Limiter - master

I usually use the L3 in the mastering setup, I put it last in the chain to just capture any wayward peaks slipping through and to render the 24bit to 16bit as it seems to do this well, in other words I set the L3 between 1 to 4 db input and have the output set to -0.2db, set for CD mater in the presets.

The L2 I sometimes use on tracks like snare, kick or bass to control peaks, depending on the music you can hit it pretty hard but you use your ears to judge when it is just too much and sucking the life out of it.

By the way if you only want to buy one of the limiters, the L2 or the L3 will work for both functions fine.

Just a side note, I still mix a lot in the analog world with outboard racks and I have DBX 163A and DBX 163X limiters in the rack, these kind of sound very similar to the L2, but you can't beat the old 163 LOL, I love the control that just says More!

Alan

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witzendoz said:
I don't know about the OP, but I did not understand any of what you said then, get lowered?

Alan
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Well, it goes like this. Here's what the OP said
andrushkiwt said:
I want the limiter doing BARELY any reduction, but at the same time, I want to be able to raise the overall volume another couple db's. The snare is making that difficult, and, like I said, moving the hits around seems to be random as to how it affects the limiter. Sometimes moving the snare slightly forward decreases reduction, sometimes it raises it.
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andrushkiwt said:
My best guess is that simply lowering the velocity of the snare, and compressing it more will be the answer to my limiter issue.
It's a pain. How are you guys approaching your snares and their effect on your limiters? If you use one, to begin with.
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In laymen's terms turn the offending snare hits down using manual automation so they don't cause the problem. They won't cause the limiter to hit harder and automation will not crush the mix any further as additional compression would.

Clear? Apologies for being so unclear in the first place (If I really was).
 
The main reason that I am hesitant to use a third party plugin, I failed to mention, is that since it goes at the end of the signal chain, I am worried about how its affecting the entire tune. If I get a mix in a good spot, everything is great, just needs some dbs, then I'm worried how this thing by a company I never heard of is going to process my ENTIRE audio signal on the way out. Is it doing something to the music that I won't notice until a few days later? What exactly is it doing to my audio, other than turning peaks down quickly.

At least, that's the case with the free ones out there. Waves or the like, it'll be good to go. I checked out the L2 and L3 last night, but they aren't on sale at the moment. I'll wait till they drop in price. I'm thinking L2 though - just simple controls. I don't need a lot of options for my purposes, other than setting release time.

Any decent free ones out there anyone can vouch for?
 
I can't remember the last time I used an actual limiter. My master chain is usually just a slow, gentle RMS compression with lookahead doing almost nothing and then a soft clipper/saturator thing. Sometimes I have trouble keeping the average level from getting too high.
 
andrushkiwt said:
The main reason that I am hesitant to use a third party plugin, I failed to mention, is that since it goes at the end of the signal chain, I am worried about how its affecting the entire tune.
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Most vendors have demos you can use for a week or two to try before you buy.
I mean...it's no different than the first time you used some plugins you already have...you didn't know what they would do until you used them.
 
andrushkiwt said:
The main reason that I am hesitant to use a third party plugin, I failed to mention, is that since it goes at the end of the signal chain, I am worried about how its affecting the entire tune. If I get a mix in a good spot, everything is great, just needs some dbs, then I'm worried how this thing by a company I never heard of is going to process my ENTIRE audio signal on the way out. Is it doing something to the music that I won't notice until a few days later? What exactly is it doing to my audio, other than turning peaks down quickly.

At least, that's the case with the free ones out there. Waves or the like, it'll be good to go. I checked out the L2 and L3 last night, but they aren't on sale at the moment. I'll wait till they drop in price. I'm thinking L2 though - just simple controls. I don't need a lot of options for my purposes, other than setting release time.

Any decent free ones out there anyone can vouch for?
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Can't think of free limiter but the freeware compressors here are really quite good, as well as the saturator Klanghelm Home
 
witzendoz said:
I don't know about the OP, but I did not understand any of what you said then, get lowered?

Alan
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Maybe it was the way you used english, Get Lowered = turn it down?

So you have the time and patience to go through every snare hit and turn the peaks down? When in fact using a good compressor or limiter even mildly can reduce the peaks without you even hearing the effect and save you hours of work.

Well OK do it your way.

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
Maybe it was the way you used english, Get Lowered = turn it down?

So you have the time and patience to go through every snare hit and turn the peaks down? When in fact using a good compressor or limiter even mildly can reduce the peaks without you even hearing the effect and save you hours of work.

Well OK do it your way.

Alan.
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No. I usually use vocal rider to tame the outliers.

PS Apologies for my English. Worked for the Times of London for many years as a journalist, maybe that's why I'm so bad at it.
 
Read all your post, not all the resonses. 2 things. You might have too slow attack and realease. 2nd, I think you need to go back to remix and make sure you start with drums only. Bring up until the drums just tickle the compressor and make sure the needle or led is dancing which means your release is good. Then bring up your bass until those two alone sound good and the comp is fairly unaffected. I always bring vox next--you would be amazed how much vox can hit the comp. Again, til it sounds good but you hope the comp isnt much affected. If at this point your comp is working hard bring that whole mix down until youre back at a tickling point. Bring in the rest of your mix. Heres what you will find. OA output may be low, but you can now bring up the whole mix as one, without one part being an offender.
 
I don't think you have a compression issue. If, as you said, the snare is quite heavily compressed, you should just have to slide its fader down. If you think that the attack may be too much intense you should just try to reduce the velocity and see how peak reduction changes.

Moreover, and this may be a bit off-topic, I haven't read about any EQ in your mastering chain. I'm pretty sure you are using one, but I'd just like to remind you that the most important thing in mastering is not the limiter, but the equalizer.
After using the limiter, the relative volume levels of the instruments don't sound the same as in the mix. So what you should think about the most is not what numbers do you read on the limiter or on the compressor, but what do you hear. What is the difference between the snare in the mix file and the snare in the mastered file?

I've used midi drums quite a lot of times but I've never had this issue so I don't have any actually appropriate advice to give you.

Sorry if this answer sounds too obvious or stupid, but I think it's never a bad idea to go back to the basic things.
 
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