C-Max Limiter

[lseater]

I just got the C-Suite C-Max Limiter and it sounds great! I'm wondering why there really isn't any buzz around this. It just sounds so much clearer than Fab Filter, Waves or Sonible to me. The bad is there is no real indication of loudness or reduction (in a meaningful way.). Seems like an oversight that could be improved?

Drew, is it possible to put more meaningful output in this?

 

[Gary D]

I have used this on a couple of mixes this last week. I agree, it sounds great. There is a certain clarity and transparency there that just works really well.

 

[LouisC]

A timely thread.
I've only just realised that C-Suite are in fact CEDAR.
That's a major coup for UAD.
I think their suite of tools is about four grand so it will be interesting to see what they port over to Sharc chips and whether they'll go Native or stay in the Premium price/hardware arena.

 

[LouisC]

Well I spent quite some time A/B/Cing the C-Max against the Sonnox Limiter and the BrainworxTrue Peak Limiter (not their latest iteration but the last one.
Chamber ensemble with a seriously big Bass drum part and Tympani and whilst I was sure the C-Max was clearly doing a better job I set up some tests with 2,4 and 6 db of Gain going into the Limiter and trusted someone else's judgement ... and it was three out of three.
The Sonnox was no contest with a much more clamped sound than the others and the Brainworx lost both weight in the overall dynamics in the lower frequencies and tone in the upper frequencies sounding a little scooped by comparison leading to a darker tone.
The C-Max made it into one of the slots of my 2 plugin bundle.

The Sonnox does excellent things with the density of tone with its Enhanceprocess slider and the Brainworx Foundation controls and overall level of control and Metering is way more informative and useable/understandable tone shaping but these are both tone shaping for general finishing work.
For straightforward Limiting whilst preserving the most sense of the original dynamics I'll stick with the C-Max for now.
The only two controls I used were the Gain and Ceiling with Aggression left at 0.

So I agree with Iseater who started the thread ... I'd also describe it as Clearer than the Sonnox and the .Brainworx

But

The manual"s explanation of what the Aggression setting is doing isn't worth the time it takes to read it ... it tells you nothing - the metering is a bit pointless and the conclusion I drew from the graphics was that it was a dynamic multi Band compressor acting in a similar way to Paul Frindle's unbelievably good ProAudioDSP.

 

[bigshinyT]

I have all 3 but what I like about the C-Max is the simplicity. 3 controls, make it easy to get to where you want with a mouse or when mapped to a controller. Sonically, both the Sonnox Oxford Liminter and the C-Max can get you to the same place with equally great results. It's just a little quicker with C-Max.

I'd buy the C-Max instantly, but since it's the only plug I don't own right now, the min I can get it for is £99. Twice what anyone else would pay based on current offers. Hopefully they'll sort out dynamic pricing soon. I did reach out to support a while back but have heard nothing back and find it too tiresome to be constantly chasing them.

Back to the plugin.... It's a great and smart value add addition to the UAD collection, and very happy that it's DSP.

EDIT: Fixed some typo's

 

[LouisC]

I'll have to do some more digging but I can't get the C-Max and Sonnox to the same place on the material I'm currently using it on - the C-Max sounds way more 'open' for want of a better work - better low end and better transient preservation - but of course it's program dependent.

On the pricing .... lol .... yeah .... hehehehe ... nothing quite like finding yourself on the wrong side of loyalty.
; )

 

[Sam A]

What’s the latency added by the C-max limiter?

 

[LouisC]

Running inside Logic on an M1 it's 1722 samples

 

[Matt Hepworth]

Yes, 1722 samples at 44.1 (39ms), which is roughly half the latency of the L3 Multi.

I agree that it's quite wonderful sounding.