Not sure which one to get. Ideally I’d get the Fabfilter L2 but that’s $180. Leaning towards L1. Any suggestions or insight would be appreciated.
Which Limiter Are You?
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I spent 6 months researching and going down YouTube rabbit holes on the topic of “which limiter to buy” - Fabfilter L2 was the initial obvious choice but too expensive
In the end I went for Elevate from Newfangled Audio (Eventide) in a recent sale - highly recommended and comes bundled with a few complementary tools like a clipper and saturator
So much better than the stock DAW limiter I had been using previously
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Or SSL X Limit which is also on sale for $19.
I don’t give money to Waves anymore after all of their weird upgrade fees and timelines.
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Depends on your budget, I would also recommend Newfangled Elevate. It’s the default limiter I use 95% of the time in mastering work. (EDIT: and I own Fabfilter Pro L2 as well, Elevate is just on another level).
I wouldn’t pay for waves L-1 when you can get Loudmax for free.
Also in the free vein, Limiter No. 6 is very good, though I have not used that one much lately myself.
If it has to be Waves, I’d go for L-2. That one still gets used by a lot of pros today for a reason.
Have you tried Tokyo Dawn Limiter 6? It’s what I’d use if I didn’t have FabFilter TDR Limiter 6 GE | Tokyo Dawn Records
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Have not. Will give it a try.
Probably gonna go with L2. May I ask why the L1 isn’t used in mastering? In the Waves article they say L2 and L3 for mastering. I just got UAD Spark so the limiter is just going to be for catching any stray peaks as I don’t believe there is a traditional brickwall limiter in Spark.
This is an absolutely excellent plugin, I use it on my master for every track along with their also-amazing Slick EQ. Insanely cheap for the quality you get, too.
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This. Don’t bother wasting money on anything Waves. Nothing but headaches.
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Thanks for the suggestion and heads up about Waves. Can’t get better than X Limit for $20.
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…i got brainworx true peak limiter in use…and i’m very happy with it…
…for more accuracy in various luf’s meaurement i let the true peak do it’s thing, all heavy lifting, since even run very hot, it really preserves all transients pretty good, and then gentle it out with sonibles smart limiter…
fabfilter is also one of the greats, but as u said, they can still afford to ask for a hefty pricetag…while waves is not what they’ve used to be anymore…
they were the first plugin company that coded their products to call home, each time u wanna use them…their l2 is still a great piece of code, it was defining all first digital processing in the 90ies, but we came a loooong way eversince…
so, i’d say, give brainworx true peak a try…quite a lot modern pro producers just drop that one on their masters and are good to go right away…it was also very pricy two years back, but nowadays, it got very affordable…it runs on a one for all plugin alliance license, which turned out to be a decent way to work with all sorts of plugins they have to offer…if u even have already a plugin alliance license, it’s a total no brainer…a real pro device for real…
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Isn’t ozone limiter like super cheap nowadays in the lowest tier? That’s a great limiter to have and it goes for peanuts nowadays and often free. If all I needed was a limiter I’d go with that. I wish it was that cheap when I was starting out.
I wouldn’t go near Waves unless you want to get stuck in a loop of paying for - yet never truly owning - your plugins.
I also echo the recommendation of Newfangled Audio Elevate. It’s a fantastic limiter.
Softube Weiss Limiter is also meant to be brilliant. I’ve not used it, but I adore everything Softube releases.
This said, I can’t say I’ve ever noticed the difference between limiter plugins. Not to say there aren’t differences mind you!
Edit: Oh yeah, forgot to say that FabFilter Pro-L2 is brilliant, but there are cheaper alternatives that to my ear sound the same, but don’t have the same controls. For some, that level of control is vital. For me, not so much.
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I’ve been using the Tokyo Dawn one recently because it’s so easy to use and works really well. I’ve also got Sonible Smart Limit which is supposed to be really good but haven’t got round to trying it out properly
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I really like the MM-1
Agree completely about Waves. I’ve deleted all their plugins. Never again
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It’s not that L-1 is bad, it’s just that L-2 is superior to L-1 in every measurable way. The L-1 algorithm is just super basic, again Loudmax is almost identical to L-1 and you can download Loudmax for free. So if you only want to pay for one limiter, skip paying for L-1 because you can get that for free, and then you can pay for something else and have other options.
Are you sure? I had the impression that most prefer Loudmax over L1 and L2. I just downloaded Loudmax, so i can’t judge it myself.