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Which mastering limiter do you like to use? Is it good?
Well, to answer my own question, my favourite mastering limiter is DDMF "No Limits". I used to use FabFilter's Pro-L2 for my limiting purposes, but sometimes it'd give me audible distortion if I pushed it too far. Plus it isn't universal. But it is incredible, there's no denying that, as given the right settings, it retains the punch of the mix.
However, then I switched to Barricade. Barricade is incredible in its own right, is universal, and the "Loud Master" preset never gives me any audible distortion. However, if pushed too far, it sucks the punchiness right out of a mix.
Enter "No Limits". This limiter looks so simple but can give me punchy results without distorting the audio, at least in my experience. The sweet spot settings for my EDM tracks are approx 30ms attack, 200ms release, and ceiling brought down to -0.3dB.
Of course these are my own personal opinions and experiences, so tell me, what is your favourite mastering limiter(s)? 
Comments
TB Barricade, it's perfect.
How loud are you aiming? -14LUFS is super easy to attain
DDMF No Limits and it ain't even close
Pro-L every time.
DDMF No Limits and MagicDeathEye are on my Black Friday shortlist. I have heard so many good things about them.
That's me these days on iOS where I'm usually targeting YouTube. No point in going hotter, and for that Pro-L gets me there easily. I also have Pro-C just ahead of it in "low and slow" mode. The combination means I rarely have any overs in Pro-L and even if it occasionally clips a peak that was several dBs over, I haven't heard an audible distortion.
A little bit louder than that, lol, but not overly loud. I usually shoot for -8LUFS since that's where a lot of EDM recordings are mastered to (in case a DJ is looking to mix it). Now, mastering EDM is a bit different from mastering Ambient/Acoustic (although with Ambient/Acoustic, I rarely ever use a limiter and instead just apply light compression with MagicDeathEyeStereo and normalise the audio in TwistedWave to -3dB).
That said, TB Barricade is an amazing limiter, and I'm glad we agree on that.
Amen! I hope someday DDMF will release No Limits 2 to iOS. That would be the dream limiter for me right there.
Cool!
Me, I'm impatient and bought both at full price ages ago. 😅 MagicDeathEyeStereo is a slight improvement over the OG MagicDeathEye. Not because I unlink the left and right channels (which I don't), but because it has a nice mini EQ with a low-cut filter that can be set to 20Hz to get rid of inaudible low-end without my having to load an EQ plugin to do the job. In fact, this is how I master my EDM...
I set the level of the piece so it peaks mostly at around -12dB. Then I slap on MagicDeathEyeStereo, flip the low-cut to 20Hz, the attack to F, the release to 5, the "master out" all the way down, the "input" all the way up, and the threshold until the gain reduction meters hit approx -3dB. Then I slowly raise the master out back up until the peak meter in the DAW peaks around -12dB again.
Next I slap on the BarkFilter Tripleband preset and lower the output to about -6dB. This helps breathes more life into the track.
After that is when I put on No Limits, set the attack to about 30ms, the release to about 200ms, and the ceiling to -0.3dB. Then I add Youlean's Meter and see where the LUFS is peaking. Then I try to get it to roughly -8dB LUFS. Anything above that will sound squashed and lifeless.
That's simply my personal method and one way of doing it.
That's interesting.
After I finish my mastering, I usually use TwistedWave to normalise a track to -3dB prior to uploading to Soundcloud, and to -6dB before uploading to Youtube, Facebook, etc.
That's really loud for the streaming services:
https://www.masteringthemix.com/blogs/learn/76296773-mastering-audio-for-soundcloud-itunes-spotify-and-youtube
I should've said -3dB at the highest peak of the master, not -3dB LUFS. Sorry if there was confusion there.
This article does confirm that for club play (which is what I master EDM for), one masters a track between -6 to -9 LUFS. -6 LUFS in my opinion is pushing it, and anything above -6 LUFS sounds bad. -8 LUFS is the loudness used for many chart topping hits according to the article, and that's my ultimate aim. It isn't about the loudness wars (especially since the Loudness Wars are over with thank god) but rather making sure my music is ready for club play in any given situation. Would I expect someone like Sash! to have to fiddle with the volume fader in the middle of a live show when playing a track like this out?
That said, it would be ridiculous to master Ambient to -8 LUFS or any acoustic genre like Folk or Rock or Classical where one expects the music to breathe, but for EDM, -8 LUFS is about right.
(That said, random thought. I don't know who mastered Ava Max's "Heaven and Hell" album, but they really didn't know what they were doing as there is audible distortion in those recordings. 🤣 )
Pro L is so comfy and nice to use. It feels great to be all Fabbed up.
I just like how the different algorithms really expand what it can do, gives you a lot of transient control when you ignore what they call them and just focus on what they do to the audio. Surprised people are finding it adds distortion at normal ranges of gain reduction. I've always found you have to push L2 stupid hard to get to that point, or don't have oversampling engaged at least 2x.
Lol, and that would be my error is forgetting to toggle oversampling. 😬😅
I like the three mentioned a lot but I probably like Barricade the most. It’s really versatile for getting the sound I want with the modeler and compressor. I like pro L and no limits a lot as well though and try them all out on stuff to see what works best with the track.
Well that wasn't the only option I proposed.
Thanks for that insight. I’ll bet you can get some of those tight cocaïne beats
Although I would like to have control over making stuff tighter and tame things here and there, I’m into dub techno, and would like to retain lofi imperfections as much as possible. So there’s always a thin line between too little and too much. There can be beauty in dirty hot levels and squashed stuff, but that depends on a person’s style of course.
There's a real dearth of LUFS meters on iOS isn't there.
That's cool.
Maybe using the best one for the track is a good method. Me, since I'm releasing an album soon, it is kind of a "which one does the best job overall" scenario, lol, and come to find I just like the simplicity and sound of No Limits.
But it's the only option I didn't consider back when I was using Pro-L2.
True, or even depending on the genre being mastered. 🙂 Techno usually is meant to be a grittier genre.
Lol true, but I found Youlean's to be the best one personally. 🙂