In this shootout, I'm going to use a range of material in a variety of styles to compare the performance of a variety of Pro Tools limiting plug-ins. Similarly, you can increase the 'warmth' of a track by increasing the loudness of the low mids, say between 150 and 500 Hz, whereas EQ boost in this band can easily make a track sound very 'muddy'. If you use gain boost on a conventional equaliser, you will eat into your headroom, but with a limiter you know precisely where your headroom will be, and by limiting the peaks and increasing the average level in that band you are, in effect, increasing the loudness by bringing up the volume of the lower-level sounds. If you want to increase the apparent amount of bass, for example, a multi-band limiter can be used to increase the loudness of the low-frequency band only, say from below 150Hz. You can also use multi-band dynamics units as dynamic equalisers. With a multi-band limiter, a kick drum will trigger the limiter in the low-frequency band, so its level is contained without any effect on other material in higher-frequency bands. Multi-band limiters, by contrast, divide the audio up into different bands - say low, low-mid, high-mid and high-frequency bands - before applying a separate limiter to each band and combining their outputs. Hearing everything else go up and down in volume in sympathy with the kick drum normally isn't ideal! As a consequence, you can end up with an effect called 'pumping' where a low-frequency instrument such as a kick drum forces the limiter to reduce the gain of all the elements in the mix. Single-band limiters work on the full-bandwidth audio, meaning that a peak in any frequency band will cause the level of the entire audio signal to be reduced. There are two basic types of limiters: single-band and multi-band. These processes are being used more and more, especially in radio where everyone wants their stations to be the loudest on the dial, and we are seeing the same choices more and more in CD mastering where clients want their CD to be louder than anybody else's! Single-band & Multi-band In addition, using a limiter allows us to increase the loudness of the audio whilst maintaining the same peak level, if we are prepared to permit more frequent occurrences of limiting and therefore gain reduction of the peaks.
In digital systems, as opposed to analogue tape, this is important as there is no warning of distortion: the signal is OK until 0dBFS is reached, and then it clips in an ugly fashion. Because using a limiter allows us to control the maximum signal level, we don't need to leave any headroom in the system after the limiter in case the audio gets louder than we had expected. Limiters are often used to protect transmission chains, for instance in broadcast transmitters or CD mastering, to prevent peak distortion that would occur if the audio were allowed to pass unchecked. When the input is below the predetermined level, usually called the threshold, the audio dynamics are not changed at all any input signal that exceeds the threshold level is 'limited' to that level. Limiters are audio devices that prevent a signal from going above a defined level, irrespective of the input level. But which one? We put the leading contenders to the test. But if it wasn't for all the damn warezers and crackzers, these companies wouldn't be pissing off their *customers* so much.If you want to get maximum level out of your Pro Tools mixes, you need a mastering limiter. But I'm not willing to go through all the crap to use one lousy plug.Įver notice that it's the people who actually "buy" their plugs that have to go through all the crap? Sorry - That's for another thread. That thing was one of the greatest plugs ever.
Truthfully - The only one I miss is X-Hum. Once I installed UAD, that dropped down to 0 in a heartbeat. But after I stopped mixing, I would up using only 3 or 4 of them anyway (and that's when I actually used plugs a lot). Was this purely a quality reason or did the Waves WUP & Customer Service play a part in this?Admittedly, I don't use plugs often - But when I do, it's the UAD's and a few other "singles" that get the workout.īut if I thought I got better quality from Waves, there isn't a chance that I would've let them go.
Take that as you will.Hmmm, interesting answer coming from a Mastering company.
I sold my Waves license shortly after installing the UAD.