# Best limiters/'louderners'



## Eptesicus (Nov 15, 2017)

Hi,

Looking to buy some really good plug ins to give my tracks some extra volume and i remember at University we had the Sonnox Oxford stuff which i thought was really good. Having listened back to the stuff I mastered in the studio there, I managed to get some really good results using what i think was the Sonnox inflator, limiter etc.

I am therefore thinking about getting the enhance bundle from Sonnox whilst it is 50% in the November sale.

I have tried some cheap things, but they all have some sort of shortcoming or distort very easily etc and i really like the sound of the tracks i mastered back in University so that is why i am thinking about the Sonnox range

However, i wanted to check if there is anything better for the money in terms of giving a pretty decent level of volume increase without too much tweaking and without excessive distortion/compression.

the enhance bundle (transmod,inflator and limiter) is about £190 inc VAT in the UK at the moment.

Cheers


----------



## R. Soul (Nov 15, 2017)

Ozone 8 is good.

My favorite would be Fabfilter mastering bundle but it's rather pricey. You could perhaps settle for less and just get Pro-L and Saturn or Pro-C2.


----------



## Vin (Nov 15, 2017)

https://www.eventideaudio.com/products/plugins/mastering/elevate-bundle


----------



## synthpunk (Nov 15, 2017)

Sonnox is still very, very good, limiter of choice at Abbey Rd mastering. Inflator is good as well.


----------



## Eptesicus (Nov 15, 2017)

Thanks. Just tried to use the demo's for Sonnox to help make up my mind but they use pace/ilok...fine i thought, except i only have an ilok1 and it requires an ilok2. ****


----------



## synthpunk (Nov 15, 2017)

Do you happen to have UAD btw ? 14 day demo's.



Eptesicus said:


> Thanks. Just tried to use the demo's for Sonnox to help make up my mind but they use pace/ilok...fine i thought, except i only have an ilok1 and it requires an ilok2. ****


----------



## Eptesicus (Nov 15, 2017)

No i don't have UAD unfortunately. Balls, was looking forward to trying it out. Shame it would mean shelling out an extra £40 for a new ilok if i wanted it as well : /


----------



## Jetzer (Nov 15, 2017)

A.O.M. Limiter.


----------



## storyteller (Nov 15, 2017)

Just some of my personal likes, but this also comes with the footnote that I usually wouldn’t try to maximize loudness on orchestral work. Maybe on sections for trailer stuff - percussion specfically...

*Waves L-316* - Easy to muck up the sound if you don’t know what you are doing. Beautiful and untouchable when you do.

*Waves L3 LL*- colors the sound a bit, but does a great job when you know how to work it. Charlie Clouser wrote a few informative posts about it some time back.
*IK Stealth Limiter* - It just gets things loud... transparently.
*Waves L1* - if the intent is just catching 1-2db, this is my go to.
Contrary to the popular opinion, I’ve never really liked iZotope limiters/exciters... they all have “the izotope sound” which is something I do not personally like. For example, I try really hard to like Neutron, but if I start with it, I usually end up replacing it with something else down the road. I want it to work... I really do. Others seem to like the iZotope sound though.


----------



## rrichard63 (Nov 15, 2017)

The list of good ones is pretty long. In addition to those already mentioned (in alphabetical order):

Brainworx bx_xl V2
DMG Audio Limitless
TDR Limiter 6 GE
Voxengo Elephant

Not to mention limiters that also add coloration, such as Slate Digital FG-X.


----------



## Eptesicus (Nov 16, 2017)

hm, ok, well now there is too much choice! Haha.


----------



## enCiphered (Nov 16, 2017)

Yes, too many good choices these days. I've had great results with bx_XL V2 for mastering very loud metal tracks without quality loss or distortion.


----------



## Living Fossil (Nov 16, 2017)

As a single band neutral limiter, izotope's Ozone maximiser is my favorite. (usually IV algorithm, sometimes also the III; True Peak on)
As single band limiter with coloration it's Ozone's Vintage Limiter (which is perfect on instruments).
And then there is the mentioned Elevate (newfangled Audio), which is a fantastic multiband limiter with lots of extras.

When using Elevate on the master bus, it's still followed by Ozone.


----------



## charlieclouser (Nov 16, 2017)

For me it's:

- Waves L3-LL MultiMaximizer on stem sub masters. Five frequency bands, very low latency allows you to leave it on all the time, even while recording new stuff, and it can do massive amounts of "louder-izing" while still sounding pretty invisible.

- Ozone's Maximizer. This thing is magic. Inter-sample peak detection / correction, and the Transient Recovery thing can really help avoid squashing the peaky stuff. But the more sophisticated algorithms like IRC IV add a bit of latency that may be too much if you're trying to sequence percussion or spiccato strings. I generally only use this when doing after-the-fact mastering of finished stereo mixes.

- Elevate from Newfangled / Eventide. I just got this, so I haven't really used it on an active project, but it seems to be an absolute monster. As many frequency bands as you want and a simple interface for what appears to be a pretty sophisticated engine - and the price is right. I will be giving this some serious consideration as a stem sub master limiter.


----------



## Living Fossil (Nov 16, 2017)

charlieclouser said:


> Elevate... seems to be an absolute monster.



It is...and it's so much more than just a limiter. E.g the option to emphasize transients in very specific frequency ranges is fantastic. Specially with Logic's (relatively new) option to render plug ins.


----------



## Gerhard Westphalen (Nov 16, 2017)

If I want something louder and fuller I'll use the Ozone Maximizer.

If I want clean, I use Pro-L.


----------



## Will Blackburn (Nov 22, 2017)

Standard Clip - Sir Audio


----------



## Puzzlefactory (Nov 22, 2017)

Gerhard Westphalen said:


> If I want something louder and fuller I'll use the Ozone Maximizer.
> 
> If I want clean, I use Pro-L.



Was so surprised it took this long for someone to mention Pro-L. :D


----------



## catsass (Nov 22, 2017)

Puzzlefactory said:


> Was so surprised it took this long for someone to mention Pro-L. :D


FabFilter Pro-L is my 'go to'.


----------



## Rapollo (Nov 22, 2017)

+1 for Pro-L

I also use PSP Xenon and generally alternate between them depending on material, wonderful all-round limiters. I own Ozone 7 but just rarely seem to use it over the other two.


----------



## Gerhard Westphalen (Nov 22, 2017)

I just installed the new Eventide and it seems killer. A quick head-to-head with the Pro-L and it seems like it can be cleaner than the Pro-L.


----------



## Robert Jason (Nov 22, 2017)

R. Soul said:


> Ozone 8 is good.
> 
> My favorite would be Fabfilter mastering bundle but it's rather pricey. You could perhaps settle for less and just get Pro-L and Saturn or Pro-C2.


Fab Filter is a good value for what you get, and visually is amazing...if you want it to be. Sonically, as pristine as you'd ever want..though it can be pumped up.
Slate Everything Bundle has numerous impressive sonic tools.


----------



## Tod (Nov 22, 2017)

Gerhard Westphalen said:


> I just installed the new Eventide and it seems killer. A quick head-to-head with the Pro-L and it seems like it can be cleaner than the Pro-L.



Yeah, it's unlike any limiter I've ever had. It's been a bit complicated but once it's dialed in it's pretty amazing.


----------



## Cruciform (Nov 22, 2017)

Another vote for the new Eventide Elevate bundle, especially the limiter. These are incredible tools, really deep in what they can do but fairly straightforward to use. Recently mastered a full metal album with these plugs. The team who worked on the album put it up against a test master from a well known studio using analog gear and it compared well, so well we decided to finish it in-house.

Up until now I've been using the Flux tools such as Elixir and Alchemist, and also Ozone 7.


----------



## Serg Halen (Nov 22, 2017)

Fab filter Pro-L nice one, but with A.O.M. Invisible Limiter you can get more loudness without "pumping" and distortion.


----------



## T-Funk (Nov 24, 2017)

My go-to master bus limiters are listed below:

PSP Audioware Xenon
IK Multimedia T-RackS Stealth
iZotope Ozone 7 Advanced (Maximizer & Vintage Limiter)
Wave Arts FinalPlug 5
Voxengo Elephant 4.5
Although I overall prefer Xenon, I tend use Stealth most often since I purchased it upon release.


----------



## dannymc (Nov 28, 2017)

catsass said:


> FabFilter Pro-L is my 'go to'.



mine too. love its clean sound. 

Danny


----------



## conan (Nov 28, 2017)

I typically use Pro-L, as well. No coloration and it works well.


----------



## Rapollo (Dec 1, 2017)

Welp. Fabfilter have just announced their update to Pro-L 2. As my favourite limiter overall. HYPE! I love how they come out of nowhere with just enough time to get excited about it/allocate funds 

8x oversampling. True peak, more/even better metering options and analysis. 3 (or 4?) new limiting algorithms. Just not so long ago I was thinking Pro-L was probably the only plugin they could really improve since it’s a few years old now.


----------



## Quodlibet (Dec 1, 2017)

Rapollo said:


> Fabfilter have just announced their update to Pro-L 2.



Nice!

First impression of FabFilter Pro-L 2:


----------



## ceemusic (Dec 3, 2017)

Here's an overview of FabFilter Pro-L 2-


----------



## Noam Guterman (Dec 3, 2017)

Another FabFilter Pro-L enthusiast here! Excited for v2


----------



## synthpunk (Dec 3, 2017)

Highly recommend using Sonnox Limiter and Inflator. There is a reason it's still the choice at Abbey Road for Mastering. If you happen to use UAD the sale prices are very good right now.

FF L1 has always seemed hard to find the sweet spot for me when I tried it, hopefully V2 will fix that.


----------



## fixxer49 (Dec 6, 2017)

synthpunk said:


> Highly recommend using Sonnox Limiter and Inflator. There is a reason it's still the choice at Abbey Road for Mastering. If you happen to use UAD the sale prices are very good right now.
> 
> FF L2 has always seemed hard to find the sweet spot for me when I tried it, hopefully V2 will fix that.


+1 for Sonnox. (Inflator can be very handy in certain situations. But handle with care.)


----------



## germancomponist (Dec 6, 2017)

There are so many good plugs on the market now. I use the Sonnox and Waves plugs mostly.


----------

