BETTER than FABFILTER? || Sonible Smart:Limit

[@cougarman8]

I hate KZbin thumbnail surprise faces so much

[@jnaramusic]

Exactly what I needed to find. I’ve researched a lot of limiters and finally I find one that’s not too expensive (on holidays sales) and has great quality with great features. It will replace my Waves L2. Thank you for sharing🙏🏽

[@djkickflip_amsterdam]

Great plugin, also: that song is sick!!! best sandstorm so far

[@TjMoon91]

I’m not usually too concerned with the aesthetics of a plug-in, but this thing really does look great. Hopefully it sounds as good as it looks!

[@gulagwarlord]

I just tried it on a dubstep track, sounds a lot better than the other limiters I've tried like pro-L, ozone, and boost. The "learn" function actually works incredibly well. Really nice!

[@TraxtasyMedia]

This plugin wins the loudness war easily. Your turn Dan Worral 😎 The song is: DaRickAstleyrude - Sandrollstorm

[@Nik_Rubin]

Section on the right is input histogram vs. output histogram, so you can see how dynamics are squeezed.

[@alexmasters23]

for those wondering about the song used it's Rude Sand by Da Storm

[@530Zeno]

If you own a focusrite product, go get the Fast bundle right now for only $99. Seriously. I've been going between FF Pro-L2 and Ozone Maximizer. I've been trialing this smart limit and think I'm about to shelve them both. This thing is insane. A little more cpu intensive, and no visible Oversampling that I've seen, but at least 3x the features otherwise and sounds AMAZING

[@CROWNJAMSTUDIOS]

An absolutely great limiter - I think about replacing my PRO L2 with it. A few days of comparison tests in my current productions and then I decide \m/ Keep on rockin’

[@tonezou3918]

Yeah, easy said than done - my Pro L2 is part of a bundle, I'll have to sell my whole bundle :(

[@Trian0ng]

so did you end up replacing it with your L2? Also are you using the same limiter today in 2024

[@JoeyFTL]

How is the distortion monitoring feature so different from that of Pro L's?

[@Griuofficial]

Thanks for the review!

[@ToxiKraft]

This limiter sounds awesome! I'm gonna have to grab this! Could this replace Pro L? Guess I'll find out! Heading over to try it out now!

[@DJayFreeDoo]

I'm thinking of stacking this with the Elevate limiter.

[@notime4toi]

so what's the song he's using as the demo?? i like it, can anyone tell me??thanks

[@Bextra242]

compared the smart limit and the pro L side by side with more or less the same settings. The pro L sounds way better to my ears, even tho the smart limit offers more features, the pro L is better built in terms of sound quality. but that's just personal prefference of course, both are great limiters

[@lonzmusik]

It seem like it take the energy from the more and color the mix to me.

[@achrest4194]

Really like this limiter, also brainworx True peak, both have great options

[@BartekEVH]

Yes. Fantastic plugin!! :)

[@glitchunicorn]

sounds sick!

[@scottfaircloff9530]

sweet!! thanks!

[@rafalvarezsevilla]

it's best to have the release longer than 50ms so your bass doesn't distort

[@atarifalcon]

Name of the track....🤔 Well, maybe "Welcome The Pleasuredome" by an artist called "Holly Goes To Frankfurt". Perhaps. but maybe not. 😁

[@DeadWhiteButterflies]

The layout reminds me of Ozone, weirdly.

[@exxon47_]

The song he's playing is called sandstorm and it's by this artist called darude

[@krasen671]

does this guy make the tracks? or does he take like community submissions

[@queenpurple8433]

I’d just use it to take the settings and then plug them into Pro L2

[@PurpleMusicProductions]

This is really nice but I will stick with Fabfilter L2 since I obtained it recently and I like the performance but it's great to have options.

[@kommunismusarbeiterjonny]

the song is sandstorm by darude

[@vr6936]

..but it is definitely not bettar than bx limiter true peak. I compared them in terms of pure limiting. No chance for Smartlimit.

[@modular7even]

I've been using the fabfilter limiter for a while now, and while it's served me well, this one's just better, I dialed in the same settings, and voila, I can definitely hear the difference, its just clean.. I always come thru your channel because I know your not gonna sugar coat a product, bless.

Besides the quality of the plugin, I liked the song you showcased in this example. It has some kind of GTAVC mood 😆

[@mixphantom0101]

Sonible nailed it. Sounds great, looks great and is ergonomically excellent... not a rusty screw in sight! 😁 I was concerned there was no oversampling setting but was pleased to see I couldn't coax any aliasing out of it! So, most likely it's always oversampled 4x... which makes sense! Raise your hand if you have accidentally output a master without oversampling!

[@HolarMusic]

i hate how fabfilter doesn't believe in offline oversampling

[@ryanpwm]

@@HolarMusic besides when they do it? If you set oversampling, it will oversample offline or not.

[@HolarMusic]

@@ryanpwm i thought it was clear enough that i was talking about an oversampling setting that's different offline from realtime

[@mrnelsonius5631]

@@HolarMusic FWIW I don’t believe in it either. I don’t want what I print to sound different from what I’m hearing pre print EVER.

[@CLdwyer]

I can hear the impact of the spectral balance. There was less distortion and more clarity on the midrange. Like this one. It’s a one stop shop! But you can also do what this thing does with an actual mastering chain & good monitoring. Limiter (Knee Control), Clipper, Resonance Control, Low End Control. BUT the fact that it’s all put into one plugin is really helpful to more users.

[@PASHKULI]

through KZbin... of course you can...

[@CLdwyer]

@@PASHKULI I use things like Soothe & Spectral/Resonance control often. I notice it because I know what I'm listening for. Doing it will impact the buildup in the midrange.

[@memeswillneverdie]

@@PASHKULIdo you actually know what KZbin does to your audio and why it would effect the fidelity, please, explain?

[@PASHKULI]

@@memeswillneverdie it compresses .flac\PCM, such as those FHD, 2K, 4K videos and so on. It is a form of an "AC-3" or .ogg like. Google is your friend.

[@memeswillneverdie]

@@PASHKULI you didn’t answer the latter half of my question, I’m aware of the codecs and the differences, my point being that the psychoacoustic filtering of the lossy codecs does impact the fidelity of the sound, particularly at higher frequencies, but wouldn’t change one’s ability to hear subtle resonance suppression, it might present slightly differently but you’d be able to hear it, I have smart limit myself and I hear the difference, the same way I heard it in the video.

[@InsideOfMyOwnMind]

Addicted To Your Love by House of Stay. There you go. Y'all are welcome.

[@supertoaster7]

song is "House Of Say - Addicted to Your Love" for the people asking :)

[@deidrim86]

🤝

[@professorscrim5303]

I think you'll find its actually 'Sandstorm by Darude' :)

[@baronvonbeandip]

@@professorscrim5303 Guy doesn't even know Sandstorm. Cmon.

[@AzureSymbiote]

Thank you very, very much!

[@exortor]

I thought it was "sandstorms - Darude"

[@sadkebab]

Those 4 knobs are the best sound shaping features I ever heard in a limiter. I feel like Pro-L tends to make the sound of the mix a little boxy and dull and I always end up boosting few foundamental frequencies and add some presence before going into the limiter in order to preserve the impact of the song... and the difference I heard in the movements you made with those controls sounded a lot like the enhancement moves I make every time so I guess this could simplify a lot my workflow.

[@jspacone]

I just recently got Smart Limit, Smart Comp, Smart EQ, and Smart Reverb. I really appreciate that you can go fully automatic, fully manual, or anywhere in between. You can get excellent settings in just a few seconds with the auto mode, or you can tweak to your heart’s content. I really like these Sonible plug-ins, and I’m looking forward to getting more of them!

[@GrumpyGr3g]

An update from you in shorts in the next weeks would be nice to have more words from your point of view after several use! But definitely looks nice, sounds nice and deserves a good try! Thanks for the review! Take care.

[@aLr_boosh]

Addicted to Your Love by House of Say is the track name and Artist.

[@mrnelsonius5631]

Oh man. I love the Sonible plugins. Love them. Didn’t think I needed this, but they included a delta setting! That’s my big thing with brick wall limiters: they should all have a delta built in so you can hear the artifacts/distortion, and most don’t. You can do it yourself with some routing (basically doing a null test) but it’s a pain in the butt. I’m broke right now but want this 🙃

[@Trackformers]

Black Friday just went.. we're all broke 🤣 Sonible got to me too late

[@kutchutozov]

@@Trackformers But now I need to get myself something for christmas 🤔🤓

[@Trackformers]

@@kutchutozov So true 😏

[@massivebeatzz]

almost as good as Weiss - but not quite - they are 550 dollars. So get your card ready haha

[@mrnelsonius5631]

@@massivebeatzz I actually own the Weiss plugins and am not a big fan of the limiter as a final brick-wall at all. The Weiss DS-1 is the best sounding multiband compressor I’ve ever used. It’s a class act. But the limiter (and it’s separate Maximizer) are good sounding but not great. And if you think about the aging Weiss hardware that makes sense: limiters are one thing where hardware doesn’t sound better even in a subjective sense. The modern limiters used on practically every mastered recording we’ve heard the last ten years (and more) were digitally limited, and by modern digital tech. I’d be shocked if the Weiss Maximizer has replaced any professional mastering engineer’s final limiter

[@pierbover]

People still use L2 as a reference but it's pretty old at this point (released in 2017). How does smart:limit compare to something more modern like Elevate?

[@jeromejamies3641]

Plugintester has a limiter shootout video with sonible, elevate and some more. I won't buy sonible.

[@flavormusic523]

I have fabfilter and i thought it was amazing, i had waves plugins before that, and when i tryed out the fabfilter, i was amazed, like, i could listen to every little frequency, like, every sibilent of the track, i could do things 100% proffesional with the fabfilter that i couldn't do with waves. That was a step up for equilizer, also, i really liked the compressor, and i liked the reverb, like, i like everything with fabfilter, that was amazing to me, better then everything i've tryed before in equilizing. I think fab filter is a game changer in both equilizing and music, mixing and everything, i think.

[@andyf6484]

based on this quick example and the tooltips, the balance control seems to work like a one knob gulfoss/soothe/ozone spectral processing, and the bass control seems like Ozone's low end control. if that's true (or even close to it), it's awesome they're packaged in one plugin!

[@donnythompson408]

Andy, I don’t use Ozone, so I am unfamiliar with what its low end control does…is it a basic low end shelf EQ, or, is it more of a dynamic EQ for the low end? Based on what I briefly heard here in this Sonible vid, when Wytse turned this control up, it sounded to me like it’s just a low end shelving EQ, but, the description he read about “tightening low end definition” sorta implies that there’s dynamic EQ involved… Anyhooo… Just interested in how Ozone’s low end definition control works. 🙏😊

[@palebluedotstudios]

I'm thrilled you heard what I heard: this is a QUALITY limiter. Reacts well to being pushed! I think this will become my main limiter now.

[@heathrezabek]

Spectacular. And, once again we see why Sandstorm by Darud is the endlessly flexible gold standard for audio stress-tests of all kinds...

[@Tonehenge]

Long time Sonible customer. Downloaded the demo, used on one tune, saw the loyalty price, purchased on the spot. It has instantly become my go to limiter, displacing the excellent Boz "The Wall".

[@alchemistrpm82]

Ah, my favorite tune: Sandstorm, by the inimitable Darude. Run it back

[@valoelios40]

Can´t believe this!!!! Now Sobile is offer ing the entire smart:bundle for only 199,- €!!!!! Running over buying instantly!

[@davidasher22]

I’m pretty sure he’s using the secret song off of Ministry’s first album “With Sympathy”. Very rare track indeed.

[@TonyLeTone]

Can't find the song. Got a link please?

[@davidasher22]

@@TonyLeTone I’m pretty sure you need a modem that connects to the multiverse to download the song. I can send you the sheet music!? 😂

[@davidspingler6337]

So, how long until the SmartEngineer AI powered plugin comes along to replace the inconvenience of having to use a human engineer? 😅

[@FedericoMcCartney]

I can't understand why says "spotify will turn down.. bla bla" That's not true, if you realease a song -14 it's gonna be quiter than the others, every master engineer are delivering a -10 -11 lufs at the very least if not -9, and spotify it's not turning down the difference

[@johnc7671]

So this is half-right. Mastering engineers are sending song on a wide range of loudness measurements mainly based on genre and arrangement, but the implication is If a listener turns on loudness normalization in their streaming service, then all songs will be “leveled” in loudness to a degree by auto-mastering by that service. Some just turn the volume down, some have some kind of dynamics algorithm, etc. So the mastering engineers for streamers that shoot for -10s get away with it using a -1 dbfs output level for competitive loudness standards, but that’s what people usually mean when they say services “turn down” the records, etc.

[@Rhythmattica]

Picks pop 10's template , Plays 20's , that's revisiting the 80's... What a conundrum. ;)

[@MiDnYTe25]

Unpopular opinion: I think this mastering for whatever streaming platform trend is stupid and I hate it. Master the track so it sounds good, that should be your only goal. Whatever level adjustments spotify or whatever will do to your music, they will do. That shouldn't be a reason to change artistic direction. If your track has a style that sounds better when limited to crap, then do that. Don't neuter your track for some online mumbo jumbo number magic. Just heard a decent track on spotify today, and there was a very noticeable and jarring 2-3dB level bump in the drop. I listened on really crappy speakers and even this way it was quite apparent. You wouldn't find anything like this in the work of any mastering engineer worth their salt, and yet, here we are. Saddest part is, Tiesto was among the names involved. We're living another, even worse version of the loudness war. Screw that.

[@TjMoon91]

I think it’s only an unpopular opinion with people on the internet that don’t really know what they are talking about. From what I’ve seen, no real mastering engineers are mastering to -14LUFS

[@Mrfpsara]

🙏amen to that

[@nicholasedgett7889]

It's a pretty neat plugin i must say! Theres definitely some very impressive features and id like to explore it some myself

[@memorylane3457]

That's what she said.

[@EliteOnTheBeat]

@@memorylane3457 She slide down the pole i mean down the road of memory lane.... 🤪

[@DonHardRisk]

Guys It's not the plugin, it's the song that's really hitting 😁

[@user-Max1980]

none of the professionals I know make masters for different platforms. make one - loud. it sounds louder on the spotify than the one clamped specifically for the spotify. you can guess whatever, but here's the truth of life :)

[@davi5music521]

Louder but dynamics is killed

[@MikaMoupondo]

I am pumped! Bought it already. This company is really good at saving me a lot of time to get started. My own personal audio engineer assistant... on a laptop!

[@paulmistygatz7888]

No one cares about loudness for streaming. Just make it as loud and good sounding as possible. But worth looking at though.

[@shadowminer9439]

Pseudo AI its a thing, and its actually called algorithm

[@anthonyb8994]

The distortion effect on the vocals is throwing me off.

[@massivebeatzz]

I seriously got distracted by the track and it's message / lyrics. Really good. Sandstorm got me this time. Some magic to it. Means - when good music hits, all the little stuff goes out the window and people reach for their wallets, lol. Can this be found somewhere?

[@rafalvarezsevilla]

-1 is good so you don't get intersample peaks while converting oh yeah you said that right now, nice

[@EzyoMusic]

I'm more impressed with the song, to be honest.

[@AKAtAGG]

It's the best limiter plugin available. if you don't have it you should get it.

[@TracingFlares]

You can not be serious to launch a tool without even knowing it or having experience with it😊 Also missing is the side by side comparison of Pro L2 and Smart limit.. level matched... fairly tweaked... using plugin doctor, your ears and showing your audience when and where exactly the start to distort? where exactly they are getting harsh or transient are being killed and where exactly one starts to suck live of a track. Otherwise what your are doing is catching the audience with fancy interfaces and smart promises that i doubt deliver better sound. YOU know that 90% of issues the smartlimit claims to solve ARE DONE IN THE MIX... dont ya???😊

[@filecciabilly7899]

It's the Best................. I have most on the Market, Smart Limit......................... Is Tight and Open and Transparent, all at the same time

[@XX-121]

artist - track: Darude - Sandstorm

[@Hugoknots]

I came here to say your thumbnail is annoying

[@documentingordinarythoughts]

Oversampling? The thing about fabfilter is that I can limit with very clean top end .. would love to see it it here .. would definitely use this (actually just bought it) but oversampling would make this even more of a beast ...

[@shanehen]

Here’s what the manual says on oversampling: “smart:limt is based on a quite complex (and unique) multi-stage limiting process. Different stages are running at different resolutions - so listing a single oversampling factor simply doesn’t really make sense for this new design. So while there’s no single reference value to calm your mind, rest assured that smart:limit is using high-resolution oversampling throughout the whole limiting chain where necessary.”

[@whatshisface7450]

Today's music is just a copy of the past; this is an early 90's Jody Watley copy, with over compressed, distorted, vocals.

[@h.s.4508]

I am not a professional, just a hobbyist. I compared this limiter with Pro L2 head to head, and found this a bit more transparent, so ended up buying this.

[@DeltaWhiskeyBravo13579]

Smart move. Ahhh their next plugin maybe...

[@dab7963]

I am a fan and like your videos but when you do your reviews you never read the manuals or seem prepared. You kind of fumble around and it's ashamed. We tune in to learn from you. You are so knowledgeable and experienced. I wish you would study a plugin and read it's manual and then give us your review. "I think" and "oh what does this do" are disappointing. Your reviews would be so much better if you were prepared

[@MmagRu]

Really great limiter, can hear it even on my laptop speakers!

[@Art_Of_Sound]

LOL...dont you mean you want to be on the side of context/genre relative dynamic range??? You cant cheat physics...6db of 50hz kick...well its 6db :-)

[@mooklane]

Your delivering masters but when you turn the balance button you don't hear nothing Lmao . I heard the difference thru my AirPods I bought €4;- in ACTION

[@jaco1368]

JUST DONT BUY IT...if you want to see how they dealt with my support case I'm happy yo share you very comprimising information.

[@nanob0zo]

Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Daru…. Must resist. Looks pretty good. Like Sonible stuff. Really easy to use and to my ears sounds good.

[@marceloribeirosimoes8959]

Really '80 style song!!! Trinere, Lisa Lisa, Jim Tunnel, Taylor Dayne, Alisha etc. with a mild texture. Really cool.

[@eddysel10]

Great video. Can you compare this plugin with the bx_limiter True Peak and the Streamliner (ADPTR Audio). Both from Plugin-Alliance. And I hope to see a review of your speakers one day.

[@influenceink9528]

Have you compared to this to DMG Limitless? Don't know which one of the two is better for general purposes

[@makemusicordie]

Recently bought the smart comp and have become such a fan of their layout and functionality that I backtracked and am now watching vids on the limiter. May have to get this one as well! Lovely stuff!

[@chrnee]

Soundwise, Smart Limit sounds totally crap compared to Fabfilter Pro L2…

[@lucgoyer9494]

Following your advice, after watching your video, I was a Fabfilter L junkie .... I did go on purchasing this product from Sonible and....after 2 masters completed with it...is it now my go-to limiter. Period. Thanks :)

[@maxborosiuk3570]

I read a lot of commetns but haven't found the name of the song being used in the review, could somebody tell the name of a track??? tnx

[@jaco1368]

Worst support ever dnt buy this crap, you will face insane problems with authorization, if you collab you are screwed

[@shonsasonker2832]

excellent what software and plugin produces such quality? can you please write to me? thanks in advance

[@chillingFriend]

Hey man, in you "plugins that i use" video you said you still use proL2. What made you stick to it in the end? Cheers!

[@ahawk706]

turning down the output ceiling for streaming platforms is BS , Chris Gehringer cleared this on his IG . Streaming platforms will change the audio regardless of what you do to them, because of their algorithm. there's no way ( and absolutely no need to ) win . if the consumer has Loudness Normalization turned on in the app , then Spotify will turn it down regardless of what your output ceiling is . but if the consumer has it turned off, then the consumer is gonna skip your track because it's -1db lower than the tracks that are in the playlist . And if you watch Mastering Workshop from Mix with the Masters , you'll see that none of the big name mastering engineers will turn the ceiling of the track down for Streaming Platforms. they know that it doesn't matter . Streaming Playback LUFS and Output Ceiling is not a rule, it's how the Streaming Platforms will play your track back, know the difference.

[@ChristianBoragine]

the -1db is recommended by streaming platforms because it prevents ISP during the format conversion process, it has nothing to do with loudess normalization. By the way, the loudess normalization looks at integrated LUFS and not at the maximum peak. You should really know this stuff before writing nonesense about the "pros" dude.

[@ahawk706]

@@ChristianBoragine where did i state that i think streaming platforms looks at the maximum peak or the -1db has something to do with loudness Normalization? and regarding the ISP, that's what i meant, by saying they will introduce artifacts whatever you do to prevent them, even at their recommend delivery format . And about the ' pros ', i told you where I got these infos from, from the ' pros ' themselves 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@ChristianBoragine]

@@ahawk706 a -1 in peak has nothing to do with LUFS therefore is only an assumption that spotify will turn the song down more than a 0db peak. I can have a -1db peak with low LUFS and therefore spotify will turn my song up. You are considering peak normalization, that is not the same as loudness normalization.

[@ahawk706]

@@ChristianBoragine the line where i said people will skip it because it's 1db lower is not literal, it's figurative . and i did mention only if the consumer has Loudness Normalization turned off .

[@saricubra2867]

@@ahawk706 You can't turn off loudness normalization. Soundcloud is one of the few platforms out there that doesn't have loudness normalization and it's a blessing, because you can get very, very loud tracks with big dynamics vs other platforms

[@_wrks]

I love Sonible plugins. I havent used them a lot in my mixes recently, but I do use them as a teaching tool. When I'm dealing with difficult source material, being able to utilize AI to develop a solution or at least get me close is invaluable. Even in this video, I've learned a lot about limiting... Thanks Wytse!

[@jeromejamies3641]

I was watching Plugintester review of his limiter shootout. For sure won't buy it now. AI is not sufficient

[@mrnelsonius5631]

I’m a big fan of Sonible. The smart EQ recently really helped me out on some poorly recorded acoustic guitars I had to mix. In this video he comments on the spectral balance control being subtle, but that’s likely because the track he’s using was already well-balanced. I’ve noticed the same thing with other spectral balancers (teote, Gulfoss): their effect isn’t as pronounced on an already well mixed source, because it’s already balanced against a loudness curve

[@maxtrone539]

@@jeromejamies3641 that dude clearly rushed a video out without understanding the work flow

[@elzippo488]

I don't like the Sonible stuff, Interface is way too strange. FabFilter is still where it's at.

[@bw2937]

Thank god he only shows the plugin so we don't have to see ugly reaper in the background or whatever lame diy daw he uses nowadays

[@alchemistrpm82]

Nice to see you sign off on this one. I’m fond of Smart EQ… On the limiting tip I’ve been enjoying True Peak by bx as well as Eventide’s Elevate. But I will absolutely check this one out (sounds great)

[@levondarratt787]

and, did you?

[@alchemistrpm82]

@@levondarratt787 I did. Very impressed. They crammed in everything you could want out of a limiter. Replaced Smart EQ as my favorite Sonible plugin, even.

[@Kynect2Hymn]

Bought this immediately, I absolutely love all the features! They freaking nailed this

[@AH-li1zv]

Do you use this as part of the mastering process? Or can you use it for only vocals for example

[@benirodriguez9516]

The song is "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley! XD

[@djvar94]

No mastering engineer should ever care about complying with streaming standards for services like Spotify/KZbin or whatever. They should just comply with format standards of genre specific or media specific like CD/LP or whatever other value of loudness they intend to achieve, but again not just because they have to comply with streaming standards as first of all many services have different levels at which they either turn you down or up, therefore making your life complicated right from the start and also because even if you do comply say with Spotify's own loudness standard, they can at ANY TIME in the future decide to change it to whatever level they want and all the tracks you have previously published on their platform will be subject to that change, therefore throwing your master all over the place anyway. So just do what you want, achieve a level of loudness YOU want and not because you have to respect platform specific streaming standards!

[@OliverAmberg]

I am shocked. You used a PRESET!!!!!???!!!!! :) Thanks for the review!

[@charleskp947]

song is badass and song is: "Addicted to Your Love - House Of Say"

[@journeyofelevation8731]

Your review are the reason I buy vsts bro. Thank you. Love it. Bought this one last week.

[@Beyond_The_Fade555]

just use bass control knob over 60% to see the magic that no other plugin can do