Welcome to sage audio. Today we’re talking about How to Limit Your Master
But first If you have a mix that you need mastered send it to us at
sage audio . Com to receive a free mastered sample of it.
What are Some of the Best Limiters?
Although there are a lot of great ones, here are some of our picks for the best:
Best Free Limiter: Limiter No. 6 Best Introductory Limiter: Waves L1
Best Versatile Limiter: FabFilter Pro L2 Best Limiter for Retaining Detail:
NewFangled Audio’s Elevate Overall Best Sounding Limiter: Voxengo’s Elephant
These are just our opinions though, so keep this in mind. Also, if there’s one
you love that you think is better than these tell us about it in the comment.
How Much Attenuation when Limiting?
How much attenuation you introduce will depend on how loud you want your master - typically
I avoid more than 5 to 6dB of attenuation at any point, but some engineers use more if the
genre or track calls for it. Typically, significant attenuation can be avoided.
For example, if I wanted a loud master I could use low-level compression prior to limiting.
This will amplify the quieter parts of the signal, in turn increase the master’s loudness,
without the need for aggressive attenuation
Best Release Time When Limiting?
When using a limiter, a 50ms release time is the best for creating a loud master without
introducing distortion. Any time quicker than 50ms will cause the track to mildly to moderately
distort - which may or may not be wanted depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.
If you want a smoother sounding master, try 250ms or above, or if you don’t care about
distortion and simply want as loud of a track as possible, use a release time of 5 to 10ms.
Best Attack Time When Limiting?
If you see an attack time on a limiter, keep in mind that it doesn’t behave like
the attack time on a compressor - all attack times on limiters are nearly instant or
0ms. Instead the attack time here means the time before the release envelope begins.
So if you want less distortion, set a quicker attack,
but if you want a louder master, a longer attack time will work better.
Combine this with the release time for greater control of your master’s timbre.
Should I Use True Peak Detection when Limiting?
In most instances its best not to use true peak detection when limiting - the reason being,
the effect will alter your master’s transients, causing a less impactful sound. Instead
slightly lower the ceiling of your limiter, and use oversampling and a short amount of lookahead.
The ceiling will keep the signal from peaking, oversampling will cause more accurate quantization
and less aliasing distortion, and lookahead will duck the signal to avoid peaking.
These effects are less aggressive than true peak detection.
Should I Use Oversampling when Limiting?
When you’re using a limiter on your master you should absolutely use oversampling to avoid
aliasing distortion and to create a more accurate amplitude for your signal - which reduces peaking.
Oversampling has no negative or adverse effect on your signal, and really only benefits your master.
When pushing your signal into a brick wall ceiling,
you’ll likely get some harmonic distortion - if the harmonics are
created from higher frequencies this will likely cause unwanted aliasing distortion.
So, use oversampling to avoid aliasing distortion.
Stereo Expansion when Limiting
Stereo expansion can be introduced when limiting in a couple of ways - the first
is by using a mid-side limiter to attenuate more of the mid than side. The second way
to expand the stereo image is by unlinking the channels so that they’re affected independently.
Granted, unlinking your channels won’t make your master’s stereo image
wider in all cases, but it can have a pleasant effect
on the stereo image by making your left and right signals more unique and distinct.
If you have a mix that you need mastered,
send it to us at sage audio.com to receive a free mastered sample of it.
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