Limiter on Rhythm Guitar; Do's and Don'ts

[outbreak525]

I'm a serious noob with dealing with limiting and compression which is why I have to ask for some general guidelines one how to set up the actual limiter itself.
In Cubase 5's Limiter I have 3 options, "Input" "Output" and "Release" . Now, with playing with these the only thing I've noticed is a decrease in volume. Nothing has added to the texture of the guitar tone itself.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Man I don't do shit to high gain guitars except roll a little of the lows off and sometimes the highs.

 

[Clark Kent]

Dunno about the CLA-3A plug-in. Used it a few times on guitar, but I think you lose the effect with a plug-in. Half the idea behind 'smoothing' out distorted guitars would be to do it with a hardware piece. I found the plug-in just made them pump weirdly, and altered their envelope in a way that wasn't mix-conducive. Works good on cleans, acoustics etc. but not so much on high-gain.

+1 hardware > software

 

[Clark Kent]

I'm a serious noob with dealing with limiting and compression which is why I have to ask for some general guidelines one how to set up the actual limiter itself.
In Cubase 5's Limiter I have 3 options, "Input" "Output" and "Release" . Now, with playing with these the only thing I've noticed is a decrease in volume. Nothing has added to the texture of the guitar tone itself.

What I was trying to say in my first post was that engineers use limiters on guitars to add a certain character. Software limiters hardly ever do the "character thing" as well as hardware. Those stock plugins are NOT character limiters; they are usually transparent so it's not the same effect.

In your case I would say don't use it. Maybe the CLA-3A depending a lot on the guitar tone. If we're talking about the Sneap-type metal guitar tone it's best to have a raw guitar tone so I wouldn't use that.

Using a character limiter on high gain guitar will result to a different type of high gain tone. Maybe a bit like what Periphery guitars sound like on their album. I find that it works best on guitars that are not bass heavy.

 

[outbreak525]

Thanks I likely wont limit my guitars and if so not much from now on.
I never really heard much of a difference anyway.

 

[tempe]

What I was trying to say in my first post was that engineers use limiters on guitars to add a certain character. Software limiters hardly ever do the "character thing" as well as hardware. Those stock plugins are NOT character limiters; they are usually transparent so it's not the same effect.

In your case I would say don't use it. Maybe the CLA-3A depending a lot on the guitar tone. If we're talking about the Sneap-type metal guitar tone it's best to have a raw guitar tone so I wouldn't use that.

Using a character limiter on high gain guitar will result to a different type of high gain tone. Maybe a bit like what Periphery guitars sound like on their album. I find that it works best on guitars that are not bass heavy.

I'd say that's a little bit of a sweeping statement, I used to use psp vintage warmer for this purpose but these days I prefer the l1 for it's character, if you're approaching limiting distorted guitars for volume control you're doing it wrong but any piece of equipment, hardware or software can give you the vibe you need, just have to find the right one!

Me, I personally like the l1 because of the way it shapes the 1k to 3k area, it smooths over any really scratchy pick attacks and harshness that like to conflict with the vocal.

On another note, sometimes a tiny bit of saturation from something like decapitator can do wonders.

 

[crillemannen]

+1 On what Ermin wrote on multibandcomps. I agree on everything he wrote. They get more even but a bit harsh. Hard decision if i like it or not. But i always use it to even out the 200hz mutes.

Limiting guitars?? Clipping snares?? sounds bad to me

 

[amarshism]

i love the cla 2a and cla 3a. within two secondsof strapping one across gtrs i know which one i prefer, if one at all.

 

[C_F_H_13]

Dunno about the CLA-3A plug-in. Used it a few times on guitar, but I think you lose the effect with a plug-in. Half the idea behind 'smoothing' out distorted guitars would be to do it with a hardware piece. I found the plug-in just made them pump weirdly, and altered their envelope in a way that wasn't mix-conducive. Works good on cleans, acoustics etc. but not so much on high-gain.

Yeah I have to agree. Hvy gtrs just don't seem to react well the plugin versions of any of these comps.

Limiting guitars?? Clipping snares?? sounds bad to me

Like everything in audio, I think there's a time and a place for both of these things.

 

[greyskull]

Yeah I have to agree. Hvy gtrs just don't seem to react well the plugin versions of any of these comps.



Like everything in audio, I think there's a time and a place for both of these things.

Agreed, on heavy stuff there's a huge POP, like on tons of plugin compressors on the attack

 

[OneDaySky]

La-3A for me and def use the Andy Sneap multiband preset as a starting point as well

 

[MetalJonesy]

ive always tended to limit my guitars, maybe by about 2-6 dbs ont he loudest of palm mutes, never had any trouble with it in my mixes.. depends on the song/style/impact im after!

 

[Ermz]

Yeah I have to agree. Hvy gtrs just don't seem to react well the plugin versions of any of these comps.

Yeah, I've never used a real LA-3 on guitars, but I got the impression this would be the case. The plug-in just doesn't do anything good for high gain.

TBH I've never found a single compressor plug-in that's worked well on guitars, except a few times where the Waves SSL bus comp has worked on really weak playing to emphasize transients. I tried to replicate the effect by using my GSSL on guitars, but it never, ever went well. The key is to have a stereo compressor that you can 'unlink', because if it acts on the stereo signal, it will shrink your width immediately. One of my Overstayers worked decently on some rock gats once, but I'm unsure whether I'd want to use it there again.

The L1 just works on guitars. You can use it to just shave a bit off the very worst peaks, or even clamp down a bit if you're lacking mix headroom. It doesn't screw with the envelope in such an obvious way as compressor plug-ins do.

 

[Leon--]

basically limiters and compressions were created to FIX the sound.
For distorted rhythm guitars i only use EQ's really,and sometimes compression.
if you achieve a great performance with good equipment and mic technique from the beggining,you will not need to use it