# I need a limiter for Mixing



## nuyo (Sep 24, 2020)

I'm talking about limiting within the mixing process. On individual tracks or groups.
I like the Waves L Series because its very CPU Friendly and quick to use but it seems to distort very quickly.
Is there any alternative that sounds very transparent but is still CPU friendly ?


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## Soundmagic (Sep 24, 2020)

We have 2 plugin you may interest for a limiter








Neo DynaMaster Vintage


Neo DynaMaster Vintage is a full-featured, multi-purpose stereo dual dynamics processor utilising a unique custom designed metering system and modelling engine, providing emulations of many vintage units, e.g. SSL, Tube-Tech and so on.



neovst.com












Neo MasterTool


Neo MasterTool is a multi-band, multi process mastering system within one plugin. With NeoMasterTool you have all the weapons you need for mastering in one unit.



neovst.com


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## PaulieDC (Sep 24, 2020)

I do like Waves L1 and L2 for brickwall although that's not really necessary for orchestral work, loll. My suggestion: Try he Neo plugins above if there's a trial, and definitely get the 10-day free trial on Ozone's Mastering Suite, nothing to lose. One last suggestion, my desert-island mixbuss compressor that acts like a limiter: get the free trial on Waves API 2500 Compressor, throw it on the mixbuss (stereo master) and load the Drew Lavyne preset, and see what it does to your overall mix. Oooch the Threshold around abit, but the plugin itself just sounds good on the track. And of course you can configure a compressor to BE a limiter by pushing the ratio up above 6:1. That plugin is normally $300, but on sale for $30 right now and you get a free trial. Waves stuff is like mattresses, they're always on sale but usually not this low.


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## Laptoprabbit (Sep 24, 2020)

nuyo said:


> I'm talking about limiting within the mixing process. On individual tracks or groups.
> I like the Waves L Series because its very CPU Friendly and quick to use but it seems to distort very quickly.
> Is there any alternative that sounds very transparent but is still CPU friendly ?


 Why not try some free ones?








Free Limiter VST Plugins


These are the best free limiters in VST/AU plugin format for Windows and macOS. Master your music for free with these limiter VST plugins.




bedroomproducersblog.com


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## darcvision (Sep 24, 2020)

TDR Limiter 6 is very great limiter and affordable, you could make it very transparent or aggresive. also, it has another feature like compressor, soft clipper, de-esser and LUFS meter.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 24, 2020)

Soundmagic said:


> We have 2 plugin you may interest for a limiter
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I don’t think the general idea of this forum is for commercial parties to enter the discourse and post blatantly commercial messages linking to their products. I just noticed you doing this in my favourite piano thread and now here. Please restrict your commercial messages to the dedicated threads, this is annoying and frankly won’t gain you any fans around here.


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## Dex (Sep 25, 2020)

LoudMax is all over my mixes.


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## jcrosby (Sep 25, 2020)

Ozone Maximizer and Pro-L2 are standards for many here. My 1st two choices everytime... One thing to know about Ozone is it adds some pretty serious latency depending on the algorithm...


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## nuyo (Sep 25, 2020)

Soundmagic said:


> We have 2 plugin you may interest for a limiter
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I will have a look at it since I don't know your company, but it's not cool when companies post their stuff here. There are special threads for that.


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## nuyo (Sep 25, 2020)

jcrosby said:


> Ozone Maximizer and Pro-L2 are standards for many here.



Ozone seems to be very CPU heavy if you want a good result. Pro-L2 seems to be a better choice for mixing use.


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## jcrosby (Sep 25, 2020)

Ozone's actually a lot less of a CPU hog than it used to be. Maybe it's been optimized for newer CPUs, honestly not sure, but Ozone 9 overall isn't any heavier for me than Pro-L2. The Low Latency algorithm is super light... Looks to be running slightly lighter than Pro-L2 on my machine... Even the newer algorithms run about the same as Pro-L2 with TP detection on.
Here's a CPU use comparison on an i9 MacBook...


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## soundslike72 (Sep 25, 2020)

Voxengo's EBusLim is very clean and easy to use and doesn't distort too easily:








Easy Peak Limiter Plugin, Maximizer [VST, AU, AAX] - EBusLim - Voxengo


Easy-to-use brickwall peak limiter and loudness maximization plugin. Can be used as an effective drum bus and mastering limiter, and output overload protector.




www.voxengo.com





If you want a bit more control and still have a quick and clean way to limit tracks and busses DMG Audio's TrackLimit is also really good:








TrackLimit


GREAT LIMITING, MADE SIMPLE



dmgaudio.com





Both are CPU-friendly IMO


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## Monkberry (Sep 25, 2020)

I use DMG Audio's Limitless or Tone Projects Unisum, but they both are a bit of a deep dive. As Stefandy31 mentioned, Tokyo Dawn Labs Limiter 6 GE gets a lot of praise in the industry and is currently on sale for 30 euros.


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## ricoderks (Sep 25, 2020)

jcrosby said:


> Ozone Maximizer and Pro-L2 are standards for many here. My 1st two choices everytime... One thing to know about Ozone is it adds some pretty serious latency depending on the algorithm...


1 more vote for fabfilter L2


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## nuyo (Sep 25, 2020)

ricoderks said:


> 1 more vote for fabfilter L2



The Wide and Open Preset is Amazing. ^^


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## Greg (Sep 25, 2020)

Softube's Weiss is pretty hard to beat, same code as the legendary $10k hardware box








Weiss Compressor/Limiter


VST plug-in compressor/limiter, the gold-standard for the world’s greatest mastering gurus.




www.softube.com


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## SupremeFist (Sep 25, 2020)

Boz Digital Labs' The Wall is inexpensive but very very good: I use that or Ozone depending on taste.


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## nuyo (Sep 25, 2020)

Greg said:


> Softube's Weiss is pretty hard to beat, same code as the legendary $10k hardware box



How can analog gear have a code ?


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## Greg (Sep 25, 2020)

nuyo said:


> How can analog gear have a code ?



The original isn't analog, for example the bricasti isn't analog either but its still hardware


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## labornvain (Sep 25, 2020)

The waves L series limiters are actually maximizers combined with look ahead brickwall limiters.

And it's this brick wall feature that's causing the distortion. So it sounds to me like what you want is just the maximizer functionality without the brick wall functionality, which is really intended for use on your master bus or in mastering applications.

For maximizing I can't recommend more highly the waves MV2.

It works Very similarly to the L2 but has a very unique feature. That is its upward compressor which takes any signal below a certain threshold and makes it louder.

The resulting effect is you can downward compress with one knob and upward compress with the other and essentially squash the fuck out of your signal with no distortion at all.

I usually just use it for the upward compression. It's just one knob, are actually a fader, and when you turn it up it makes all the really quiet things suddenly rise to the surface.

No other dynamics processor works this way and makes it so easy.


Try a demo, you'll see.


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## nuyo (Sep 26, 2020)

labornvain said:


> I usually just use it for the upward compression. It's just one knob, are actually a fader, and when you turn it up it makes all the really quiet things suddenly rise to the surface.
> No other dynamics processor works this way and makes it so easy.
> Try a demo, you'll see.



I just read that the MV2 applies dither with no option to turn it off (not sure why someone would program that) so it look like it's not very useful as mixing tool. Just for mastering ?


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## vitocorleone123 (Sep 26, 2020)

Tokyo Dawn Limiter6GE is on sale for $30 at the moment.
Boz The Wall is $99 and sometimes goes on sale.

Ozone can do it
ProL2 can do it
DMG Limitless can do it

Just a few ideas, some of which have been mentioned.


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## labornvain (Sep 26, 2020)

nuyo said:


> I just read that the MV2 applies dither with no option to turn it off (not sure why someone would program that) so it look like it's not very useful as mixing tool. Just for mastering ?


Yeah, that's what I thought when I 1st got it. But then I used it and realized I can't really hear it so I used it anyway.

If it bothers you, they have a sister companion plug in called Maxxvolume which does essentially the exact same thing, it's just not quite as simple to use. But it does not have dithering.


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## DS_Joost (Sep 29, 2020)

labornvain said:


> The waves L series limiters are actually maximizers combined with look ahead brickwall limiters.
> 
> And it's this brick wall feature that's causing the distortion. So it sounds to me like what you want is just the maximizer functionality without the brick wall functionality, which is really intended for use on your master bus or in mastering applications.
> 
> ...



Oh but there is baby!



Good old Reason does it again. And here you all are not using it...


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## paularthur (Sep 29, 2020)

L2 or Invisible Limiter


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## vitocorleone123 (Sep 29, 2020)

paularthur said:


> L2 or Invisible Limiter



There's been tests on the GS forum of transparent limiters. Invisible Limter isn't that invisible, according to those tests - it's also overpriced these days after AOM raised there prices awhile back. It's also very easy to go astray with ProL2. Ozone was rated better than either of those, but only with some algo setting I forget, else it could also be worse.

All that and... like most things in music these days, they're all good, they all have their issues, so often it's a matter of what "speaks" to you in sound and interface, and then if you can afford it.


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## John Longley (Sep 29, 2020)

If you are extremely competent, DMG Limitless is absolutely the best. I use it all day long mastering records. If you are scared when you look at it, buy FF Pro L2. /thread.


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## labornvain (Sep 29, 2020)

DS_Joost said:


> Oh but there is baby!
> 
> 
> 
> Good old Reason does it again. And here you all are not using it...



Whoa, I want that. Thanks for the heads up.


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## John Longley (Sep 29, 2020)

vitocorleone123 said:


> Tokyo Dawn Limiter6GE is on sale for $30 at the moment.
> Boz The Wall is $99 and sometimes goes on sale.
> 
> Ozone can do it
> ...


Agreed G6E is great value, the ISPL is very solid (something Limitless struggles with historically), and the clipper is pretty good too.


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## vitocorleone123 (Sep 29, 2020)

John Longley said:


> If you are extremely competent, DMG Limitless is absolutely the best. I use it all day long mastering records. If you are scared when you look at it, buy FF Pro L2. /thread.



Also not necessarily true (that it's "absolutely the best"), depending on your priorities. Also depending on context.


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## John Longley (Sep 29, 2020)

vitocorleone123 said:


> Also not necessarily true (that it's "absolutely the best"), depending on your priorities. Also depending on context.


Sure, nothing is ever exclusively the best-- but aside from some very niche cases, it does what I want it to, quickly and with less damage than anything else. Aside from some early version ISPL issues that were addressed, it is massively powerful and reliable. Everybody has to do what works, but in my day job, I have found it an absolute godsend and I own about 20 limiters (hardware and software).


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## robgb (Sep 29, 2020)

I just picked this up for free from Waves. Sounds like it does what people are looking for.


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## labornvain (Sep 29, 2020)

DS_Joost said:


> Oh but there is baby!
> 
> 
> 
> Good old Reason does it again. And here you all are not using it...



So I just went on a quest to try to buy this thing, the Selig Leveler. And the Reason website is a bit disastrous.

A had Reason years ago which was cool, but I just never liked the idea of running two DAWs at the same time, with Rewire. So I stopped using it. But I've always missed some of the synths that it had like Malstrom.

I've always wished that I could just buy different components Individually as plugins.

Anyway, now reason has put out the Rack plugin which I Assumed word allow me to do just that-- buy the rack and expand it with modules or plug INS or whatever they call them.

But I can't get any confirmation of that from the website. In fact the link to purchase the Rack just takes you to different versions of the Reason application itself. It's all very confusing.

Nor could I confirm that if I bought the $99 version of reason and 11, which I presume includes the rack VST, that I will be able to buy plugins like Leveler and add them to the Rack.

Any insights into figuring all this out would be most appreciated.


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## paularthur (Sep 29, 2020)

vitocorleone123 said:


> There's been tests on the GS forum of transparent limiters. Invisible Limter isn't that invisible, according to those tests - it's also overpriced these days after AOM raised there prices awhile back. It's also very easy to go astray with ProL2. Ozone was rated better than either of those, but only with some algo setting I forget, else it could also be worse.
> 
> All that and... like most things in music these days, they're all good, they all have their issues, so often it's a matter of what "speaks" to you in sound and interface, and then if you can afford it.



I have Ozone as well, got a great offer couldn't refuse. Sounds great I just don't use it much.


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## Dietz (Sep 29, 2020)

Has this highly informative comparison already been mentioned ...?

-> https://www.saintpid.se/isp-true-peak-limiters-test/


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## JonS (Sep 29, 2020)

Have lots of limiters. The Waves L3 Multimaximizer is cheap and very good!!


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## DS_Joost (Sep 30, 2020)

labornvain said:


> So I just went on a quest to try to buy this thing, the Selig Leveler. And the Reason website is a bit disastrous.
> 
> A had Reason years ago which was cool, but I just never liked the idea of running two DAWs at the same time, with Rewire. So I stopped using it. But I've always missed some of the synths that it had like Malstrom.
> 
> ...



If you buy Reason, you get the rack. Goes for every version of it, too. Not too long ago, there was even a free version floating around via Pluginboutique, that wasn't even half featured surprisingly. The $99 version is insane value for money, actually. And yes, you can buy Rack extensions for that too, for any version.

So, in short, whatever version of Reason you get also gets you the rack. You cannot get the rack without the DAW. But this doesn't matter, because the value proposition is positively insane, even at the suite level. Yes, that one costs 549 euros, but I think anyone would struggle to find a synth at that price range that can even come close to what Reason with it's interrelated connectivity can do. That includes Bitwig and Omnisphere, which I both have. Even they can't touch it. Reason, as of now, is unique, and simply unbeated yet in it's game it's playing. It is in it's own little corner of the market, basically the most insane modular synth out there. Plus, you get a DAW that's actually much, MUCH better than what people give it credit for.

Reason has to be the absolute most underrated and misunderstood program on the audio software market. Most people don't even realize you can flip the rack around... which is actually where it goes from a simple yet seriously lean piece of software into a deep, deep rabbit hole of patching fun. Those who think it's a toy for hiphop beatmakers have absolutely no idea what it is.

Source: someone who has used Reason for longer than he can remember and refuses to move to another DAW.


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## DS_Joost (Sep 30, 2020)

By the way, I myself use the IK Multimedia Stealth Limiter, which is an absolute ungodly beast when it comes to limiting. I find myself never able to really stress that thing because the volume levels become... well... scary loud before I even get that far.


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## heisenberg (Sep 30, 2020)

Good to see a solid devotee of Reason. Not using it at the moment but it is certainly worthy as it has been pointed out.


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## labornvain (Sep 30, 2020)

DS_Joost said:


> By the way, I myself use the IK Multimedia Stealth Limiter, which is an absolute ungodly beast when it comes to limiting. I find myself never able to really stress that thing because the volume levels become... well... scary loud before I even get that far.


 I bought it thanks to your recommendation. You're right, it still is an amazing application. My last version of believe was reason 3 then it was already really cool. But at last, I can now run it inside Q base which gives me the work flow I need. So thanks a million. Cheers


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