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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Hi everyone!
I have just become aware of limiters and a little bit of the role they play (beginner level), arising from a recent thread by Noel on LUFS. Am I correct in saying a limiter correctly used will prohibit clipping (assuming there is none in the underlying tracks being mixed and before limiting) - I'm talking about the 'brickwall' type.
I have a foot in both camps of Reaper and Cakewalk Sonar, so if you use either of these DAWs, which limiter would you recommend that is free or inbuilt?
Andrew
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FWIW in PG related products there is PGPeakLimit which is a very basic brickwall limiter.
Reaper's also works well, though there are better ones out there for little to no $$.
Waves has one a lot of people seem to like.
Ozone kind of makes most of them pale, IMHO .. but pricier
Last edited by rharv; 07/13/25 08:20 AM.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Andrew, I would highly recommend that you pick up a copy of a book by Bobby Owsinski. It's called The Mixing Engineer's Handbook.
It's an in-depth dive into the basic things you should know about mixing and a discussion on all of the tools and how to use them correctly and effectively. There's also a section full of interviews with the top award winning engineers in the music business.
A lot of your questions are answered in the book and I guarantee there's things in the book that you haven't even considered yet.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Andrew, I would highly recommend that you pick up a copy of a book by Bobby Owsinski. It's called The Mixing Engineer's Handbook. Thanks Herb! I’ll check it out. Andrew
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Am I correct in saying a limiter correctly used will prohibit clipping (assuming there is none in the underlying tracks being mixed and before limiting) - I'm talking about the 'brickwall' type. A limiter is just a compressor with a high ratio - 10:1 or higher. Brickwall limiters are limiters with an infinite ratio - although in my experience they're not always infinite, so I tend to master with a ceiling of -0.2db to prevent any clipping from overshoot. FWIW in PG related products there is PGPeakLimit which is a very basic brickwall limiter.
Reaper's also works well, though there are better ones out there for little to no $$.
Waves has one a lot of people seem to like.
Ozone kind of makes most of them pale, IMHO .. but pricier Agreed. Ozone is great, but like you say there's a cost. The free one in Reaper is good too, and the PGPeakLimit is perfectly fine. I'd suggest taking a look at the free bundle from Kilohearts as it includes a good limiter, among other excellent and simple plugins. Andrew, I would highly recommend that you pick up a copy of a book by Bobby Owsinski. It's called The Mixing Engineer's Handbook. This is an excellent book and is well worth the money. It was recommended by my instructors when I was in a recording arts program and covers a lot of what they taught. Or you can always ask on the forums here for help - there are quite a few of us audio nerds who are happy to offer guidance.
Last edited by Simon - PG Music; 07/14/25 05:26 PM.
I work here
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The thing about limiters is they are easy to abuse. I don't often use them.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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??
Every single thing in a mix can be abused.
Not understanding that reasoning at all.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Andrew, I would highly recommend that you pick up a copy of a book by Bobby Owsinski. It's called The Mixing Engineer's Handbook. +1 Highly recommended!
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