lately i been messing with the hard limiter in audacity. I was wondering what hard limiter was. Is it just a setting or a special type of limiter? i been thinking about buying hardware limiter.

the best i can describe hard limiter is , turning up the volume.

its different than normalizing.

you can crank up the volume , with boost or gain, then limit the out put with the limiter.

its very usefull for juicing up your tracks to the full level.

Yeah it's a compressor basically. Specifically designed to maximize the perceived volume of the audio running through it.

i should add .

dynamic processing is an awsome form of compression/ limmiting .

also if you EQ. then hard limit, this is radio standard "mastering"

If the EQ is before the limiter it's effect won't be perceived since a limiter is another type of compression which will bring up all the levels to the middle and limit digital clipping. I'd compress than sculpt the track with and EQ, just a thought. Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

i agree w/ Euclid. i try to mix match but usually i eq compress then if needed hit it w/ a maximizer. im usong protools w/ waves pirate software but i got into reaper lately and the same shyt goes.

if u can try eq or compress b4 u rec on like an aux channel. if ur tracking out your sounds it ez to "add/cut" the things out like some voices that made it thru filtered bass.

search for a free multi band comp/limiter vst. i 4get who has some dope ones but thats becoming the move to make

when i eq some frequencies bleed . so i hard limit . zero boost , .-5 db limit.

all it does is stop it from bleeding.

yea you can hard limit then eq, then you should hard limit again with no boost, just so nothing bleeds.

eq before hard limiting has a diferent sound.

both ways work, i get really good results with the cool edit hard limiter.

try juicing up your highs, then hard limit. gives a raw boom box sound

How do you set the hard limiter in Audacity? is it a good limiter? i use the classic master limiter a plung in for Acid Pro.

Blockfish is a good free one

I really love the Sonnox (sony oxford) limiter, it goes so freaking loud without effecting the sound (negatively)

however, I have the Voxengo Elephant as my go-to, I got it super cheap in their initial offering about 6 months back

i've been trying this (hard limiting) lately, since i read this thread actually

i notice i lose a bit of the mid range, snares don't seem to snap as hard, there's less 'glistening' from the vinyl-chopped drums

i probably just need to get the hang of it

the trick is to not over do it.

i like to preserve the sp crunch .

the sp is a hard limiter itself . used with a computer.

so if you use compression on your samples. compressing them again will sound weird.

yeah, i think that's my problem...good thinkin'

are you guys using the hard limiter on the final track, ie all channels recorded as one?

i'm wondering if perhaps it might be more useful to apply compression/mastering effects onto only the channels which need it (drums, bass)...of course this requires tracking out those separate channels

to the folk above who mentioned they're using VSTs :
do you use the VST as a master effect, or only apply to the necessary tracks?


i remember 606man mentioning that a visual spectrum analyser was always helpful for this, so the eye can help understand what's happening to the audio when the ear is still untrained to recognise the changes

sidenote: where are you 606man? come back!

I only apply a limiter on the master, i compress my samples in the SP and other compression sound bad...or i'm not able to use the ACID compressor