Hi, I'm trying to do some home mastering of some tracks I've recorded and am having some problems using Brickwall Limiters in Reaper.
So basically when I set the output level on the limiter to -0.1 db and lower the threshold it starts to clip on Reapers meter and also through the Mastering the Mix Levels plugin that I use to check clipping etc. I'm just pushing the limiter to the point where it starts to work, so not too hard really.
The tracks are all about -6db and have all been gain staged, so that shouldn't be an issue.
I can off course make it so that the track doesn't clip but the overall levels seems pretty low when I render.
Isn't a Brickwall Limiter supposed to cut all peaks above a certain level?
The limiters I've tried are: Ozone Maximizer, Fab filter limiter, T-Racks Brickwall limiter. I also have a compressor before this just to glue things.
Any ideas?
I'm not interested in making my tracks massively loud, but would like them to be comparative to other releases if possible.
Comments
Voxengo Elephant has two main controls, one labelled 'In Gain' and the other labelled 'Out Gain (Ceiling)'. The Out Gain (Ceiling) knob sets the maximum output level and (in theory) stops any peaks above 0dB. However, I generally use a setting of slightly under 0dB (say about -0.5dB) because I've noticed that rendering to mp3 can cause peaks slightly higher than 0dB.
I always keep Reaper's Master track level at 0dB. I can participate in the 'loudness wars' by increasing Voxengo Elephant's 'In Gain' setting. Then it's a case of following my ears in determining how far I want to compress the dynamics vs increase the overall perceived volume of the track.
As far as I'm aware, it's the level indicator on Reaper's Master track that really matters. So provided that doesn't go into the red, I believe it's OK if individual tracks might go into the red. But again I listen to how things sound.
Edit - and you should definitely be able to push the loudness up considerably without actual clipping if you so wish (or be more subtle to keep some dynamics)
You can use ReaComp , Reapers own one as a good limiter if you set the ratio to infinity and then set the threshold and watch the output
Any idea if T-Racks Brickwall limiter is a lookahead?
The simplest free limiter is Loudmax by Thomas Mundt and the only one I've got to to do what was expected.
But I've found it all a pain so just use ReaComp set to mild compression with look ahead - but I don't do loud rock stuff!
If you right click on the scale you can change how the meter responds to showing level
As much as there are better limiters out there I actually achieved my loudest mix ever using Reacomp ..... I did it because our Protools systems in the studio bounced in real time and I only had 15 minutes to master a whole EP. So I basically threw the tracks into Reaper, whacked 2 X Reacomp on the master bus ...... 1 set to gentle compression and one set as a brickwall master. The finished tracks were louder than the then current Foos Album Wasted Light
Should the red threshold be on 0db?
Incidentally if you're struggling to match the loudness of other tracks in a comparable style, it's most likely down to the mix rather than the mastering. For instance if you have a lot more low bass in your tracks, that will be eating up headroom and stopping the overall loudness of your tracks from being comparable with references.
Is it worth low passing anything under 40hz to make sure there's no bass frequencies sneaking through? It's not really bass heavy music, but I suppose anything with bass guitar, low kicks or frame drums might have some unneeded low frequencies.