Reaper limiter

[Nil]

Here's a Reaper question for all you Reaper mavens:

I'd like to slap a limiter on the Master Track, set to chop off any
peaks over, say, -1 dB. I find some limiter plugins included:

JS: Utility/Limiter
JS: LOSER/MGA_JSLimiter
JS: LOSER/MGA_JSLimiterST
JS: LOSER/SP1LimiterJS

Two issues for me... I can't find any real documentation about these,
so I'm not sure how to work the settings. Is there more info about them
that I'm missing?

The bigger issue that none of them seem to work! If I crank up the
Master Track Volume slider way up, I would expect that the rendered
track would still have a peak of -1 bB, but it's not happening, no
matter what combination of "Threshold" and "Ceiling" settings I use.

Anybody know what I'm doing wrong?

[Nil]

On 10 Jul 2012, Glennbo <vdrumsYourHe...@cox.net> wrote in
cakewalk.audio:

> None of those are "Brickwall" limiters, which is what you're
> looking for.

Hmmmm... I guess I don't know the difference. What are these used for,
then?

What I usually do is render my files at 24- or 32- bits, then using
Adobe Audition's Hard Limit function to boost the level and shave off
the occasional peak that's way greater than average. I don't squash the
whole thing flat. I like this method because I can be pretty surgically
precise about it, but I'd like to do the whole thing in Reaper, if
possible, to save myself a step

I'd like to set the Limiter to -1dB and use the Master Track Volume to
boost the signal so that just the biggest peaks get shaved. After
playing some more with the JS limiters in Reaper, they do seem to be
doing something, but since there's no documentation, I'm not sure what
the controls do. But the main problem seems to be that all effects in
the Master Track seem to be *post* fader and that doesn't seem to be
changeable. That means I have to set the final level from within the
plugin, and not touch the Master Volume. I'm finding that to be hard to
do.

> The three primary brickwall limiters I use are
>
> 1. PSP Vintage Warmer
> 2. Timeworks CompressorX
> 3. dB-Audio Mastering Limiter
>
> The dB-Audio Mastering Limiter is on my master bus in every song.
> It's kind of getting on in age, but is transparent, and does what
> it does well.
>
> http://www.db-audioware.com/db-l-mastering-limiter.html
>
> The other plugs will sometimes be present on my master bus, but
> are more frequently used on individual tracks. All of them can
> hold a line that won't be crossed though.

Unfortunately, I don't have any of those. I'll look into them, though.

[polymod]

"Nil" wrote in message news:XnsA08CD6E7...@wheedledeedle.moc...

Here's a Reaper question for all you Reaper mavens:

I'd like to slap a limiter on the Master Track, set to chop off any
peaks over, say, -1 dB. I find some limiter plugins included:

JS: Utility/Limiter
JS: LOSER/MGA_JSLimiter
JS: LOSER/MGA_JSLimiterST
JS: LOSER/SP1LimiterJS
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Nil,
I copied this from my Reaper Power manual. Hope this helps.

http://www.sonicmusic.net/MasterLimiterReaper.jpg

http://www.sonicmusic.net/MasterLimiterReaper2.jpg

Poly

[RichL]

"Glennbo" <vdrumsYourHe...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:XnsA08DB3DDE93CBr...@88.198.244.100...

> So I experimented with the MGA_JSLimiter and it does appear to be acting
> as
> a brickwall limiter. I recorded some heavy drums with lots of busy kick,
> snare, and toms, then goosed each of those three sections louser than I
> would normally run them so the master was getting overs. Popped that
> plugin on my master bus and the overs went away. Pulled the ceiling
> control fully to the left and it was holding the line at -6dB.
>
> Then I tried setting the ceiling at -1.5dB and goosed the master fader up
> in Reaper by +1.45dB, and still no overs. The threshold control on this
> plug is really more than just threshold, which would normally just set the
> level at which point the limiter engages, but this threshold control is
> also an output boost control, so the lower you set the threshold, the more
> you are pumping up the signal. In my test with a real hot signal at the
> master, anything more than -2.0 on the threshold started to sound squashed
> and pumped. Sitting at -1.5 goosed the volume up, but still sounded ok.

Does it sound squashed even with the "release" control all the way to the
left?

[RichL]

"Glennbo" <vdrumsYourHe...@cox.net> wrote in message

news:XnsA08DC918AFDD9Br...@88.198.244.100...
> In news:PpSdnSTZL74jm2PS...@supernews.com the killer robot
> "RichL" <rple...@yahoo.com> grabbed the controls of the spaceship
> cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons...

> I didn't try that, but it still would. Just less. The pumping sound I
> started hearing was mostly being created by the "ducking", and you would
> need an "attack" control to smooth that side of the limiting out.
>
> When a first note has a solid hit force that then pulls back real fast,
> you
> get that pumping sound. Setting a longer release keeps subsequent notes
> from having a zero dB starting point, so the pumping on them would be
> less.
>
> An extreme version of what I'm referring to would be that of a camcorder's
> auto level control, where the first sound made has a radical volume drop,
> and as long as sound keeps happening, you hear it less. I've been
> shopping
> for a used 14" Avedis Zildjian Paper Thin Crash, and this is a good
> example
> of what that extreme drop at the beginning of a hit sounds like.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4faUd4Mpx6U

Yeah, that's sort of classic, but note that the first hit of each sequence
doesn't "drop" anywhere near the degree that successive hits do. So it's
mainly a long release time that does this in the clip.

A true hard limiter basically has zero attack and release times, right?
That's what you want if all you want to do is clip the peaks and nothing
else. At least that's the way I understand it.

[polymod]

"Glennbo" <vdrumsYourHe...@cox.net> wrote in message

news:XnsA08DB3DDE93CBr...@88.198.244.100...
> In news:4ffdaae8$0$11526$607e...@cv.net the killer robot "polymod"
> <pol...@optonline.net> grabbed the controls of the spaceship

> cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons...
>

>> I'd like to slap a limiter on the Master Track, set to chop off any
>> peaks over, say, -1 dB. I find some limiter plugins included:
>>
>> JS: Utility/Limiter
>> JS: LOSER/MGA_JSLimiter
>> JS: LOSER/MGA_JSLimiterST
>> JS: LOSER/SP1LimiterJS
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>
>> Nil,
>> I copied this from my Reaper Power manual. Hope this helps.
>>
>> http://www.sonicmusic.net/MasterLimiterReaper.jpg
>>
>> http://www.sonicmusic.net/MasterLimiterReaper2.jpg
>

> So I experimented with the MGA_JSLimiter and it does appear to be acting
> as
> a brickwall limiter. I recorded some heavy drums with lots of busy kick,
> snare, and toms, then goosed each of those three sections louser than I
> would normally run them so the master was getting overs. Popped that
> plugin on my master bus and the overs went away. Pulled the ceiling
> control fully to the left and it was holding the line at -6dB.
>
> Then I tried setting the ceiling at -1.5dB and goosed the master fader up
> in Reaper by +1.45dB, and still no overs. The threshold control on this
> plug is really more than just threshold, which would normally just set the
> level at which point the limiter engages, but this threshold control is
> also an output boost control, so the lower you set the threshold, the more
> you are pumping up the signal. In my test with a real hot signal at the
> master, anything more than -2.0 on the threshold started to sound squashed
> and pumped. Sitting at -1.5 goosed the volume up, but still sounded ok.

Thanks for the feedback.....good stuff to know!!!

Poly