Hi all, just a question about Sonar's new superlative Adaptive Limiter, which by the way I'm only just mastering ;) and am really enjoying its flexibility. 
 
The stereo link knob, I'm not quite sure of its purpose or use, I read in a music mag about parallel limiting...is this what the stereo link is...to control parallel limiting? 
 
Cheers Ben 

When both channels of a limiter or compressor are linked for stereo, the compression is controlled by the overall volume of both stereo channels. When they're not linked, the compression of the left and right channels are independently controlled by the two signals.
 
It's fairly rare that you'd want to not link, as unlinked compression on stereo information can do wacky things. For example, imagine compressing stereo drum overheads. If you get a loud hit on a cymbal that's over to the left, then the left channel will compress more than the right channel. This will case the overheads to sound like they're swinging to one side or another in the wake of the cymbal hit.

cant download my software from website...why? Brand New Computer
 

John T
It's fairly rare that you'd want to not link, as unlinked compression on stereo information can do wacky things. 

Definitely true. However, for an alternate point of view, I always unlink limiters. That won't work for everybody, but it works for me due to the way I use limiters. Or, more to the point, how I don't use limiters.
 
What I don't do is use limiters to raise average RMS (IOW, to make the mix louder). I know this bucks conventional wisdom, but I believe in achieving loudness in the mix, not on the master bus. Consequently, my limiter is only catching stray peaks and rarely ducking anything by more than 1-3 dB. So for me, unlinking the limiter channels actually avoids those "wacky things".

bitflipper

John T
It's fairly rare that you'd want to not link, as unlinked compression on stereo information can do wacky things. 

Definitely true. However, for an alternate point of view, I always unlink limiters. That won't work for everybody, but it works for me due to the way I use limiters. Or, more to the point, how I don't use limiters.
 
What I don't do is use limiters to raise average RMS (IOW, to make the mix louder). I know this bucks conventional wisdom, but I believe in achieving loudness in the mix, not on the master bus. Consequently, my limiter is only catching stray peaks and rarely ducking anything by more than 1-3 dB. So for me, unlinking the limiter channels actually avoids those "wacky things".

Thanks Bit, yes I am the same in regards to getting the mix loud. My final brickwall limiter only limits about the same as you :). It's still a bit confusing, I've found that by setting the stereo link knob to about 85% creates much more space within the mix...it's not so mid-heavy.
 
Thanks Ben

bitflipper
So for me, unlinking the limiter channels actually avoids those "wacky things".

 
Yeah, there are different sets of wacky things that arise in different scenarios, to be sure. A lot depends on how much you've got wide stereo sources going on, and how much mix symmetry there is. I quite like fairly wide drums myself, and will often have things like guitar doubles panned to the extremes; that kind of stuff tends to do best with the stereo link, I think.
 
Of course, as you say, the extent of the limiting going on is a factor. The attack and release time is also very pertinent here; if they're both very fast, then any oddities in the output stereo image can pass by too quickly to matter.

I guess the correct answer to the original post is "it's complicated".