• SONAR
  • What final limiter is on your mix bus? (p.3)
2013/04/29 12:41:16
kzmaier
I use boost11.
2013/04/29 13:26:35
groovey1
Concrete Limiter does the trick for me.
2013/04/29 13:28:38
Progmatist
Ozone 5
2013/04/29 14:02:49
Eddie TX
GIM Productions


Hi all, i use Voxengo Elephant and other many plugs in different session on 32bit 48000 export file. A question for you.I have just seen AOM Invisible Limiter,is a Pro Japan development.The comparison file (i hope that is true!)is amazing. Do you know this stuff???Best

I've been using the AOM limiter a lot lately.  I like it particularly on rock mixes ... it doesn't eat transients like some limiters do, and it seems to lend a nice weight to kick drums.  Comparing it with Ozone's limiter, I could get the mix louder without distortion.  It works even better with two instances in series, each shaving about 2-3 db.  Try it out and see for yourself!
 
http://aom-factory.jp/en/products/invisible-limiter/
 
Cheers,
Eddie
 
2013/04/29 14:16:05
bitflipper
You're really asking two questions here. One one hand, you're polling to see what we're all using. But perhaps more significant, you're specifically asking for "something brick wall that sounds really good". Two different questions, one with an easy answer and the other with a more complicated answer.

First, the easy answer to part one: I am using either Pro-L or Ozone, depending on the project. The former because it gives me more options, the latter because it gets excellent results very quickly.

The second, implied part of your query is a little more complicated: what brickwall limiter sounds good? That's a loaded question, because it presumes that a brickwall limiter imparts a particular sound. For some people, that may be valid. For me, it's not. My expectation of a limiter is that ideally it should not color the final mix at all.

(Of course, limiting by nature always effects the sound of the mix to some extent. You are, after all, distorting the waveform. Distortion = added harmonics = coloring the mix. You are also raising the average RMS and reducing dynamic range, which is going to change the mix.)

When this question is raised in online forums, it usually means "what limiter will let me get away with the most drastic squashing?" If this is actually your question, then a) I am not the one to answer it and b) you probably don't understand limiters well enough to process the answer anyway. 

That may have sounded a little insulting, but that is not my intention, Rod. All I'm saying is that the answer to your question is ultimately acquiring a deep understanding of how limiters work. I would not, for example, recommend Elephant or Pro-L to you because they both presume that you have such understanding. A simpler plugin such as Barricade might be better suited to you for now.

But if I've misread your intent and you're actually looking for transparent brickwall limiting for K-12 or lower finals, then Ozone's probably your best bet.


2013/04/29 14:22:57
stevec
Ozone 5 here.   
 
Though I'm tempted to look at that AOM thingy...  
 
 
Edit: AOM's audio examples of Invisible Limiter do sound good when compared directly with other popular choices.   I wish Ozone was included so I could hear the same material processed in essentially the same fashion, but at $99 it seems like a pretty good deal.
 
2013/04/29 15:23:29
Marcus Curtis
I use Ozone
2013/04/29 15:24:34
Eddie TX
stevec


Edit: AOM's audio examples of Invisible Limiter do sound good when compared directly with other popular choices.   I wish Ozone was included so I could hear the same material processed in essentially the same fashion, but at $99 it seems like a pretty good deal.
 
An even better deal (IMO) is the 1-year license for $25 ... you can upgrade to the lifetime license later if you want, but since there's always something better coming out, I opted for the year-long deal.  If nothing beats it by the time my license is up, I'll be upgrading for sure.  This seems like a pretty good arrangement.
 
BTW, the free demo is fully functional and not time-limited -- it just mutes every 30 seconds or so.
 
Cheers,
Eddie

 
2013/04/29 16:14:47
LpMike75
Ozone 5 or T-Racks
2013/04/29 16:15:55
UltimateMusicSnob
I don't like limiters on the Master bus. I try to pre-stage everything ahead of time.

The loudest moment of the loudest track is the aural limit to which everything else is relative. I try to leave some room above that, because when we sum the tracks we'll go over this level.

Every other track is balanced for the song/arrangement in terms of its relationship to the aural maximum already set.

If I've made a mistake and still hit 0 db on the Master bus, I fix the individual tracks. Sometimes it's just a momentary resonance somewhere, sometimes it's the sum of all. I often pull in a limiter here, on an individual track, with the lightest possible touch, just enough to fix the problem.

All the dynamics are set by ear, in other words, with limiting seen as a solution *sometimes*, in a *few* places, for running out of headroom, *if* it works for the musical arrangement.

If the limiter is there to address headroom (severe limiting as a desired effect is a completely different matter), then it's a good idea to track down the offending channel, if there is one, and dive in and inspect the waveform. Half the time, it's just one waveform cycle that shoots up out of control and hits the meter. Far better to fix that one cycle, than to change the entire track or god forbid the entire mix, just to cure that transient.
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