters are only going to kick in during that forte passage but otherwise have no effect.

i use limiters all the time,
on busses, individual tracks,
 
all my favorite producers from the 70's always used those Urei peak limiters on damn near everything,
and i like it!
 
somtimes i'm only  kissing the limiter, tho, not taking any peaks,
but using it as an 'upwards compressor'.
 
sometimes i bury the meter.
 
but mostly, i'm using it to knock off a couple of db's, and using very fast attack and release times,
and it's almost more for color than dynamic control.
 
 
 

coda and bit share my feelings on this, dm. And of course if you listen to bat's work....heck, limiters on every track seem to work great for him too. :) I personally, try not to use limiters on individual tracks, but would do so if the situation called for it. That said, you could always send the tracks that need the extra slam to a limiter bus just for them so you don't have to go automation crazy.
 
When I do stuff with Philip on this site, I usually send the stuff he does to one bus with processing, and the stuff I do to another master bus with processing. This way we can glue things together, but not everything is being treated the same way. I don't see why multiple limiters would be a problem....you'd have full control. But you may fair just the same sending whatever tracks need the extra push to their own limiter bus too. Whatever works! Hope you are well...been a while. :)
 
-Danny

I will use limiting on kick, snare, bass, and vocals while tracking. I never use it going into the DAW because I don't own anything that is worthy of that process!
 
Then, when I mix, Jerome from ToneBoosters suggested I put his Barricade limiter on the post master fader and right after that put a peak limiter to catch any strays. I set the Barricade at -.90db and generally let it compress about 3-4 db only.
The result is really good. The master is alive dynamically and retains a lot of clarity.
 

Thanks, all, for your advice.  In the end, I went with limiters on three tracks and one on the master bus.  It passes the "if it sounds good ... " test.  Maybe it could have sounded better using another approach.  Maybe a year from now I'll come back to this and be appalled at how little skill I had in my mixing.  But as the saying goes: art is never finished, it's only abandoned.  I'm still trying to finish my first musical production that I'm sufficiently proud of to unveil to the public.  If I don't move on from situations like this, that will never happen. 

you have to have a light touch with limiters......
 
or not.
 

Andrew I have watch many videos on your YouTube channel they are very helpful