Sonible: Pure limit

I made a thread about limiters which is now on the 2nd page which discusses this somewhat. Dan dismissed it for the Tokyo Dawn Records Limiter 6 GE (I think that's the name of it). And since he has hands on experience with a lot of these plugins, that says something.

But I'm not so sure. This is also a musical taste driven subject, and that's subjective.

So...since I'm super OCD ...I've been listening to sound samples of limiters for days because I intend to buy a one or two today before all the sales end.

The one that's winning me over is Newfangled Audio/Eventide's Elevate (For several reasons I can elaborate further down the post).

And Fab Filter's Pro L2, I might pick up as a 2nd Limiter (I'm on the fence about it, we'll see if I can budget it).

(Sorry Dan!)

I intend to get Limiter 6 GE next week since it's only $50 (not on sale). So it will be in my toolbox...but I like what these two other limiters are doing, and I tend to use multiple limiters for mastering in a chain (to get level with fewer artifacts).

Smart Limit looks AWESOME on paper. It definitely has a cool sound to it right out of the gate. But I don't think it's flexible as the following:

01. Elevate (26 Bands of individual limiting, a built-in transient designer to keep the transient response feeling more natural AND a clipper). I was worried it was hurting the image, and then I realized, it just sounded uncompressed. It was limiting, without SOUNDING limited. Things also got a little taller in the center image, and a little wider. Overall I think this one is kind of amazing. Maybe there's drawbacks, but I think this can really shape things so your top and bottom don't feel crushed.

02. TDR Limiter 6 GE (It's got 6 modules, Compressor, Hi Frequency Limiter, Limiter, Clipper, etc.) Very cool design. And the samples are very transparent. Plus it's inexpensive. But even if Elevate isn't as transparent, it has features Limiter 6 doesn't have, and Visa Versa. I can see the attraction to this one.

03. DMG Audio Limitless. It just sounds killer. It has 6 bands Vs. Elevates 26...but all the samples online have this great low end. I don't think it's as feature rich as the other two limiters above, but it's still extremely deep in terms of controls. Elevate gets the slight bump because it has the transient designer feature, otherwise I'd wait and get this for the sound of it. Though the TDR is just far more cost effective to me. The last feature this has which Elevate doesn't is a way to unlink things for stereo to dual mono. Which widens things. Very cool. Unfortunately, the DMG is not on sale, and it's almost $200. So it can wait.

04. Fab Filter Pro L2 just seems really great for what it is. The different Knees you can choose from are huge too. It's really more like ten limiters in one due to how you can shaping the limiting. Yes is uni-band unlike the DMG Limitless and Elevate...but there's something to it. The imaging is really good. This also has stereo unlinking which I like a lot.

05. Melda Audio MLimiterX. It's kind of a poor man's TDR Limiter 6. Lots of modules like a clipper etc. It has the widest stereo image out of all of them naturally which I thought was interesting, but I worry the bottom end gets a little lost. Lastly it has Mid/Side which crazy useful. Might be a sleeper though.

06. Weiss Compressor/Limiter. I think it affects the image, but whatever it's doing is a touch of class. It just sounds great. It has a ton of features in a sub menu you'd need a few days to get used to, and it has Mid/Side. It's kind of a HiFi version of the Melda to my ears. I'd want it, but again, I'm not sure it's needed with Elevate and the L2 in the mix.


I've listened to several others over the course of this quest, but most of them aren't feature-rich enough to really contend with these 6 and most are uni-band, which I don't want out of a primary limiter. I know a lot of people dig Voxengo Elephant but that one I haven't found any samples of yet. And I know a lot of people love the Sonnox Oxford Limiter, which has a sound...but I'm not sure if it's for me. It seems to exaggerate mid-range, which is key...but it's uni-band, and I think L2 might have better imaging. Though I think the Sonnox Oxford might be worth it if you have a UAD card (I don't ATM).

So where does Sonible factor in?

Well, it's Uni-band. And it sounds very HiFi. So, it's an alternative to L2...in some cases the AI might be a huge advantage over L2, EDIT: it is on sale, but it's not a huge difference in price, so it's probably something I'm going to grab after my next paycheck to play with.

I think it sounds less obviously limited sound than L2 and has a nice top end which sounds sweeter in the samples than most of them...but I also think it has some cool features (Clipper, built in ceiling controls which seem advanced, etc.). It could be an L2 Killer. It has a Bass sidechain control...but that to me is inferior to DMG Limitless or Elevate with their multiple bands for controlling bass since it's not labeled and fixed.

Now, I don't own any of these, so this is just me doing research over the last week listening to youtube examples on my monitors at 1080P or higher nauseum. I'd have bought several of them to try over the next few months, but I just spent money on a new workstation and on parts to upgrade my computer...plus I think two of them in tandem should do the trick...maybe three or four tops for some options (how many limiters do you really need?).

CONCLUSIONS:

01. I'm not sure you need the DMG if you have Elevate, or Visa Versa, because you're getting one that can really manipulate the bands of limiting...and in many ways it's almost a draw between the two. I'm going to go with Elevate for now because it's cheaper on sale, and I think the Transient Designer section is brilliant (so slight edge to Elevate). However, it might be cool to chain them both and really sculpt things (I wonder if anyone on here owns both to try that)?

02. I'm not sure you need Melda if you have Weiss or Visa Versa because either one will give you Mid-Side (though I favor the Weiss by Softube slightly here because it just sounds more like a record tonally). if you Own the Weiss, then Fab Filter L2 might be redundant or Visa Versa however.

03. Fab Filter L2 might seem very vanilla by comparison, but it's probably the best choice for a 2nd limiter because of all the different knees and the stereo unlink control. Sonible might be a contender to dethrone it though, and it may be worth demoing both to shoot out long term. Owners of both should chime in here.

03. TDR's Limiter 6 is the most cost-effective solution on paper if you need a lot of features in ONE plugin and you need that limiter to be transparent (it seems to be the most transparent of them all). Since I use SIR Audio Tools Standard Clip for clipping this is less appealing to me than a dedicated limiter however (SIDENOTE: no one on any forum ever talks about Standard Clip, but it's friggin' amazing with its oversampling feature, and it makes the clipper sections in most of these limiter plugins seem like a toy, or an afterthought by comparison).




LASTLY. There's always Tone Project's Unisum Compressor (here's a bit of a curveball):

While not a limiter (it's a merely a regular compressor). This has complex sidechain features, Mid/Side Compression, and WET/DRY (which kind of makes the Weiss and the Melda redundant), incredible box tone/stereo imaging and depth of field. Oversampling which sounds stellar, etc....and I already own it.

Which means I might not even need two of these limiters. I might only need one...and it might be that the Unisum is the right first compression stage for my mastering needs ATM.

Bob Katz co-developed it with Rune...it's a serious mastering tool. Not enough people know about it...and it just sounds incredible (to the point where none of these limiters seem to really match it for box-tone).

I encourage you to take a look at this plugin too, because it's just killer...and the Sonible didn't beat it for imaging from what I can hear from the samples.



For me it might be Unisum > Standard Audio Clip > Elevate as the main chain. But we'll see how that goes after I pick up Elevate today.