How to Limit Your Master

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[@djlick2]

BX_True Peak Limiter, having the XL control makes any limiting sound amazing.

[@sageaudio]

It's helpful for sure! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@Zaran812]

Sage Audio, my number 1, go-to studio Guru!! Great lessons that I easier to understand.

[@sageaudio]

That's awesome! Thanks for watching Mpho! SageAudio.com

[@tracyblair3064]

I recently acquired the T-Racks Stealth Limiter and love it for both sound and simplicity. I was surprised it missed the Sage list as you have recently made favorable comments about it.

[@sageaudio]

That's a good one! I like the harmonics 1 and 2 options! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@sean.jamieson]

Ozone Maximizer into IK’s Stealth Limiter is working great for me. Loving the channel.

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for the suggestion and for watching! SageAudio.com

[@PharaohLawLess1]

You just made my masters sound better with this knowledge. Thank you

[@sageaudio]

That's awesome! Thanks for watching this one Pharaoh! SageAudio.com

[@akhilchandrashekar1725]

Really happy I found this channel thank you for the videos

[@sageaudio]

Awesome! Thanks for watching and commenting Akhil! SageAudio.com

[@JTFuller]

Wow man, whoever this genius is, he's extremely helpful.. Excellent work young man.. Helping me big time and this is for fun.. Impressed young man.. IMPRESSED..

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching JT! Great to hear you appreciate the videos! SageAudio.com

[@j.du6]

Pure gold. Really appreciate your knowledge and tips.

[@sageaudio]

Awesome! Thanks for watching j.dub6! SageAudio.com

[@maxuno8524]

I am Surprised that the Weiss limiters didnt make the cut. I love them. They are really amazing.

[@sageaudio]

They're great! these are just out personal preferences for digital limiters. Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@haleb_korn]

I’ve really been loving the KOLIN and YALA limiters by Analog Obsession on my masters. YALA doesn’t offer oversampling, but it imparts some nice sonic texture.

[@sageaudio]

I like those! Glad you're getting a good sound from them! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@LuRojas]

Always educational! Keep up the great work!

[@sageaudio]

Awesome! Thanks Lu! SageAudio.com

[@kurtm6345]

Thanks! I really like the TDR and VladG, sometimes Ozone Vintage Limiter too.

[@abhishekghatak3512]

Great Overview for beginners!!! I have my eye on the elephant now :)

[@JTFuller]

I usually use the L1. But Elephant is something worth checking out.. Especially if it's their number 1 pick.. Coming from them, that seems serious.. I am surprised they only have 29K subs.. What limiter do you use?

[@sageaudio]

Awesome! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@akhilchandrashekar1725]

Tracks brickwall limiter and stealth limiter are incredible too

[@sageaudio]

They are! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@HollerAtcherBoi]

You’re on fire! So helpful, wow. I’m curious, as I’m sure many others are too, what you think of the Ozone limiters and how you feel they rank/compare against these. Thank you!

[@sageaudio]

Those are great plugins! We'll probably start using them more for some of our demonstrations! SageAudio.com

[@StaticTeaz]

I love Voxengo's limiter. I like Toneboosters' too.

[@Tiebuaudio]

I understand this now... thanks

[@sageaudio]

That's awesome! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@DreamsongsProductions]

Sonnox Limiter is quite good!

[@mywavesrecords]

Great info 👍 Any thoughts on @TC Electronics Finaliser App ? I like the visual aids and presets to measure LUFS and true peak

[@sageaudio]

I haven't tried that one! But I like their limiter and how you can set the signal to a particular LUFS. Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@mywavesrecords]

Thank you man

[@ceb-onit-music]

Enjoyed this!!

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@monarchdrumandbass8700]

Great informative video!

[@QuentinDamour]

Your videos are great I enjoy watching them ! Just one thing I feel like everything is a bit too fast to really learn something significant (especially for the examples you give, it would help me if you could say what to pay attention to and give more time back and forth...) but maybe that's just me

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for the suggestion Quentin! We'll try to add some more time onto the demonstration side of things. Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@JoeyFTL]

I'm surprised the Oxford Limiter didn't make your list, you mentioned that it reminds you of hardware the most out of all plugin limiters

[@sageaudio]

It's a good one for sure! But I liked the Elephant a little better for the best sound. SageAudio.com

[@musicwitharijit]

Always loved waves l2

[@sageaudio]

It's a great one! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@AutoclaveBeats]

Thank you for sharing this information...what are your thoughts on ozone's vintage limiter and maximizer for mastering? Are they any good and what type of genre would you reach out for them

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching AutoclaveBeats! That's a good one! We'll probably start using that in some more demonstrations in the future! SageAudio.com

[@MalikAmer87]

Great as always

[@sageaudio]

Thank you for watching Malik! SageAudio.com

[@LaviniaBlue]

Hey Sage! In a lot of your other videos you have true peak on and in this video I see that you say we shouldn’t use it! I’m just a lil confused 🤔

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching Lavinia! In short I was wrong lol. I've found it's better to avoid it than to use it in most cases. SageAudio.com

[@jon0830]

The premium TDR limiter 6 GE is worth the upgrade!

[@sageaudio]

Awesome thanks for letting us know! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@carlosp.1846]

Sonnox Limiter, TC MD4 HD, TC BrickwallHD, TC Master HD, DMG Equilibrium

[@sageaudio]

I like those too! Thanks for sharing your picks! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@momins-topic4470]

thanks for video

[@sageaudio]

Thank you for watching! SageAudio.com

[@nerdexproject]

Duude! I had no clue the attack on a limiter is so different than on a compressor! Wow!

[@ЕтанДрешковка]

Me too

[@sageaudio]

Awesome glad that was helpful info! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@riktascale4]

School was fun today😄

[@sageaudio]

Haha thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@danielkisel5661]

Hey, have you tried Invisible limiter G2, or new Bx_Limiter true peak?

[@sageaudio]

I've tried invisible limiter but not the Bx_Limiter yet! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@mradamcshaw]

I use Ozone 9 Maximiser. But I get better results with TDR Limiter GE.

[@sageaudio]

Nice! Those are both great plugins! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@immanuelhenry]

What's your take on the Brainworx TruePeak Limiter?

[@sageaudio]

I need to try that one! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@torescalin4327]

ty

[@sageaudio]

Thank you for watching! SageAudio.com

[@JayRah_Music]

Can you oversample on the L1 Limiter from waves?

[@sageaudio]

I believe there's internal oversampling - but I'm not entirely sure! There isn't a way to control it though. SageAudio.com

[@PaulEubanks]

Great tips, but if i'm honest even listening on my studio monitors I have a hard time hearing the subtle differences from the changes made each time in the demonstrations.

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for letting us know! We'll make the changes a little larger! SageAudio.com

[@robbirose7032]

What options are there for low level compression. I'm very itnerested in finding out more about this.

[@sean.jamieson]

Waves MV2 is a great option. Sage Audio has brought it up before. Also Xfer’s OTT, it’s multiband and free too.

[@robbirose7032]

@@sean.jamieson I'm gonna have to check them out. Thanks mate.

[@sean.jamieson]

Actually I’m not sure with OTT if you can isolate the low level compression. It might only do both at the same time. MV2 gives you that option but it’s single-band.

[@robbirose7032]

@@sean.jamieson any idea on the sonnox Oxford inflator? Is that the same sort of thing.

[@sean.jamieson]

@@robbirose7032 Hehe I’m looking at that atm on sale. It has a similar effect but it’s a actually a saturator, not a compressor. A multiband waveshaper to be exact. You can actually produce the exact effect with Meldaproductions free MWaveshaper plugin, but the inflators much easier to use by the looks of it. There’s a video on KZbin with a free preset for MWaveshaper where they do a null test and you can create the same effect. I downloaded the preset and it’s great, but to be honest... I think I’m gonna jump on the inflator while it’s on sale as it’s looks far more intuitive and adaptable, it’s really easy to go overboard with most Waveshaping plugins.

[@mus7700]

Hi , my mix is not clear. Trying to do EQ but something is missing. Help me

[@sageaudio]

Check out 150Hz to 400Hz on your instruments and see if it's too prevalent. If so, attenuate those frequencies with a bell filter. Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@JiihaaS]

Oversampling has nothing to do with quantization. It's about increasing the sample rate for the time of processing, while quantization is related to bit depth. In other words, oversampling increases sample points in the time domain, and quantization determines how accurately values are presented. Also, oversampling and true peak detection are pretty much the same thing, since true peak detection is basically achieved by oversampling. It's supposed to mimic the upsampling of a DAC, which introduces inter-sample peaks.

[@HollerAtcherBoi]

So you disagree when he says that true peak detection reduces transient impact? Or do you agree

[@heavymetalmixer91]

One thing is the detection, which he may be wrong about, but the True Peak Limiting is what's more agressive that traditional limiting, and just like him, I think it sounds worse (less impact).

[@JiihaaS]

It might be confusing that the Pro-L 2, which was used in this video on this topic, has both "true peak limiting" function _and_ oversampling, but I'm pretty sure the TP limiting is also based on oversampling one way or another. At least it should if it does what it's supposed to. According to FabFilter, you can achieve true peak detection by both, but the oversampling function adresses aliasing as well. I'll be using the terms true peak detection and oversampling as fundamentally the same thing for the rest of my post, since I don't know of any other limiter that has these as separate functions. I've not used Pro-L 2, so I don't know how its functions in particular affect the sound. So, about the question of transient impact, yes, generally speaking TP detection might reduce it when you compare to limiting without the detection. But this is based on the fact that without it, some peaks may get distorted, so you're actually comparing to potential transient distortion. It sure has more impact, but not necessarily in a good way. If you feel like you need more transient impact when TP detection / oversampling is on, I'd suggest adjusting the limiter's parameters to achieve this (e.g. longer attack, shorter lookahead). You could also try using a well designed soft clipper / saturator before the limiter to make its job easier, and that way the transient distortion will be in your hands and not uncontrollably caused by the listener's DAC.

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching! You're right in separating the ideas of quantization and sampling rate as quantization typically is related to bit-depth; however, the sampling rate of the session will affect the accuracy with which information is quantized. By increasing sample points in the time domain, as you phrased it, the amplitude of the quantized signal has more points at which the signal can be accurately represented, which in turn will make quantization more accurate, resulting in less clipping. As for oversampling and true-peak detection being the same thing - they are different processes that can be used for similar purposes. Oversampling increases the sampling rate like you said, whereas true-peak detection using functionality similar to lookahead to reduce the peaks before they're hit by the limiter if those peaks would have caused inter-sample peaking as measured by a true-peak meter. My guess is that you've looked in the Pro-L2s manual which has a lot of good info - in it, you can see where they describe the method with which true peak detection is performed. Similarly, they describe combining oversampling and lookahead as an alternative, but they don't say it's the same. SageAudio.com

[@JiihaaS]

@@sageaudio I'm interested in the idea of increased quantization accuracy while using a higher sample rate. Could you be more specific and preferably provide references? As far as I'm concerned, the quantization still happens with the accuracy of whatever the bit depth is. I believe quantization noise is spread to a wider frequency range causing it to be less audible, but the accuracy / amount of quantization error should still be the same. When a sample point is being created in between two sample points, well sure, the signal in itself is now represented more accurately, but still using the quantization accuracy determined by bit depth. I mean if a sample has the value of 1 and the next sample has the value of -1, the new sample in between should be 0 (let's just use linear interpolation here). That doesn't mean that the value of 0 wasn't possible before the use of a higher sample rate. The new sample just happens to fall there. What is your idea of true peak detection based on? This is the first time I've heard true peak detection compared to the lookahead function, while the ITU standard, referred to by many other industry standards, clearly states it should be achieved via oversampling: www.itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/bs/R-REC-BS.1770-4-201510-I!!PDF-E.pdf. Just think about it: it's the process of finding inter-sample peaks that may be caused when the signal is being presented more accurately, which in this case would be by the upsampling in a DAC. Oversampling basically consists of upsampling and downsampling. The upsampling reveals the inter-sample peaks, and it's the same process as in DAC's. I have indeed read the Pro-L 2 manual and the only information I could find about the true peak detection method was references to the ITU-compliant standards I mentioned above. That indicates it has to do with oversampling. Why it's presented as a separate thing in that particular limiter beats me.

[@tuckerbingo2491]

Who's song, very nice

[@vittoopugliese]

is fruity limiter a good limiter?

[@sageaudio]

It's a pretty good one! But there are better options out there! SageAudio.com

[@sneakboi7611]

3:35 why short amount lookahead and not long?

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching! A longer one will reduce transient impact and loudness. SageAudio.com

nice sharing 👍

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@Cosmin_TheMusicGuy]

I can't decide between L2 and Softube Weiss DS-MK3 (warning: very difficult to setup)

[@genejas]

I've found the weiss as a limiter a bit situational and kinda lackluster. The fabfilter pro L2 is my usual go to, very all round, but if you're talking about the waves L2, i treat that more as a mix tool.

[@sageaudio]

I like them both! I find I use DS-MK3 more for de-essing. Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@chike1866]

Debate for the best limiters can go on for ages

[@sageaudio]

Very true! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@IonutPlescan]

Hi bro, i haved one project on Cubase if give you all project and if you want mix & mastering for mee please? ?:)

[@Felix00007]

Song name please

[@sageaudio]

Guys Like You by Zorro. Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@eugeneeugenius5249]

I give back by watching the adverts.

[@sageaudio]

That's kind of you! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@gangsterdistrict1154]

Dmg audio limitless. Nothing comes close

[@HollerAtcherBoi]

Interesting. In what areas specifically do you think it shines over other limiters?

[@jrtaylor2601]

Limitless FTW. Why? It sounds better. I like Elevate but always come back to Limitless.

[@gangsterdistrict1154]

@@HollerAtcherBoi clarity and transparency

[@ma3boch]

Elevate but no oversampling in this plugin 😭

[@sageaudio]

That's a good one too! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com