I'm creating an small intro on some songs to make it easier to transition between comercial songs. I suppose that if it is a famous comercial song it is at 0 dB peak.
But when I put FabFilter Pro L2 on the master channel it reduces some dBs.
Same happened with Ableton Live limiter but I discovered that if I put 0 ceiling, it doesn't limit.
Why is FabFilter limiting? How could I change the FabFilter ceiling? I want to conserve the original sound, only add some rhythm in the beginning and end of the song.

 

Before anything limiter-related, have you checked the source of the track? Could it be a bad rip or something similar?

 

No, track is perfect in quality. I read in another post here someone saying that solved it by putting the project BPM same as the song before importing the song. Could be something related to the warp of the song but I made it and have the same results. I feel that it could be something related to the ceiling of FabFilter Pero L2, but not sure.

 

of course, every good limiter has a built in knee settings for the limiting transfer curve, it will limit early, the ceiling is rather a range of area instead of static ceiling before the signal reach the 0db ceiling according to the "style" selected. Pro-L2 also has transients detector path that works separately (it's like a separate compressor on it's own) that works in parallel which I believe is program dependent and will do its thing for transient processing, enhancement and minimize the artifacts. When it's True Peak limiting, the ceiling is even lower internally to prevent intersample peak.

 

Mp3? This might be floating point. This might be was a 0dB wav, then converted to mp3, peaks grew above 0dB and fab filter just catches these peaks and true peaks)

More interesting about floating point of mp3.
Concert from 64 or 32 bit float wav and listen to tails at high volumes. Tails are preserved and no noise in AIMP, but they are truncated, noisy and distorted in reaper, RX.... Sonogram shows this too. But AIMP sounds tooo clean with long tails as they are. Paradox yeah?

 

True peak. Whats the peak and true peak values? Is the limiter set to true peak?

Learn about ISP (intersample peaks) AKA "overs".

Edit: converting mp3 to wav will also introduce conversion distortion (louder peaks).

 

Last edited: Jul 3, 2023

If the samplerate or bitrate of your project is higher then the songs samplerate or bitrate the song gets louder.

So, it's probably what mild pump milk said.

 

Your project sounds like you might be able to select a different tool for easier results, like a clipper. There are a few presets in Pro-L2 v1 category though.

Or an Adaptive Limiter. Or even The God Particle first. Maybe even a compressor instance inserted before your L2, or a Gain Matching plugin.

It sounds like you are making almost like a DJ mix, and I am speculating that it is not the kind of project you want to really learn how to setup a limiter correctly with. You have already had 3 limiters show you the same results. The material you are using should be already mixed and mastered. The "BPM related" solution almost seems like someone was suggesting a sidechain.

 

Last edited: Jul 3, 2023

What? Def setup, signal running up to 0dBFS:

Spoiler: no limiting applied (ok, -0.1)

Means, your signal has either TP or sample peak above 0dBFS.

 

I didn't see the knee option in FabFilter Pro L2 as I see it in all the compressors.
I used it in true peak limiting, so for this thing it is better without True peak?
So, is it better to use another limiter? I don't want to get a more compressed sound, I only want to get the same sound but with that intro and outro.

 

Yes, it is a mp3 320, I work on wav while producing but when DJing I work on mp3.
Do you recommend another limiter for this?

 

I don't know if it's set to true peak or if it is possible to put Pro L2 in true peak.
I will look what is the peak and true peak values when I go to the studio.

 

So what should I do? Reduce the project bitrate?

 

For mastering I usually use the SIR Standard Clip, I will try. But that will not affect to the result? Will sound the same as original?
Yes, the tracks are mixed and mastered, they are comercial famous music, so I'm sure they have been in the best professional hands.

In the BPM thing, why could be related to a sidechain? In which way?

 

But how could it be? The mp3 I added sounds for me the best way a mp3 could sound, I don't listen any distorsion.

 

You can also simply turn down the volume.

 

Doesn't really matter (often uploaded mp3 have higher peaks, or it happend by converting), just normalize it to -1TP, problem solved.

 

Yes, but I have to reduce 4dBs for not having limitation. That will make a track 4dBs down from original? I want to have same quality and waveform if it's possible.

 

Thank you,
Best way to do it? SIR Standard Clip? FabFilter Pro L2?

 

Normalize means just a change in level. Usually DAWs (audio editors) can do this.