Logic Tips - Adaptive Limiter

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This time, MusicTech expert Jono Buchanan shows you why you should take a closer look at Adaptive Limiter, Logic's built-in maximiser plug-in. Learn when in the process to use Adaptive Limiter, how to get the best from it, and possible side-effects of pushing it too hard.
Watch more Logic Tips episodes in this playlist: • Logic Tips
For more expert advice, news and reviews check out www.musictech.net
Chapters
0:00 Start
0:08 Why does Adaptive Limiter exist?
0:52 What does Adaptive Limiter do?
1:22 When do I use Adaptive Limiter?
1:56 Track playback
2:15 Understand headroom
3:38 How much gain to add
5:28 What does Lookahead mean?
6:18 What is the Out Ceiling?
7.18 Other controls
7:48 3dB vs 6dB of gain
8:51 Side effects
9:34 Recap

[@mikec.2725]

Thank you! A sound engineer asked me to do this to a song I sent for mastering. I had no idea what this was. Now I know why my songs sound so quiet!! Very much appreciate you for doing this video. Cheers!

[@chriswatt9557]

Jono’s tutorials are so, so good - clear and well planned. Great stuff.

[@MusicTechOfficial]

Glad you like them! Please share and subscribe!

[@Labyrinth1010]

Another solid video, Jono. Excellent, clear, concise explanation.

[@musicalexcursions]

Thanks so much! This is all I need. Someone to put things in a way that makes sense. It seems that my ears aren't too bad after all these years, because I've been making some of my decisions while not being really sure about some of these settings in these tools. It feels pretty good to feel like I'm heading the right direction. Please keep it up.

[@jeffrey.a.hanson]

So glad I found this channel. As the musician, I can get burnt out with the mixing and mastering, so thanks for explaining how to utilize the tools to get to the basic sound I want. Then I can use my ear from there.

[@craigwinterburn]

Brilliant these tutorials. As an almost complete novice I’m finding them very useful. Keep up the good work.

[@timdunn2344]

I went to college with him!

[@vewilli]

Excellent. You know what you talk about and you use clear understandable words, even for a non-native speaker. By the way, this is true for all your videos without exception. 👏🏻👍🏻👏🏻👍🏻👏🏻👍🏻👏🏻

[@MusicTechOfficial]

Thank you for the kind words, Willi. More coming soon. Let us know if there are any other topics you want to see us cover in future, and hit that subscribe button if you haven't already :)

[@keithkohan9654]

Finally!!!! Thank you for the clarity!!! Wish you could master my project!!

[@soundmechanicssounddesign]

Thanks, good explanation.

[@billfinch4661]

Thank you, this is exactly what I needed right now. Getting the final volume right has been an issue for me. I got Ozone 9, but it is sometimes hard to get things right. This will help.

[@jayseb]

Bill Finch Can’t live without OZ9, but sometimes, it’s key to add a limiter in LP to get that power and feel. Cheers.

[@vivekchavanmusic]

I learned so much from this. Instantly subscribed! Thank you!

[@drizzb8547]

Excellent breakdown.

[@julianjulian9163]

Perfect as always!

[@lewisinkpress]

Another excellent tutorial Jono! - Makes so much sense now - brilliant!

[@MusicTechOfficial]

Thanks Darin!

[@alexaanderjosephmartin7545]

Well explained tutorial Jono! You got the gift of teaching brother!

[@MusicTechOfficial]

Thank you for your kind words, Alexaander! If you're not subscribed already, we'd love it if you did. We've got new tutorials going up every week and another 50+ in the playlist to dig into, too. kzbin.info/aero/PL2_zHe1np2HdE5t3Ack3XS7PC8RKx8juW

[@timcorns9351]

Extremely well explained - thank you! I have one question though, if the gain dial is intelligent and can work out the maximum amount of gain you can use without distortion, why not put it all the way to '11', (or in this case 12) for maximum effect/loudness?

[@aiyka_music]

WOW!! what a clear and concise explanation.. hats off ! is it normal to set the output ceiling to -1 DB for tracks that are mastered for streaming services etc ?!

[@montelorne]

Fantastic

[@glenxoseph3016]

Great tutorial! One question: what's the difference between exporting the audio as a wave file and then mastering, and what you do here, adding mastering plugins directly to the bus?

[@jayseb]

Fantastic content as usual. Big thanks.

[@MusicTechOfficial]

Thanks seb!

[@KyromeRichards]

What lookahead value do you use? Should i use optimal of 50 ms as i cant hear any difference?

[@blessednech]

Tnx for the great video. By the way where can I purchase this specific melody?

[@jakecal6802]

That music was cool; sounds like mass effect night club

[@PabloAdame]

Thanks a lot! this helped me a lot :)

[@MusicTechOfficial]

You're welcome!

[@3xAudio]

Cool video thanks for sharing. I will use some tips in my vids

[@MusicTechOfficial]

Thank you! That's great news. Do subscribe for new tutorial videos every week :)

[@bassManDavis1953]

Thanks Jono! I'm just about to finish off a little project and can give this a try?

[@MusicTechOfficial]

Please do share it with the MusicTech Creator Community on Facebook - facebook.com/groups/282688106086104/

[@cezarileo1]

Hello, sir, thank you for the excellent tutorial. I have a question regarding the input meter on the Adaptive Limiter. What does it mean when the signal goes above 0db? Does that mean my signal is overloading and may distort? Thanks!

[@iamdannywyatt]

If the input meter goes above 0, it means that the signal going into the limiter is already too high so it will start limiting even if you have all the settings at 0. I don’t think the output meter will ever go above 0, because that’s the whole purpose of the limiter. It can, though, show you some red warnings and that is related to true peaks. If you Google “True Peaks” I’m sure you will find articles and videos explaining it, if you don’t know what they are already

[@MusicTechExplained]

Nice tutorial but there are three big mistakes: -1- DC Offset has nothing to do with hum removal. It is a highpass filter that reduces "Direct Current" -2- The explanation of True Peak Detection has nothing to do with what you are talking about. It is an over-sampling procedure that detects inter-sample peaks that cause clipping even if the Peak Meter says 0dB, no clipping. It has to do with the sample step and the actual value of the signal between those sampled steps. -3- Never ever set the Output Ceiling at -0.1dBFS without enabling the TruePeak detection or at least have a TruePeak Meter after that because most likely you will have Clipping.

[@bnanny]

What should the settings be when it’s time to bounce the track? Normalize, pow-1dithering, etc?

[@MusicTechExplained]

@@bnanny When the bounced AIFF or WAV file will be encoded to mp3 or AAC, then those perceptual coding algorithms can cause clipping even when the master is at -1dBTP. That could be even worse depending on your sonic material and how much its dynamic is crushed. That's why many streaming services recommend -2dBTP, Netflix even more. Never use Peak Normalization. Most everything out there is Loudness Normalized. That is a total different topic (and battlefield). WIth Dithering, it's getting more technical. If you bounce to 24bit, then you could ignore it. With 16bit you definitely should use Dithering. Which of the three POW-r depends on the content of your music. The dither noise is different but you can find various recommendations.

[@northernlyrics7918]

Hi mate, thank you for this . I’m new to mastering for just 3 months and been a musician for 25 year so it’s great now I can do this . The question I got is that it says -14 true peak for Spotify etc or KZbin , and sometimes wen I do the rms and it says it’s fine , the true peak says it’s maybe just under or just over -14 or -16 etc ? Does it not matter about the true peak for long as the integrated level shown here is around -1 or - 10 lufs Is it this what matters most rather than the true peak Thank you

[@iamdannywyatt]

I’m a bit confused about your question, but let me clarify something: I think his explanation of true peak is not correct. True peak is related to the relationship between digital and analog peaks. Since digital information is either 1 or 0, when you have a waveform it will round the peaks to the nearest step. For example: in digital if you have a value of 1.3 it will round it to 1, but the real number is 1.3. So while the digital peak may say you are peaking at 0dBFS, the real (true) peak in the analog world is maybe peaking at 0.4, for example. This can be a problem depending on the analog equipment, if it adapts automatically to those so called “inter sample peaks”, or not. Hope it helps a little bit

[@northernlyrics7918]

@@iamdannywyatt ok thank you . Basically i purchased the limiter true peak from waves but I don’t use it and maybe it’s for analog and that’s why lol I’ve further learnt that it’s only the around -6 that I watch my levels on in the digital world on the input before limiting to which I keep around -1 which works great etc thanks for the reply mate and feel free to checkout my channel:) it would be great to get some true followers...

[@BrawlerTM]

Good alternatives to this for an Ableton Live user?

[@MusicTechOfficial]

Check our Ableton Live Playlist for Ableton Tutorials

[@stanleylambega]

Does every track require a limited in the final stages?

[@iamdannywyatt]

In music nothing is “required”. The limiter is there to cut useless peaks that are eating headroom, so then you can raise the volume and make it closer to 0dBFS. Imagine 2 songs: one is limited and the peaks AND overall content is closer to 0dBFS while another one is not limited and the peaks AND the overall content is also closer to 0dBFS. What happens is that if you play them one after another, the one without the limiter will sound quieter. That’s because the useless peaks are close to 0dBFS and you can’t raise the volume without distorting the sound. So while limiters are not “required”, they are useful to make your tracks sound louder and compete with other tracks

[@marcinkozlowski2880]

👍👍👍

[@tomlewis4748]

What in the world would make you think that removing DC offset has anything to do with filtering out low frequencies, unless you simply don't understand what DC offset actually is? All removing DC offset does is center a waveform, balancing it evenly above and below the center amplitude line (zero), which is a definition also supported by the logic pro manual, BTW. The actual name (DC offset) is a big fat clue that tells us this. It is not a filter, it does not remove or lower frequencies in the lower band. It does nothing to frequency response. What removing DC offset does is remove anomalies that could be introduced by defective analog equipment, or unexpected deviations in the shape of a waveform, which allows everything to behave in the way it was expected to in the first place-centering a waveform properly above and below the zero amplitude line. Yes, it may have a positive effect on removing the anomaly of mains hum, but in no way does it do this by filtering lower frequencies. It does not affect one part of the frequency spectrum any differently than it affects every other part of the frequency spectrum, because it does not filter anything. This puts every other factoid you deliver in these videos in question.