A.O.M. Invisible Limiter

I guess I should just be glad I have an abundance of good choices.

I've been using the A.O.M differently since this thread. I mostly dial back then output gain around -2db give or take a little, and then use only the input gain to taste. It sounds better, the bass boost is still there, but now it just feels fuller, not bloated.

I double checked a few mixes just to be sure, and I was wrong. I've been dialing back the output gain between -.5 -1 db on average. I so start at -2db, and then dial it back up until something sounds right. I also add quite a few db using the input gain, between 5 and 12db, depending.

junior

My advice is clearly the AOM. I've used every limiter out there, hardware L2 also, and this thing is doing some really complicated stuff that allows you to jack the level of your mix, but retain all the transient detail, but with no swelling. The designer for it is on the site, I'm really hoping he can let us all know what's going on under the hood of this thing, I've never heard anything like it. 

What I found to be the best way to use this and the buss in general if you want to get it to commercial levels, is gain stage whatever you have on the buss to hit this limiter so that you are only having to increase the input gain to maybe 5db. So, if your mix is hitting your buss naked at -6db, and you had maybe a tape sim, eq, buss compressor, then the limiter, make up that 6db with the output gain of each piece insert respectively so that they all share about the same output level increase. Basically I found that by hitting this limiter at 0db and then using it to go beyond so it starts limiting as soon as you increase the input level. I will set the output level to -.2db and I never touch the threshold knob. All of this is how I found to increase the level and not collapse the mix, and to make it sound as natural as possible. 

Using it this way is pretty much how the mastering guys gain stage a mix to bring it up to commercial levels. But, also, you've got to pay attention to how much you're either boosting or cutting with your buss EQ, your buss compressor comes into play as well with it's reduction too, so you want to make sure that you pay close attention to all of this when you're boosting their outputs into each other and finally into the limiter. I will usually have a static setting for the EQ,Studer, and UADFC670 when I'm mixing. I know that I'm not overdriving anything because I usually mix into my buss naked at around -6db.  When I'm ready to print the file I will then go in and flip the meters to output to see what I need to make up or reduce so that I'm not starving or clipping the inserts before the limiter. Then finally, I will increase the buss compressor's output gain (making sure I'm not clipping it's outputs) until the limiter is showing peaks at 0db with no increase in it's level. Then I will start to increase the input level of the limiter until it is where I want the RMS of my final print. 

Hope I didn't confuse you and I hope that makes sense on how I use the limiter.