Professional Mastering - Analog & Digital
Professional Mastering
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There are hundreds of limiters out there - I haven’t tried every single one, of course, but over the past 10 or so years, these have been the ones I use time and time again.
Whether it’s due to their versatility, their unique sound, transparency, or general usefulness, I feel comfortable wholeheartedly recommending the 5 limiters we’re about to cover. The top 3 limiters on this list are the ones I use on every master I do for Sage Audio clients, so it goes without saying, I think they’re fantastic.
Now, this video is not sponsored in any way - these are just my opinions. We’re covering 4 digital limiters and 1 analog limiter with digital control, and we’ll go behind the scenes to get some insight as to why they work the way they do.
At the end of the video, we’ll listen to a song, separately limited with each of the 5 limiters until the track measures at -9 LUFS, so you can hear the differences between each.
Also, if there’s one I left off this list that you think belongs here, let me know about it in the comments - I always read your comments and appreciate the feedback.
Let’s jump into the Top 5 Mastering Limiters of All Time
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The Weiss compressor limiter is a simplified version of the DS1-MK3; I’ve found it a fantastic way to introduce transparent compression before limiting.
This way, the negative impact true peak limiting can have on transients is reduced, and we minimize the distortion caused by brickwall limiting. Instead of pushing the signal into the ceiling, I can compress first, maybe target an area that’s triggering the limiter most, and attenuate as needed.
Then, I can achieve a louder sound, with less overall limiting. Now, on the surface, the plugin looks overly simplified, but there’s a lot of versatility, especially with delinked channels and some adjustment in the settings window.
For example, on this track I’ve selected mid/side compression, and de-linked the channels so I can target the mid and side images separately.
Then, I’ve selected the band pass filter to compress the range containing the kick in the mid image - on the side image, I’m compressing some of the midrange to reduce masking of harder-to-hear side-image high frequencies.
Then, I’ll open up the settings window and fine-tune the release to ensure the compressor doesn’t hold onto the kick for too long and reduce its impact or affect unrelated transients.
With the limiter engaged, I’ll adjust the compressor settings to find the right balance between the 2 processors.
Alternatively, I compress the left and right channels collectively, introduce about 20dB of attenuation, then adjust the level with the parallel dial for some pre-limiting parallel compression.
Lastly, we get 3 limiting algorithms. DS1 is the original algorithm from the compressor hardware; T1 is similar to most modern brickwall limiters; it’s a new algorithm Softube created for the plugin and works well for achieving higher loudness levels.
And T2 is similar to T1, but it uses true-peak limiting, which is great if you want to avoid distortion during limiting, during D/A conversion, and when the master is encoded to a lossy file type like an MP3 or AAC.
Let’s take a listen - I’ll push the limiters a little harder in these demos so you can hear their effect. The track we’re using today is from a friend and Sage Audio client going under the artist name Bomethius. I’ve left a link in the description to their music if you enjoy the song.
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The Pro-L2 is a modern classic at this point; admittedly, I’ve found myself using it less and less in favor of some of the others on this list, but it’s still an undeniably great mastering limiter.
I’ll be brief since it’s been covered extensively, but the 8 limiting styles offer a good deal of versatility while the straightforward user interface is a big reason why a lot of engineers, myself included, gravitate toward their plugins.
Bus and Safe are low-distortion options, with Bus resulting in greater transparency, while the Safe style holds on to peaks a bit too long to be useful in my opinion, at least when mastering most genres.
The other 6 are mildly to moderately different sounding since they each shape peaks uniquely. Without lookahead, oversampling, or true peak limiting enabled, each algorithm is essentially a clipper with varying shapes, resulting in distinct harmonic formations. These harmonics, along with their slightly differing responses to varying dynamics (mainly with modern and safe settings) are the primary contributors to their distinct sounds.
Some clip more at higher frequencies, like with the aggressive algorithm. Some clip more or less uniformly across the spectrum, but, and it might go without saying, without lookahead, brickwall limiting will cause clipping and more distortion than with lookahead and oversampling enabled.
Now I’m just using Plugin Doctor here; definitely not a full-scale look into what the plugin is doing, but hopefully it helped provide some useful visual context.
Let’s listen to the demo and achieve the same LUFS settings as before.
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If you’ve used the Oxford Inflator, this plugin is similar; however, the upward processing is cleaner with less harmonic distortion, and instead of a clipper, we have very pleasant-sounding limiting.
The combination offers a practical way to increase loudness without noticeable alterations to the peaks. With the enhance function, we bring quieter details up from the noise floor, while leaving the peaks just about unaffected.
The safe mode is what I prefer; it introduces a small, roughly 1dB boost between about the -25dB and 0dB range.
And it helps to know that this boost is still present when the effect is at 0%.
30% is about as high as I’ll go with it; otherwise the effect becomes too noticeable.
The limiting itself is very accurate, with very little waveshaping to the peaks unless we’re using a short release. Unlike FabFilter, the short release isn’t typical clipping; it’s a really unique shape that’s created here.
But, even with a long release, it introduces a good deal of harmonic distortion. So it’s an interesting combination of retained peaks with enjoyable odd-order harmonics.
Again, just Plugin Doctor - not the same as how it behaves with complex waveforms, but cool to see nonetheless.
You can monitor true peaks with the waveform reconstruction button, and help mitigate true peaks with the autogain feature.
Let’s take a listen.
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Unlike digital limiters, which are predictable and exact, an analog limiter has tiny imperfections that really add something special.
There will always be minute differences in processing between the left and right channels; always unexpected interactions between components depending on the song, the cables used, even the room’s temperature and humidity.
I won’t wax poetic about it, but you get the idea. Unlike the other limiters on this list, this one is always audible. You can hear when it limits, or clips, or introduces saturation.
But whereas that’s not very desirable with a plugin, it's very enjoyable with hardware if controlled carefully.
This particular limiter can be controlled with software - this digital interface isn’t doing any processing; it simply controls the unit. So, if you see someone comment that Bettermakers’ products are just expensive plugins, which seems to be a common misconception for some reason, please feel free to politely tell them they’re very wrong.
Again, using Plugin Doctor, we can get a general idea of the hardware’s behavior.
Minimal waveshaping occurs with the limiter function, but, as expected, a quick attack and release result in more distortion. The intelligent release overrides the manual settings and sets a value based on the input; depending on the original release setting, this can greatly reduce distortion.
A clipper can be enabled that varies the processing between limiting and clipping - it’s difficult to show it here using a static sine wave, but establishing a value between the 2 changes the sound significantly.
Then we have symmetrical soft-knee saturation with the Odd color function, and asymmetrical with Even. The signal is driven into the separate circuits with the drive amount, and the effect is blended in with the amount percentage. There’s an emphasis frequency as well to achieve lower- or higher-order harmonics.
When mastering, lower settings work well; the effect can quickly become too aggressive. That said, some subtle saturation can negate the need for limiting and clipping, so when all 4 functions are enabled, you can find a great combination for controlling dynamics.
Lastly, there’s a mid-side matrix which allows for processing mid and side signals separately, as well as setting the output’s width.
Let’s listen to the unit processing our track.
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It was a toss-up for me between Bettermaker’s limiter and this one, but Voxengo’s Elephant is undoubtedly the best digital limiter currently available.
It has a bit of a learning curve, but it’s essentially the Pro-L2 with better starting algorithms and expert control over each parameter so that you can create any algorithm or style you want.
Everything from a super clean, true-peak, no-distortion setting to aggressive, loudness-prioritized limiting is available.
Settings can be adjusted to recreate the Oxford inflator or emphasize saturation in the high-frequency range, resulting in a brighter sound. I made an in-depth video about this plugin a while back, so I won’t cover every little detail, but in short, it’s a digital limiter that can achieve the sound and behavior of any other digital limiter, and some other dynamics processors.
Again, some of the parameters are a lot to consider at first, but even if you stick to the basic algorithms and tweak a setting here or there, you’ll achieve better-sounding limiting than with any other digital limiter.
Let’s listen to it with some settings that prioritize transient retention at the expense of a little extra distortion.
Then, we’ll listen to all 5 limiters back-to-back so you can compare them and maybe decide if you want to give one a try.