Any suggestions much appreciated. Thanks.

 

But this is like asking for alternatives to anything, when the alternative will be a different thing.
These are very specific in what they do, and other Limiters will do similar or identical things...but they are just an alternative.
Does that make sense?
Like, I could say "any Limiter". But it still won't be those three.
And those 3 are different with different features.
What's 'wrong' with them, for you? What else are you looking for?

 

Thanks @Smoove Grooves.
Those plugs are H*O releases. Their installers crash/close without explanation when I try to install them on Win 7. Tried everything I can think of but no go. I used them on an XP system without problem.

 

Oh, I see.
Can you get the Windows equivalent of something like Pacifist?
And extract them from the installer and install them manually?
Big time gap between XP and 7, eh.
I don't know if that H2O release is for 7.

 

Did you try to copy the installer at a hard drive's root?
Some installer seems to work only this way on win 7 . Specially old installers.

 

Bro, if your using an H2O version of waves, you are using a version that is over 10 years old. Any waves package from 2019 will work on Win 7 without problems.

And as far as limiters suggestions go:

Fab filter Pro-L2 (especially good using up-sampling mode 8x or above, can get insane amounts of squashing without distortion)
NewFangled Elevate (very high fidelity limiter, handles high frequencies and transients better than any other limiters that I have come across)

 

If you want to get incredible loudness, please try FG-X released by Slate-digital. FG-Comp from FG-X is very subtle.
I have tried many limiters, and I always think that the Weiss MM-1 has the smoothest limiting effect, although it cannot achieve the same level of loudness as the FG-X without significant distortion. In the choice of limiter, please give up Waves. ARC and IDR are excellent technologies of Waves, but there are so many limiters on the market that it is difficult for them to have special advantages.

Fabfilter Pro-L 2 is very good, especially the integrated loudness measurement and gain reduction graphic.
But I think Pro-L 2 needs to run in a high oversampling mode, otherwise it will be difficult to compete with other limiters in sound quality. Maybe Fabfilter could add internal oversampling parts to it to save CPU resources.

TDR Limiter 6 GE would be the best all round under $100.

For multi-band limiter,please refer to McDSP ML4000. McDSP' products always on sale.

 

Your question kinda sounds like when you go to a dispensary and ask the salesman "what type of weed do you have?"

Well, there are heaps of piles of limiters nowadays that sound as good, but generally better than Waves'. However, there's one that is an emulation, or based upon L1 here: http://www.yohng.com/software/w1limit.html

If you'd like some recommendations... well, stay away from Sativa ones if you like to make trancy stuff, and use Indica strains instead.

Seriously, I'd recommend LoudMax limiter, or VladG/Tokyo Dawn Limiter 6, if you prefer a great limiter for free. Sorry, I forgot that TDR Limiter 6 is not free, but VladG version is, and it sounds great, however it's a bit colourful.

For a paid soulution, I'd just go with Voxengo Elephant or if you prefer simplicity his EBusLim which is based on one of the most transparent Elephant modes.

Cheers!

 

Last edited: Jul 31, 2020

All your suggestions, feedback and tips very much appreciated - thanks all!
@starkid84 - Yeah man, time flies. What's puzzling is that the XP Waves package was around 60Mb - the 2019 job is over 2Gb. I guess machine code is rare in these opulent corporate times
@SineWave - Indica you betcha.