Good Mastering Limiter plug-in?

Ermz

Ermz

¯\(°_o)/¯
Apr 5, 2002
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Melbourne, Australia
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Hey guys,

I'm very tired of the sound of the L2 clamping down on my mixes. I was wondering if you are aware of any good, transparent, mastering limiter plug-ins that are worth giving a shot? I use the Timeworks Master comp as my clipper, and it works well in enough in that application.. but I also need a standard limiter.
 
i really liked the timeworks and used it a lot just until i realized that it clips on distorted guitars that stand alone and that is not what i am looking for.
otherwise it is by far the loudest limiter i know and doesn't squash the drums that hard - but i can't accept the clipping guitars.

the last chain i used was a mix of voxengo elephant 2 and l2 for mastering.
and it worked ok.

i don't think the l2 is a bad limiter, i use it on nearly every bus (like vox, bass or even drums) and 2-bus - just don't squash it.

i heard nothing but good things about the precision limiter from the uad - but never tested it myself.
 
Cheers guys.

@AudioPhile: Isn't the Magneto a tape sim or something? I have the PSP Vintage Warmer which more or less serves that purpose, but I'm more after something transparent.

@Alex: Thanks dude. The reason the timeworks clips your guitars is because it's a clipper, not a limiter! It has to be used very sparingly in conjunction with real limiters.


I may give the elephant a shot... have heard okay things about it in the past. Thanks again!
 
so you mean that i don't have to touch the threshold on the timeworks, right?
never heard or thought about it but the clipping begins just by squashing the mix - so you must be right, thanks.

but for that purpose you can use every limiter(clipper) i know!!
cause that's just what i am using the l2 in my mixes for.

tested the psp mastering limiter as well, i wasn't too impressed by that one.
 
Well the timeworks shouldn't be taking off too many dB. It should just be catching the peaks of your transients. Slate suggested in another thread to use 2 instances of a clipper plug-in, to make the effect more gradual, and it seems to work well enough. Just remember to let a real limiter do most of the work!

I personally just dislike the sound of the L2 though. It seems to have this grain about it... just that typical waves digital harshness. The best dynamics tool I've heard come from that company was the SSL Bus Comp which is just magic for a plug-in.
 
Thanks Gavin. Kinda off the topic here.. but I don't suppose any of you guys would know of a good look-ahead gate? VST is a bit shaky with side-chaining so I can't use that as look-ahead. I hate gates killing the transients of my drums.
 
Moonlapse said:
Thanks Gavin. Kinda off the topic here.. but I don't suppose any of you guys would know of a good look-ahead gate? VST is a bit shaky with side-chaining so I can't use that as look-ahead. I hate gates killing the transients of my drums.
Click to expand...

Only decent one i know of and use is Sonitus gate. It comes with Sonar BUT i believe you can buy them seperatly too.


The sonitus FX suite is fucking brilliant actually. The EQ and multiband comps are excellent.


Hawd up, lemme find a link...


http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/Sonitus/sonitus.asp


The gate on it's own:

http://store.cakewalk.com/b2cus/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=36-CWSF3.31-10ED
 
Nae bother!

A lot of folk rag on Sonar but if there is one thing you cannot fault it for, that is the quality of the plugins that come with it.
 
Unless you're willing to mix in PT and use the Massey L2007, which is the best limiter plugin on the market IMHO, then the L2 is still as good as it gets.

You just be hitting it too hard. Any more than 1-2 dB will start to sound clamped. Try using two instances of L2 in series on the Master Buss with each one taking half of what you would normally be taking with one.
 
Moonlapse said:
The reason the timeworks clips your guitars is because it's a clipper, not a limiter! It has to be used very sparingly in conjunction with real limiters.
Click to expand...

hey u got me really curious and i tried using the timeworks in conjunction with a real limiter , but havent got any decent sound , can you share some info on how you re using timeworks with a limiter like l2/etc ?
i usually use stereobus comp/eq/some stereo separation/limiter->dither

also for other limiters try voxengo and maybe kjaerhus
 
discordless said:
hey u got me really curious and i tried using the timeworks in conjunction with a real limiter , but havent got any decent sound , can you share some info on how you re using timeworks with a limiter like l2/etc ?
i usually use stereobus comp/eq/some stereo separation/limiter->dither

also for other limiters try voxengo and maybe kjaerhus
Click to expand...

Well I've yet to get anything concrete down, as I try to avoid 'mastering' at home whenever I can.

However, the last chain I tried was:

waves ssl bus comp/EQ/L2/timeworks/timeworks/L2

I suppose the goal is to make the limiting extremely gradual, only taking off a dB here or there.
 
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