Here are some that can be quite transparent if you treat them nicely: Acon Digital single-band limiter, Flux Pure + Elixir, Pro-L (in safe, transparent and modern), ToneBoosters Barricade, NuGen ISL2, TR5 Stealth & the Softube / Weiss stuff (though the DS-1 is designed much more as a DeEsser than a limiter it's transparent as they come and can certainly work as a limiter).

 

The FG-X has a certain crunchy glowy sound (which is great for more electronic type stuff in my opinion). When you push it harder it's going to give you a crushed sound that you will not get from a more standard limiter.

On the downside it sometimes doesn't fit the music (when instead of sounding good, the "glow" ends up sounding out of place) and in those situations really loses out to more basic limiters that are trying to shoot for transparency.

My go-to is Flux Elixir. Either that or Voxengo Elephant, and you're set for transparent limiting I'd say.

 

Yes,I agree.And that's why I like it a lot.But for tracking or rather "bussing",not on the master.

 

You don't hijack anything, be sure, on the contrary, if you have more suggestions they are absolutely well accepted, also here, if they are somehow related to this theme...
BTW, my compliments really an high level thread

 

ask also daskeladen...check https://audiosex.pro/threads/3k-com...and-cpu-spikes-what-am-i-missing.43021/page-9

daskeladen is also here https://www.gearslutz.com/board/mus...y-we-build-our-studio-pc-quot-thread-261.html

 

Best sounding limiter is your AD converter clipping.

 

So this?
https://apogeedigital.com/products/plugins/soft-limit

 

ive tried Stealth Limiter from Ik and thats was awesome for real, but i dont own it and dont like when IK install all the plugin even if u dont own them.

 

No!
Your physical Analog to Digital converter!
Connect a pair of outputs of your audio interface to a pair of inputs and push your mix to ADC.
You will have transparent clipping without aliasing and phase transient smearing (unlike all plugins have).

 

Limitless is my favorite. Very transparent due to the mb nature of it. Can be pushed pretty dang hard, various modes, in depth control or simple use. Great plugin

 

Um...analog can "smear" the transients due to phase shift just like digital. We can also audibly perfectly match analog frequency response (deviation near nyquist which is completely inaudible)

 

Last edited: Dec 1, 2023

It was a joke, but still they made a plugin that does that

 

The ADCs you're talking about (not all of them behave like that) use soft clipping or double soft clipping. The same kind as the soft clipping you will find in a basic clipper plugin. They have limited aliasing artifacts as virtually all ADCs do oversampling. Something you can also do with a plugin.

ADC clipping is nothing special, only that renowned mastering engineer use this technique as it fits with their workflow of working OTB. But you can get the same results ITB with a bit of oversampling.

 

No.
You clip analog circuit before chip itself first.
Some LED's mostly.
Red LED clippers and zener diode clippers sounds amazing!
And it's analog, so no digital issues like aliasing etc.

You want to show yourself smarter than you is, man.
But before you get offended by me, show some maturity and carefully consider what I write below

I love to say unpopular things, here's another one for you:
Oversampling makes material sounds worse.
Real higher sample rate sounds better.
Forget that old Dan Worrall's video. He's wrong there and in many other things.
Me and my team of colleagues test everything that we use.
Even dither tests (yes! we DAT ̶m̶e̶n̶t̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶i̶l̶l̶ serious)
Many fair ABX blind tests with small focus group.
Many audio setups, from bedrooms with HS5 Yamahas, Headphones with Dsoniq Realphones correction
to top-notch Moscow studios with Amphions and other hi-end systems.

Why oversampling sounds worse vs higher sample rate?
Because of how it works under the hood.
Firstly, the Algorithm (attention!) GUESSES new intermediate points,
while making a large number of calculation errors that accumulate.
Secondly, filtering. Oversampling always ends in filtering. Any filter will destroy transient processes.
Their impulse response. The clarity of the attack will be lost as the high frequencies begin to lag in time,
catching up with the rest of the spectrum. This can be clearly heard blindly with good monitoring.
IRR filter will mess that "slew-rate" (like in analog audio electronics they call it)
FIR will add unnatural pre-ring to percussive sounds (drums, perc, even vocals, pianos and guitars.)

For example print in 96k set on audio interface driver will sounds better than same print with 44 or 48k with x32 oversampling.
x2/4/8/16/32/64/128/256 oversampling. No matter!

And another thing.
Oversampling not work with clippers.
Same deal. Because of filtering at the end.
Anti-Aliasing Filter will rebuild peaks that you already clip.

Plugin developers using simple non-oversampled limiters or other brickwall for stop this rebuilt peaks.
And that brickwall will alias.

So it's basically an oxymoron.

I'm already tired of writing all this repeatedly on different forum threads. I think in the future I should just make an article on my website with examples and describe it all once, so that everyone gets it the first time.

Thank you for your attention.

 

Would you consider to dedicate whole You Tube channel for this?

Reach and educate larger quantity of people. It would be interesting to watch this audio wars between you, Dan Worrall and anyone you can call out with your findings, so exposure you will get will be much better, everybody wins, you can even earn money doing all this, so it's not lost cause to dedicate your time doing that format of education.

 

......There are so many answers here....

Potentially, the most discouraging factor for anyone who wants to upload their pride and joy to a streaming or for-sale site, is that it will not matter how great your mix and in this case, how transparent your limiting is; They will apply their own algorithms that can and will make changes if it does not fit their prerequisites.

I really want to see someone define their interpretation of transparent. For me, it means that even with the best spectral and amplitude analysis, you cannot tell the difference whether it is on or off. Kind of makes it a moot plugin based on that.
I found with proper use of upward compression on music-dynamic radical shifts (too soft in parts) and careful mix use, limiting can be completely avoided until mastering. If you present a track with at least -3db to -6db headroom under 0db, a good mastering engineer will often tend to use the limiter to raise the ceiling rather than change everything.

So transparent pre-mastering means to me that you do not want to hear it and honestly, using different compressions pre-mastering, for me, can often achieve what a limiter is perceived to do that regularly works better post-final-mix. ONLY my opinion.
Probably explains why so many pop, EDM and modern tunes sound badly over processed, pumping and often musically undynamic...not to forget distorted...

 

Lots of BS here.

- While I'm sure that some specific ADC use an analog soft clipping stage (Apogee IIRC), most of them do this digitally as it yields better dynamic range and decreases non-linearities, while at the same time being cheaper and more reliable.

- Why the fuck is there a problem with oversampling ? The only caviat with oversampling is that if dither is applied at the original sample rate, it will be a few dBs higher than required in its band, as its power is not spread across the full spectrum. Higher sample rates spread the power of quantization and dither noise, so you can achieve lower noise floors in the same band (2x the sample rate needs 3dB less of dither in the same band as the 1x sample rate). But that's it.

- Anti-aliasing filters do not change the transient response because, if not designed by someone with room temperature IQ, they do not change anything in the audible band. The pre-ringing from linear-phase and linear-derived apodizing filters that you seem to be so afraid of is contained within the band of effect of the filter, so it doesn't spill in the audible band. And even if we're talking about a zero-latency minimum-phase filter, the total group delay of such filter at those frequencies is roughly 0.05ms. Such insignificant group delay is inaudible (threshold is ~1ms), and the human hearing is insensitive to absolute phase at those frequencies. I won't even comment on the non-sense that oversampling does not work for clippers. Surely, all the devs out there that put oversampling for their clippers are all wrong, right ?

You have been clearly misinformed. Btw, you can use IIR filters to create a linear-phase filter, and a FIR filter to create minimum-phase filter. If you want to use technical terms, learn them.

With all due respects, I think you should watch Dan Worall's videos more carefully to learn about what you're talking about. I can remember picking up some little inacurracies in what he says, but he clearly knows his stuff.

 

Last edited: Dec 1, 2023

lately it is AA's Ash Ultra for me

 

You would rather destroy yourself than start learning.