hi everyone, I have a question, what I need to do is make all the tracks (songs) on a project have the same relative volume. you know how sometimes if one plays a song and the next song starts too loud or too soft. me thinks I need to use a limiter, however I have no idea how it works or even if I have one in X-2.
does anyone have a suggestion.
thanks

Simply put a limiter prevents audio from going above a certain level set by the user.
 
What you want to do is not limit per se but have the same RMS level from song to song. Limiting can help prevent peaks from going over 0 dB but it is also easy to abuse. In the case you layout both compression and automation plus careful limiting will do what you want.

You missed a very lively discussion about limiters recently. I hope I don't re-ignite it. A limiter is a compressor set to a very high ratio typically used to control peak levels more or less.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/brick-wall-limiter-m3048468.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBxw2Vc57u8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5K2RhXW0bM
Cakewalk's concrete limiter is very popular here among the folks at this forum. It is a separate purchase for 79 bucks. There are sale once in a while and the price would drop to +-50. It went down to 19 just 2 days ago.  It is way more better sounding than boast11 that comes with X1,2,3. With Boost11 you will get some nasty side effects very quickly and as a general rule I would not boost more than 6db.

^ +1
My default project template has a Concrete Limiter set to -0.1 db on the master and -2.0 db on the fader bus.
Well worth the investment if you tend to mix louder than everyone says you should.

It's also good for "less than ideal" track recordings that can't be re-recorded.   I've used it in that capacity for live recordings where the bass track had a lot of peaks.
 

The way I was told...
 
If you turn up the ratio of a compressor to 10 or above, you're limiting.
 
 

dubdisciple
You missed a very lively discussion about limiters recently. I hope I don't re-ignite it. A limiter is a compressor set to a very high ratio typically used to control peak levels more or less.

LOl, yea!! A limiter is a compressor with a ratio over 10:1. anything under 10:1 is compression and anything over 10:1 is limiting. A limiter is a tool that can harm your audio, when used wrong.
 
Study, study and study all the things that a limiter and a compressor has. Like learn what the Ratio is, the Threshold is, the Attack is, the Release is, the knee and Auto gain and Gain are.
 
All you need to do is learn what all these things do and you will learn how to use any limiter and any compressor.
 
CJ

I think what you might be after is something like HoRNet AutoGain or AutoGain Pro. Regularly very reasonably priced and what's more 40% sale for the rest of today. (Try/get the Pro - it's cheap enough ... and does a decent job (in my day of usage)).
 
Perhaps more geared toward levelling within a track(?), but no reason why it couldn't be used on each track or more preferably on a common Bus enroute to Master.
 
A "limiter" is about knocking off the peaks to avoid damaging equipment and your ears (usually incorporating compression to reduce the peaks and bring up the troughs).
A "volume leveller" is about achieving a consistent volume.