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One Limiter to Rule Them All? The Ultimate Shootout

Incidence Studio

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I've spent days (and quite some money) comparing top tier limiters so you don't have to! Watch this to find out which tool is the best one for your needs!
How to setup your limiter? Are You Setting Up Your Limiter Correctly?

Putting top-tier limiters on the test bench, this is my ultimate limiters shootout comparing Fabfilter ProL2, Newfangled Elevate, Leapwing LimitOne, DMG limitless, Sonible SmartLimit, Ozone Maximizer and A.O.M Transparent Limiter

00:00 Intro
00:15 My daily use of limiters
00:54 What led me to make this test
01:39 Limiters in mixing context
04:43 Disclaimer
05:19 The test method
08:58 A.O.M Transparent Limiter
11:34 Impact on stereo Width
12:56 Center image
13:52 Crazy gain reduction
15:56 Under "normal" gain reduction
17:04 6db of GR
18:26 Punch preservation
21:39 Clean Low-end?
24:30 Respecting transients
25:35 Pre-conclusion
28:09 Newfangled Elevate (more than just a limiter)
29:53 Surprises from Ozone Maximizer
31:14 Was this test worth it?
32:21 Comparison table walk-through
42:05 Personal conclusion on my take-aways

What it the best limiter for you? Which one preserves more transients or keeps a clean low-end?

Enjoyed this content? Check out the other videos on my channel: @incidence.studio
Mixing & Mastering specialised in Electronic Music : www.incidence.studio

"Every move shaped with intent"

Incidence.studio@gmail.com

#limiters #loudness

18 Comments

@all1nclusiv3 1 year ago

Thank you for taking the time, and it's definitely not for nothing! Much appreciated, keep posting these great videos whenever you can 💪

@GreeGzGFX 10 months ago (edited)

My 5 next suggestions : TC Electronic BRICKWALL HD, Voxengo Elephant, the new Waves L4, Boz Digital Labs Manic Compressor & Weiss DS1-MK3 in parallel.

@joeyp1028 1 year ago

Yes!! Shoutout L2!

I just love the sound/character of it. When I need it, I need it. You put it into words perfectly.

@MR_Cellarpop 1 year ago

Thanks. Best/Mathias

@ritchxmusic 1 year ago

I love using Hofa and Nugen's blind testing tools on this stuff, I'm using it on everything including across presets, plugins and chains

@tontonkeke9972 1 year ago

sacré travail bravo

@ritchxmusic 1 year ago

I would like to do similar testing on my own suite of plugins. I’ve reviewed probably 25 limiters now but not in the level of detail as you have (mostly in stereo image stuff). Elephant is top for me, and APU Limiter a close second with it’s LUFS detection settings. I don’t think I will ever need any other limiters again frankly, though I love the EQ and transient shaping on Elevate. Must review the Leapwing also though. Seems like LUFS detection over RMS is the next big breakthrough, only 2-3 companies doing this, APU among them. Also using a width limiter prelimiter to ensure phase (sideminder max)

@datdudeeee 1 year ago

PSP Xenon is pretty damn good so far I've only used it a handful of times but it doesn't affect the stereo information too much if your genre is very loud. With Ozone maximizer it can add some weird artifacts from what I've noticed

@GrumpyGr3g 1 year ago

Yessss merci pour cette vidéo ! très cool analyse :)

Limiteur en mix, j'utilise bcp de KHS Limit, c'est parfait pour le sound design/mix simple et tjr en mix, mais sur le mix complet, j'adore utiliser le Vintage Limiteur d'Ozone (il aide énormément à avoir une belle loudness) ou le Flux Pure Limiter, très cool aussi !

Pour la stéréo et le changement, on a pareil sur les compresseurs (normal tu me diras), certains altèrent un peu la stéréo c'est parfois bien, parfois pas. Comme les limiteurs, c'est bien quand certains recentrent un peu, surtout que les mix actuels sont de plus en plus large.

En tout cas, tu m'as fais me souvenir de Leapwing, j'avais test le Dynone qui est excellent au possible, le fait de t'entendre parlé de Limitone, ça me fait considérer l'option !

@GreeGzGFX 10 months ago

I would love to see a serie with EQ's :D

@KYTHERAOfficial 1 year ago

Ursa DSP Boost.

@LoFortunato 5 months ago

What about Voxengo's Elephant?

@musiclover-r9m 10 months ago

Is there any audio?..

@oobesan 10 months ago

I wonder if you have been able to try the new Ozone 12 IRC5 limiter and how it would compares to the others?

@oinkooink 3 months ago

Is that TDR Limiter 6?

@jackflynn-oakley1937 11 months ago

Do you not find that Limitone tends to brighten things up rather drastically though? I’ve been demoing it around a week atm and I really wanted to like it, but not having a great experience so far. Everything sounds slightly scooped and absolutely brighter, even at low GR compared to say, PRO-L2. I also find the lack of auto-gain rather poor and my interface isn’t resizable, which is annoying

@tonytemple8195 9 months ago (edited)

All Leapwing plugins are very CPU intensive, almost unusable depending on your system.

Unfortunately, your final results and conclusions is a bit confusing. My take on what your final results are, Leapwing and Pro L are your best limiters, right? Or wrong? You see, its very uncertain what's your favourite limiter if there's two or three different ones favoured......

@saardean4481 1 year ago (edited)

To your 27min comment on using limitless in ordert to control low end, funnily enough i sometimes will use the Dynamics plugin from Izotope and use only the low band and control the lowest-low end with it before hitting limitless. Its very transparent if set right and then limitless has an easier job.
That said you say you use limitless or smart limit before pro L. So my question is why do you use pro l in the first place and why do you always put it last?

Thanks for all your work and your content my friend. Very enjoyable