Master limiter lesson
If there's one thing I do every single workday in my life, it's limiting masters to desired loudness.
I started mastering for others 11 years ago, then expanded to stem mastering and mixing, and I always master my mixes, too. This involves limiting the mix to desired loudness.
Even by some loose math, doing this literally non-stop since I started, that's been over 5,000 songs, and on top of that, it's all my own productions, so I can say I have a whole lot of master limiter experience.
In this video, I am showing to you my five picks for best limiters, which I can recommend, and also explain why they are great. I have decent experience with all these badboys.
I also talk a little bit about differences between these limiters and go thru a few thoughts on what to do if your master is distorting.
Also, remember, your DAW stock limiter is not good enough for master limiting tasks (it will smash and round your transients).
Comments (14)
I just shelled out for Ozone 12 - with more than a little resentment at the pricing. You were right though - IRC3 Balanced -> IRC5 = transparent AF. They've cooked something special there.
yeah its a sick one!
IS Ozone 12 Standart with Maximiser will be enough, comparing to Abelton native Limiter?
Ableton limiter is worthless for master limiting: very weak. It’s ok for single track limiting but never master. Ozone limiter = superior.
Crazy how this is the kind of thing i hear everyone advice against! All producers i follow advise to clip all bus and let the master limiter limit like 1 or 2 db max so it don't pump! Also I and them use pro L2 so it may not be the best
Yeah there’s a lot of weird advice out there. I often say, listen to those who have decent credits in the field, and decent work to show. Popular ≠ great.
Great info as always Fanu! Do you usually dither on the final limiter/do you dither at all? And what are the "industry standard" export bit and sample rates these days?
I always export at 24-bit, and most of the material I get is 24. Dithering only matters when going for lesser bit depth. So I kind of don’t have to worry about it. 44.1/24 is the standard, I’d say.
Do you happen to have any opinions on the waves line of maximizers? Im really interested in your opinion of something like the L3 16 for similar use cases.
Never used! Could demo for the hell of it one day I guess.
Love that said you'd give your address and are willing to fight for what you believe. Probably I'd only ever bring you an IPA and a hi five if I was ever actually in your area. Thanks for this one!
Haha yes get those cold brewskis ready, I'm here! <3
Gimme ur address brug we gonna discuss limiting tracks and how they sound on those genelecs ><))))
Haha, yes, come over, happy to have a session :D