What's your favorite mastering limiter?

What is your favorite mastering limiter and why? Have you tried various products and decided to keep one over the others?
My idea of a good mastering limiter is one that makes the music louder and tries to retain the transients.
 
 
 
 
 

Ozone.
Using a limiter one must not leave too much work for it. It should be more like the last gate keeper.
AFAIK and IMO the basic loudness must be created on the way: arrangement, volume automation, per track compression. If the desired loudness of your track depends mainly on the limiter, the chances for a good result aren't big, I believe,.

I am just a hobbist, I use Ozone 6.
 

totally agree with Kalle.
 
 

It depends a lot on the style of the song. For most of my own stuff, I'd be perfectly happy to use any old limiter that happened to be on hand. Seriously. When it's only chopping a few peaks here and there, and you don't set your brickwall right up to 0dB, it really doesn't matter which limiter you use. Heresy, I know. There's so much mystery - and strong opinions - surrounding limiters that's mostly unwarranted.
 
The exception is genres that rely on the limiter to smash the daylights out of a song. In that case, the limiter is touching the sound constantly, so even small differences in how it processes peaks can result in significant changes to the overall sound. 
 
It's really kind of silly to expect a limiter to "preserve" peaks, when its very reason for existence is to beat peaks into submission. But there are some limiters that manage to mitigate the damage by analyzing the incoming material in order to calculate the optimum release time. Ozone is the best at this that I know of, though I'm told that Voxengo Elephant is its equal (if not as easy to use).
 
Pro-L, in addition to calculating program-dependent release times, also takes a novel approach to the attack phase, separating the transient portion from the rest of the peak and processing the two parts with different algorithms. It also has a "Dynamic" mode that applies a transient enhancer prior to limiting, so that even though the peak still gets chopped, the waveform at least rises to that peak more steeply.
 
If you don't use the limiter as an effect but rather as a safety mechanism, then don't waste your money on a boutique limiter. Instead, use a cheap or free plugin such as Limiter No. 6 or TB Barricade, or SONAR's own limiter (just stay away from Boost11).
 
I you want to smash the daylights out of a track or sub-bus, the free LoudMax limiter will do the job. The smash-everything crowd seems to like it on the master as well, but I wouldn't know about that.

bitflipper
just stay away from Boost11

Hey Bit, just curious if you could expand on the above comment. I've not used boost11 much, but have put it on a track here or there just to nip the top peaks, maybe limiting by 1.5db overall or something. I typically don't use it to boost anything, just clip some top peaks.

I use Nugen ISL2...it's the best limiter I've used...and I've used a lot...

But it's PRICEY...$229...you can get the new one, the ISL2st, which
is only Stereo, for $99...

batsbrew
i use WAVES L2.
 
it works really well.
 

Also L2 on master 1-3 db max (L1 on tracks)
Lim #6 is great for tracks with problematic transients, you can squash them real hard.

Great info as always bit. Thanks for that. I find boost11 the easiest to do just what you're saying. When I do use it, here's what I do:
 
- Play all the way through and set the channel level where I get maybe 1.5 to 2 db in the red for the peak that shows next to the meters.
 
- Insert boost11, turn the "boost" side down to 0 and pretty much leave the output side to the default which I think is like -0.1 or something. 
 
That allows me to get the channel or bus to max volume without really any compression and keeping the peaks from distorting.
 
If I want compression, I always use har-bal after I export it for pushing the level on a song that needs that sort of thing.

I use Prochannel Concrete Limiter on the master, sometimes Ozone 6 Limiter
Tracks... Concrete limiter

I've already mentioned LimiterNo,6 as being my favorite, but I also use the Concrete Limiter, TB Barricade, T-Racks Brickwall, and fab Filter Pro-L. There are so many good ones out there and you certainly don't have to spend a thing to get great quality. I sent in a donation for LimiterNo.6 since I use it the most.

When I want my rock tunes to be LOUD I use Slate FG-X. Otherwise on the master I use Ozone 5.

Waves L3-16. The priority function is something not to pass up. The myriad of Release characteristics is divine as well. The EQ function of the L3-16 is Linear-Phase and quite good for subtle/broad adjustments. 

No one has mentioned really the ultimate limiter yet.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PSP Xenon
 
 
 
More control than most limiters especially how transients can sound.
 
 
Watch out, some limiters are only good in certain genres. Waves being one of them. (L1 and L2, have not used L3 so not sure on that one) They tend to crunch a bit. No good for pure transparent sound. Might be good for rock but we don't always do rock.
 
 
 
 
Boost 11 is the worst limiter ever invented. Even doing light duties just catching peaks it distorts the mix to my ears.  Don't ruin your fantastic mix as Bit puts it through any old limiter you have lying around. You are doing yourself a real disservice.
 
 
 
 
 
It is the final link in the chain. Be careful. Maintain mix integrity.
 
 
 
It is not cheap but you get what you pay for.