The one limiter to rule them all... or not?

[@audiotoolshed]

ADPTR Streamliner - Get your audio mix and master perfect for streaming! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGTSaHaJlt2rga8

[@johnwalter564]

I have both and I tend to use the True Peak for mastering because you can get material louder with less artifacts or pumping. I tend to use the pro L for mixing. I also use the TC Electronics brick wall limiter too. The Weiss plug-ins I hear are amazing.

[@OverdriveMusic]

Great vid!!! Informative, not boring, no nonsense! Good video editing too!

[@audiotoolshed]

Thanks!! Love your name by the way.

[@LeonardoLima-nk4fv]

What about layering the BX true peak? Maybe using the first really fast with 50% wet with the XL and the last 100% total clean

[@aatrackster]

Exactly what I needed to know!! Thanks

[@audiotoolshed]

Glad it was helpful!

[@markotten1755]

Excellent video, thanks for your efforts Marlon!

[@audiotoolshed]

Hey Mark thanks! Bedankt , hoop dat het helpt ;-)

[@robsteuber3792]

White Noise Studio seems to be 11 kilometers away from my home. Nice! :) Love the comparison. Love how the BX just uses the oversampling only when needed. This makes it very versitale.

[@audiotoolshed]

Achterhoekers!! BX is pretty sweet yeah.

[@robsteuber3792]

@@audiotoolshed Zoeken jullie nog wel eens mensen om werk te doen? Mastering etc? Misschien een keer leuk om ervaringen uit te delen!

[@DICARLOPRODUCTIONS]

Great video!!!! I´ve been using the BX True Peak since it came out. It works really well for me, and all my clients have been happy. Never used the Fab Filter L2, but I did use the Waves L2 for many years. It´s dated, but it´s also a very good limiter.

[@audiotoolshed]

My preference shifts over time but I seem to grab pro-l2 all the time and as of late goldclip.

[@DICARLOPRODUCTIONS]

@@audiotoolshed I also use Elevate sometimes. Have you checked that out? New Fangled Audio makes it. I thought GoldClip was primarily a Clipper?!

[@realgoodmusic1]

Excellent video my friend! I think the bass was better on the L2 because you have the Bx True Peak limiter hpf set to cut bass below 49 hz. The bass frequencies will return if you cut that off or lower it in the tone control section.

[@DigiMixAudio]

Great comparison Marlon! I'm fine tuning my mixes with my bx subscription, and liking the results. Thanks!

[@audiotoolshed]

Thanks Jake!

[@papa.alfredo]

Did you already review the Sonible Limiter, it seems to be just great

[@audiotoolshed]

Yeah I did an overview video of the smart:limit and it ended up in my top 5 most useful plugins of 2021 video as well. Very handy tool.

[@elrapanda]

2021 and people still think you need to limit 6+ db to get louder..... it makes your song even lower.... and yeah the bx sounds better but if you only need to limit 1bd like pro studios do today you don't need the bx to sound better, both good options, get the cheaper and done.

[@audiotoolshed]

True. Limiting for loudness is mostly bs these days. Some still want it though for whatever reason. To reach at least streaming loudness you need a limiter mostly, especially with very dynamic material. Using a limiter to control transients on for instance separate tracks and more is most definitely a workflow one needs to know. Also pro studios don’t just do 1dB, it’s all about sound and and whichever tool get’s the result these days.

[@elrapanda]

@@audiotoolshed yes but Not totally right, you don't need a limiter to get loudness, now days with commercial normalization you want a less average and a louder momentary, so if you squash your limiter to the limit you gonna get more average, it means more negative normalization in platforms and less dynamic range too, worst sound etc, all the info its out there, you only need study a "pro song" a bit to confirm this info, of course depends de genere but top mastering engineers and studios don't need limit more than a db because there are better techniques to get the right loudness, greetings.

[@audiotoolshed]

@@elrapanda well I don’t disagree with the thought process behind it, and squashing a track for some loudness is bs of course simply because it’s the wrong approach. And I agree you always MIX for loudness if that’s what you’re after, EDM and metal is stuffed with those techniques. Also when on the end master you only need 1dB of limiting it means the mix is already great and that limiting has 100% happened on group busses / individual tracks. And don’t forget that by using saturation also takes care of transient by reducing them, which in itself limits those peaks as well.

[@danzactivaballaja6083]

Will someone please compare bx_Truepeak to Elevate? Also reviewing Ik Multimedias 'Distressor" before the sale ends would be nice. Also thank you for your excelent videos even if I don't agree with this one.

[@audiotoolshed]

Thanks for the suggestions!

[@DrScythe]

Sooo...for a casual user with the PA subscription like me the bx one is good enough. Although it's metal I go for 13 LUFs max and the bx will do that effortlessly, got it. Working on a proper album and was worried to ruin it using the bx considering all the bad talking about it at gearspace..

[@audiotoolshed]

I wouldn’t use gear space as a benchmark on truthful opinions on how a plug-in works tbh. Why do you go for -13lufs max? Is it a sound choice? Because metal usually loves a bit of limiting, if it’s too dynamic metal loses impact. And streaming services normalize anyway, so go for what sounds best, not a number :-)

[@DrScythe]

@@audiotoolshed Yeah that much is clear - most of the times it's folks with personal agendas bashing certain developers but the overall tone was quite negative except for the occasional post so I figured it maybe isn't up to the task generally I couldn't hear any improvement pushing it to 10 or more and listening back to it at similar levels so I went for keeping it as intact as possible. I used to release monthly when I started this channel (you can clearly hear mixing skills vanish if you listen from new to old ;) ) to make it easier to learn from song to song so my ears just weren't trained enough probably. So I just looked up what streaming sites use and used that as a reference. Thanks for the advice it'll definitely come in handy later this year! And I should mess around with this a little until then maybe my ears will catch up. Thanks again!

[@audiotoolshed]

@@DrScythe True, most limiters can limit upon a certain limit and stop doing anything after that, The're simply nothing to limit anymore ;-) If you went for sound and ended up at that -13 it's fine! I have seen cases where people do master for streaming loudness and reduce the output to get to -13 or -14 by reducing that output a few dB's when they have less headroom and that's just stupid. I do have my gripes with the bx_limiter which I pointed out in this video, and the pro-l does distort less to my suprise, the BX wins clearly in the transient area and is uncolored by default. I think most of the negative comments are due to the bold claim thet the bx is '' the one limiter to rule them all'' which is a very bold claim and not true, so there weill be backlash even before someone actually tested it. That said, the BX is a very good limiter and Ipersonally use it in my currents projects. But I also use the Pro-L2 just as before, because that is is also very, very good.

[@DrScythe]

@@audiotoolshed I used KClip by Kazrog in the beginning and had no idea what it does except for "louder". I am a one man show so from writing music to recording and mixing it it was and is all me. I can understand beginners who are overwhelmed by everything. You've got that song that means something to you and no money for a studio (at least that was it in my case). So you try and do everything yourself. It ends up a little overwhelming and you either live with the compromise of "that's the best I can do for now" or end up not finishing it. You can't start out and understand everything from basic EQing and compression, 'producing', having a vision/goal for the sound AND technicalities like loudness. Technical stuff is the most terrifying aspect to most so it's fairly easy to understand that you end up with weird choices like reducing the output to get to a certain LUF-number. If you do that knowingly on the other hand...hm It's funny that everyone knows that this is the go-to-approach for any PA release but is enraged anyway. Ain't nobody got time for that ;) To me "very good" for experienced engineers is good enough by default for any of my use cases to be honest. I've got it anyway and the FabFilter-stuff seems to be fantastic but out of my price range for stuff I already have covered from several companies (saturation, EQs, comps). I just noticed we're just about 100km apart...the internet is a village. Greetings neighbor and stay safe!

[@audiotoolshed]

@@DrScythe Yeah , outrage about nothing special is the trend these days. There are other things to get really outraged about at the moment ;-) About the loudness and all, in the end it only matters if it sounds good to you and your listeners. Who cares which plugins you used, the listeners wont care anyway. The comments on this video actually inspired me to make a video about limiting to show what my thoughts about it are and how I approach limiting in mixes and masters. 100km is close indeed! If i do my best i can almost jump into germany^^ Stay safe as well neigbour ;-)

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

Marlon, you are a King!

[@audiotoolshed]

thanks man! hope all is well :-)

[@bluematrix5001]

6:38 actually the Fabfilter sounds way cleaner than the Brainworx in your voice ...just the brainworks sounds a bit darker... .... but for music maybe the BX is a bit better ...both are good limiters

[@audiotoolshed]

I still grab the pro-l2 basically every time. I need to dial in the BX more to get similar results in sound, and i rather grab something which get's me there immediately. it's preference really.

[@djtuff514]

Great video, needed that, but why did you use the bx in classic mode ?

[@audiotoolshed]

Thanks! It’s not always in classic mode, but you can’t see that in the video. I cut some parts which didn’t work on KZbin, because of the video export compression and KZbin’s compression. It impacts what you hear, there’s no way to work around that. But the video does show the differences well enough :-)

[@djtuff514]

@@audiotoolshed Ahhh gotcha, thanks, keep up the amazing work, your one of the very few that explains elements of plugins properly

[@audiotoolshed]

Thanks for the kind words :-) And i even didnt try to make a plugin review haha, just a comparison ^^

[@eminem2000jianghua]

真是精彩的对比！学习了！！

[@tiadiad]

I love them both. They're like my children. DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE!!!

[@audiotoolshed]

Lol!! And there's smart:limit lurking around the corner ;-)

[@icemike2c2h]

Great Video

[@audiotoolshed]

Thanks!

[@FoliaSound]

Did you try to take any bass only content like kick + bass or generally bass oriented/driven music? BX is not transparent at all, sorry to say :( I was able to achieve way better and more transparent results with Pro-L2, thanks to i.e Lookahead function that you didn't use in your vocal test and it's a truly vital one! I'll drop my vid soon, come by and take a listen, greetings and keep up good work!

[@audiotoolshed]

Sorry m8, better pay attention. Lookahead was on the whole time on the pro l2 since the bx_limiter does that automatically and this track is bass heavy. I'll take a peak when your video is up!

[@FoliaSound]

@@audiotoolshed , your vocal try, that's what I mean. No lookahead there when pushing the limiter hard :)

[@audiotoolshed]

That's true, to showcase the distortion. Even with lookahead down to zero the pro-l2 can be pushed a bit more there to my suprise on vocal. On music, the brainworx wins on transients and beinging uncoloring. The low end build up of the l2 was also surprising to me. With 1 instance it's little, but with the stacking you start to notice it a lot. But, i still use the L2 for sure, and brainworx has been used on a few projects as well. Another tool to be used! i'm mostly happy to see the brainworx is another flavor, another tool. But is it the one limiter to rule them all? I beg to differ.

[@FoliaSound]

@@audiotoolshed , ok, I got your point. I still believe that bx is overhyped this time and doesn't sound transparent, leaving awful artifacts below 100 Hz. Its sound seems not too present, quite hollow, like it was dead immediately, though LUFS are perfectly matched with Pro-L 2. FabFilter won easily in my shootout, BUT I tried one more limiter and THEN I was blown away. I didn't know that you can be that smooth, transparent and musical. Ah, one more remark: I believe that when comparimg things it's really, really better to take 8-bars phrase, or even 4 bars that testing things just on one bar. This is unmusical and doesn't let any tool shine.

[@audiotoolshed]

Funny, i have a different conclusion. The bx doesnt add anything to the sound, the pro L has that low end boost, so maybe you prefer a more hyped sound. That's fine. Also it took 4 pro l's to get close to what the brainworx does by itself(!!) in regards of transients. I disagree with your last remark for the very simple reason you can only make proper objective judgements when you a/b short parts otherwise the feel of music and difference in the music will interfere with the observation and you get into subjective territory which makes by default a bad and unreliable test. I have too much experience in mixing and mastering where I found too often simple tenths of dB changes of sound will affect your opinion on what will sound bettter, so short, constant, objective is the proper way to go.

[@gammakeraulophon]

Hey... nice material! Reminds me of Eno produced Talking Heads... Refreshing not to have to listen to generic soul r'n'b wannabee music, which so msny plugin demonstrators appear to favour.

[@audiotoolshed]

Thanks! This audio track is a remake or let’s say “inspired by” the song Time by Stone. An 80s funk track.

[@gingataff]

I got the bx for $25 with a sale price and Plugin Alliance monthly voucher.

[@audiotoolshed]

very good deal!

[@Dot_je]

Yes valid comments on the UI design, but this is always a weak point of Plugin alliance. It seems that "old analogue" biased developers (or CEO's) want classical gear. They should use invest in real UX designers and optimize (not clutter) screen space: innovating by improving functionality & interactions. The best of both worlds: classic UI and modern design options ... not just changing colours.

[@audiotoolshed]

Agree with what you say fully. A hardware interface is different then an interface on screen, make adjustments so it works optimal there. Plugin Alliance dont make plugins themselves, its every brand on their own mostly. Some plugins do offer scalability. There's a job application for an UI designer at brainworx by the way ;-) Edit 2: Just read this on the PA facebook page: FREE bx_limiter TP update with GUI ZOOM (50% - 150%) coming soon! Read the story below for more info. So that will fix that issue.

[@famitory]

best limiter is TB brickwall and OTT in series with their gains maxed

[@audiotoolshed]

I’m eager to find out how the Weiss limiter sound as well.

[@valgimorais602]

@@audiotoolshed weiss is top no joke but expensive

[@audiotoolshed]

@@valgimorais602 that and the demoing is a bit wrid with ''online'' demo-ing.

[@bangubw736]

Aom invisible limiter is the best

[@audiotoolshed]

Never saw it.

[@bangubw736]

@@audiotoolshed kzbin.info/www/bejne/iIHNYo2vmrl9h9k

[@audiotoolshed]

Didnt you get the joke ;-)

[@bangubw736]

@@audiotoolshed I'm too slow. 😂 good 1

[@audiotoolshed]

;-)

[@abolit]

Brainworx would not bother making GUI resizable. Too much of work for same money. F..k what. the customers want! LOL

[@audiotoolshed]

Hehe. I know that some plugin create softwares dont have the ability to resize build in, but also that some plugin companies have found a way to work around that.