Precision Limiter

[albiess]

Hi,

Need some help in term setting for Precision Limiter? How do I get my mix to sound as lound as the commercial CD? The meter on the Precision Limiter are at the same level on my mix and commercial; however, the commercial CD still sound lounder than my mix. What am I missing?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Trace]

IN my experience your mix before you send it to the limiter has to be well balanced frequency wise and a Dynamically controlled mix. try putting a low freq cutoff in there to take out any unwanted sub bass energy. Then make sure that you have tamed the overall dynamics of you mix so that it will make it easier for the limiter to maximize your mix.

Remember Compression is your friend! Its like salt and pepper, use it liberally.

TRACE

 

[MPC]

Loudness is a tricky thing. IF mixed correctly you should be able to get a tune to be as loud as anything out there with Precision Limiter limiting no more than about 3db at maximum. The big IF is the quality of the mix. I agree with trace, be careful with compression, over compressing can mix things sound quite small and boxy.

 

[F5D]

I thought that I could drive my volume up with the precision limiter but it seems that it's not meant for that. You have to use a compressor before it if you're mastering. I did that mistake with TC MD3 + Brickwall Limiter too. I found out that most of volume has to be done with the MD3 multiband compressor/limiter which is very good at it. After that you put the brickwall limiter to pick up the intersample peaks and some little stuff which still remains in the signal. Of course you can use the precision limiter and brickwall limiter alone too but if you want the volume up you have to use a good (multiband) compressor first or mix the project well enough before the limiter. I can say that the Waves L3 works very differently compared to this. It can be used alone too.

 

[fatnurse]

For a VERY good set of reasons why not to compete in the \"loudness wars\" get Bob katz Mastering: the art the science. Not only is it a great read but it highlights so many factors in the mastering process that you wouldnt have thought of(i certainly didnt).Warning tho its quite hardcore!

Cheers

matt

 

[MPC]

The Bob Katz book is a really good reference. Most of my work involves mostly mastering at this point and it's one thing to say don't get into volume wars and it's another thing when a client wants it LOUD. But, there's been clients I've had to tell to either remix the tune, so there's even a possibility of getting the volume they want and also retain decent audio quality or I'll \"master\" the tune to be as loud as they want but don't put my name on the credits. They've alway gone for the remixing of the tune.

Sometimes it's possible to get things pretty cranking and still maintain some musical sonic artistry in the sound. Sometimes, it's simply not possible if the tune isn't mixed very well to begin with. Sad to say at this point loudness is almost part and parcel of certain musical genres.

Compression, if used correctly on individual instruments and voices works way better then just slapping a compressor on the mix bus, there are no quick fixes, mainly experience and great tools are a close second to achieving great results.

One great thing about Precision Limiter is that it's probably the most transparent of all the digital limiters I've checked out, certainly plugins, I almost always choose it over L2 or L3, I use mostly an analog chain when mastering, Manley VariMU and a Massive Passive, the Precision Limiter is a great final ingredient to that chain and doesn't take away from the quality of the analog gear coming before it.