How to use the Waves L2 Ultramaximizer for mastering - our favourite trick! | Mastering Explained

Learn this useful mastering strategy and put it in your bag of tricks!
The Waves L2 Ultramaximizer is a more than 20 years old peak limiter. And even though most modern limiters are way better, you can still get some great and unique sounds out of it!
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💚 Sofia & Thomas

[@conanliquid]

Thanks for the video dude. I still love the L2 after all these years and recommend it to all my students to get that "pop" sound. I also used the hardware when it first came out. The plugin is great. It just has that sound that is so familiar to people. It is like a subtle bit of magic dust. It is also good to use two instances in mid/side which is possible with a little work.

[@GRIDKEEPER]

thank you so much. I owned a mastering studio 20 years ago and my engineer was George Lambert. We cut vinyl as well as mastering cd's. We had a huge amount of hardware including the L2, Chiswick Reach Compressor and GML parametric eq which was my personal favorite combination. George taught me how to use that and the results were incredible. Now I am producing pop music again and trying to master all digital and it sounds like a wonky donkey. Stuck on L2 until I found this video so thank you again.

[@MasteringExplained]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing! /Thomas

[@itsmelffie]

Thanks for sharing all these tips! They are so helpful! immediately subbed :)

[@VineMusic91]

The thing I've been asking for years.......thanks man

[@MuzikkZone]

Thanks for the detailed information. Going to try this

[@graywyot]

This trick is super interesting. Thank you for your sharing!

[@MasteringExplained]

Hope you find it useful! :) /Thomas

[@jerrylmusic]

Gladly I have now the rarely L2 hardware version from waves and I will never ever give it away 🥰 I think it’s great tool in my hybrid studio and very good sounding. Thank you for this super tip and your good video. Kind regards from Germany, Jerryl

[@SonnyGreenwichJr]

I can't wait to test this trick! Thanks! I've smashed all the smashers! Salutations from astonishingly grey, wet & locked down Ireland! ☘️☮️🤘🏽🤠👍🏽☮️☘️

[@MasteringExplained]

Now I have also smashed all the smashers on your wonderful comment! ☺️ Have a nice Saturday! /Sofia

[@stevenewtube]

Very helpful indeed. Thank you for the tip.

[@StratsRUs]

Thank you for such great advice.

[@stygianhaven5907]

You gave some good sauce away for free. Thank you!

[@MasteringExplained]

We try to make ourselves useful! 😎 Glad you liked it!

[@Boomtrooper]

Wow - would never have known this! Tried it and, yes... there is a change in mid range crunch that I probably would never have noticed but now it's pointed out it's so obvious! Thanks for such a superb description... 👍👍👍

[@MasteringExplained]

Awesome! Glad it was helpful! :) /Thomas

[@zarlok5294]

Great tip! I have all the L series limiters and fell to the illusion that the L2 was passé. Nope! I use Reaper so your double mono L2 trick worked great on a track that has a lot of crunchy electric guitar on it. It did exactly what you said it would. Brought them forward, tweaked the mids in just the right zone, and spread the whole mix while giving a nice little nudge to the overall mids! Nice! Thanks! I’m about ten years in now and finally starting to sort things out and am looking at the mastering stage. Just discovered your channel! You’re tips are spot on! 👍

[@LosFicosMusic]

YUP IT WORKS! What do I Notice: The Vocals Coloration now sounds exactly like it did during the mixing stage!!! When I used the DMG or FAB L2 AloneThe coloration use to change and sound a deeper tone when pushing the threshold. I also noticed that the Tracks Now Sounds way less Crunchy now after applying the TRICK! I also use DMG!

[@afnannn]

Wow. Cool trick. Thanks for the share

[@ogopadeejays]

Bravo! this is very interesting !

[@renemonrow1326]

Yeah, great Thomas! I work`d with the L2 Hardware in the 90s, but now to use the Waves L2 Plugin for the mono left and right side, is a amazing favourite trick of your´s and bring me a lot of steps higher 🙂 thanks a lot for sharing this Video. Cheers Reen Monrow

[@MasteringExplained]

Glad it was helpful! /Thomas

[@christianheck9325]

Thanks for sharing !

[@MusicByDarcy]

Very useful trick, will use on my next master.

[@MasteringExplained]

Great to hear! :) /Thomas

[@gibson2623]

Very nice.....Thanks for the tip mate ;)

[@gidiyongidi17]

Well explained Respect ❤

[@sixstring3639]

Great tip!

[@MasteringExplained]

👍

[@compoundaudio]

Interesting :) thank you for sharing

[@MasteringExplained]

Glad you liked it! :) /Thomas

[@claudiotungo4156]

Thnx. So kind

[@jimmylennon3088]

great thank you

[@lun-xbeats7847]

the best videos thank you

[@LAVIEENROSETV]

incredible

[@Byronic19134]

For whatever reason I dont like the multiband version of DMG limiter, but TrackLimit is my go too, I just put it on aggressive or Punchy and whatever that eq profile does is the exact sound Im looking for.

[@Barncore]

Would love to see a vid on how to use DMG Limitless or Multiplicity

[@trajanorecords]

you are the best!

[@rawbinmo]

Thanks!

[@MasteringExplained]

Thank you, much appreciated! /Thomas

[@TWEAKER01]

Many of us have (or had) the hardware L2 because the sequence was this: L1 (software), L2 (hardware), L2 (software L2), then the others, L3 etc. And correct: there was no real competition at the time. Jünger, and Sony perhaps. Of course, with really good converters (on the analog side) some minor clipping often sounded better than limiting. Waves really ought to (and could) update the L2 with at least oversampling, un-linking, and perhaps the better meter resolution of the software.

[@chike1866]

🤗🤗🤗 thank you so much. Please let's have more tips. I just subscribed

[@MasteringExplained]

👍 More tips are coming! :) /Thomas

[@alexvelazquez3679]

good shit bud

[@Septimopiso]

Hi there! nice info! i will suggest if you try the pings routing conenctor in reaper plugion chains and i think you can put 2 L2 ,one for the left and the other for the right channels! Cherrs

[@Ozeandourven]

Supeeerrr👍👍

[@allforgodslove]

Super❤️ Possible in logic pro x???

[@mixbygygyondbeat1295]

Weldone u gat my like and subscription

[@MasteringExplained]

Glad you liked it! We have a lot of fun things planned for this channel in the coming months. /Thomas

[@Heaven-dy9lj]

The Waves L2 gives some middle grit like no other. Try other plug in but this seems to add some magic.

[@almaroxxmusic]

I use an l1 and l2 plugin in tandem to smash my mixes (for volume and just for reference). I gotta say I'm probably happy with the rests 40% of the time. These limiters do not seem to bring stuff out of the speakers but they seem to make things quieter if that makes any sense. Any advice on what to use to bring my mixes to a satisfactory listening level outside my studio and not get totally blanketed neutered mixes but also not over hype the mixes either?

[@MasteringExplained]

Modern limiters tend to sound much better for increasing loudness IMO. The L2 is famous for making things quieter. It's really useful if the snare is too loud in the mix. /Thomas

[@rohankadarnauth1793]

I use Loudmax Limiter

[@timothybondaudio]

In Logic you can load as dual mono - does this do the same thing?

[@ahmtTyln]

Modern limiters are so powerful and so much transparent compared to their predecessors. And yet the recordings of the 90s- 2000s era still sounds so good , so warm and punchy and have a very decent amount of dynamic range compared to the todays modern masters ( ''despite the fierce loudness wars at that time).. I guess the musical content and the creativity goes deep down while the audio technologies goes sky rocket..

[@avationmusic]

it's just the loudness war that has ruined things for us. our mixes have gotten better but they got squashed more

[@KARAMHYAT]

Linking/unlinking feature is available on the FabFilter L2 if i'm not wrong?

[@MasteringExplained]

Fabfilter Pro-L 2 is a completely different plugin than the old Waves L2. :) /Thomas

[@joaquinruiz3039]

To put an L2 in L and another in R, can I open two Blue cats and put one in L and another in R? thank you

[@briancase6180]

The reason there's no unlink on the plugin? Because it's 20 years old, and twenty years ago, CPUs were not powerful enough to be able to reliably handle the load of two, unkinked limiters. That's my belief. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, please. 👍 Nice video, thanks.

[@MasteringExplained]

Yeah, that might very well be the case, although I would suspect that most of the calculations for both channels would need to be done regardless. But CPU consumption was certainly more important back then, good point. :) /Thomas

[@xsensvit8660]

This is Awesome! You're Awesome! Also very cult.

[@MasteringExplained]

Thanks! Glad you liked it! :) /Thomas

[@DaveRave23]

Have you tried and had any success doing this trick with other limiters at the end of the chain - for other flavours ?

[@MasteringExplained]

The Waves L2 is the only one I use mainly for its character, but I sometimes use two or more limiters in series if I need to make a loud master. Then it's mostly about balancing the limiter artifacts. /Thomas

[@ichoffiziell1359]

How can I do that in Cubase that one is on the left and the other is also on the right....ore in to Wavelab

[@MasteringExplained]

Yes, routing that in Cubase and wavelab is something that neither me or Thomas know how to do. Maybe somebody who is a cubase or wavelab user can also comment! Good question! /sofia

[@joeyf808]

Any way to do this in logic pro x?

[@MasteringExplained]

Very probable ☺️ We don’t use logic so we have no input on that unfortunately! /Sofia ☀️

[@miladbarikani3591]

deadmau5 was using exactly your method on his songs (2 mono , after main limiter , only 1.5 threshold,all) when i saw that , I was like why anybody want to use two limiter together and I was tend to think he is a moron edm producer that just copy plugins together now you explain it all to me with example at the end and the vibes was so much different with and without , I understand I was the fool one

[@ryanedwardmusic]

Why turn off ARC?

[@nightuniverse8314]

Do you have two channels? I thought I was already subbed?

[@MasteringExplained]

No, just this one. :)

[@obergmagnus]

Ebb och Flod! Dags för släpp? :D

[@MasteringExplained]

Mycket möjligt... :) /Thomas

[@LosFicosMusic]

Those eyes! I Can Tell he knows what he is talking about by those eyes!

[@TheMax1508]

does this trick also work with L1?

[@MasteringExplained]

Try it! I haven't used the L1 for this and I don't know how similar it would sound in this application, but there might be some good sounds to be found there anyway. :) /Thomas

[@TheMax1508]

@@MasteringExplained thanks Thomas, I will definitely try. Great channel anyway 💪

[@MR_Cellarpop]

Tackar

[@midnightsocean2689]

The L2 plugin DOES have dual mono mode. So it can work just like the hardware in that regard. When you load the plugin, you just have to choose dual mono instead of stereo. I don't know why you think it didn't have this option. Maybe waves updated the plugin since you made this video. My version of the L2 is the older v12 though and it still has the dual mono mode. So even older version can link or decouple the left and right stereo channels.

[@MasteringExplained]

That's great! I'm still using v9 and that only has the (linked) stereo plugin and the (1 channel) mono plugin. /Thomas

[@cristopherjohansson1323]

Have been using it in dual/multi mono for many many years inside Pro Tools. So is this a new feature when you load it up in stereo mode?

[@facundobrizuela5346]

only in pro tools you have this option on vst are l2 mono or l2 stereo

[@michaeltracksuitaudio]

I still use 2 on the mater bus. Turn off the dithering

[@TWEAKER01]

thing is it always dithers (IDR) at least to 24 bit, matching the hardware which was AES/EBU at 24 bits.

[@totigerus]

Maybe I should give up music I cant hear the difference

[@MasteringExplained]

Don’t do that... It’s subtle but you can look for this small difference in sound if you focus your ears on the crunchiness of the upper mids. /Sofia

[@totigerus]

@@MasteringExplained i'll try again thx

[@aydenperkins2005]

Can you post videos of you reading bedtime stories with the same soft voice and mic you used in this video so I can fall asleep within 2 minutes

[@MasteringExplained]

Thomas doesn’t seem to know how to answer this so I’ll just give it a thumbs up for now 😅 /Sofia

[@aydenperkins2005]

🤣

[@nightuniverse8314]

I think Pro L2 is better

[@MasteringExplained]

Most modern limiters are better peak limiters than the ancient Waves L2. But the sound it makes is quite unique and makes it worth having it for those times that it really shines. 🎶 /Thomas

[@SouthernEmperor]

The Pro L2 diminishes your sub harmonics if you are mastering Hip Hop or R&B that has low end. That's the only issue with the Pro L2-Fabfilter.

[@nightuniverse8314]

@@SouthernEmperor I use Ozone Maximizer now. Usually I have to put a compressor on my kick before the maximizer on my stereo output. Prevents clipping or crazy boom with the kick drum.