Limit Go

Related manuals

Limit Pro User Manual

Introduction

The hardest part of designing products is the control set. An algorithm typically has a gazillion internal controls, and each one feels equally important while developing the algorithm. But as a user, having all these options available can prevent us from getting a good result—we get lost. So reducing the feature set is crucial when the result, the song, matters. We want to intuitively understand a product so that we, as mixers/producers/songwriters/musicians, can easily move in the right direction.

But sometimes we, the users, have different prerequisites or demands, and sometimes it's just impossible to create a single feature set that fits all.

Limit Go uses the same algorithms as Limit Pro. Same core, same sound quality. The only difference is the controls. Limit Pro allows you to go deep into the intricacies of release characteristics and frequency-adaptive algorithms, while Limit Go lets you focus on the music and the result. Turn up the gain, toggle through the different styles, and be done with it.

The Limit Pro User Manual contains lots of information about the algorithm if you want to go deeper.

Low Latency

Limit Go has a latency below 5 ms. You can keep it on your master bus while tracking and arranging. You can use it as a bus limiter throughout the production.

Styles

The three styles are loosely based on genres or production styles.

Raw was designed for dense, electronic mixes where a bit of high-frequency distortion doesn't really matter. With Smoothing and Release at 0%, it's almost like a clipper. It can get very loud, but struggles with sparse, bass-heavy arrangements.

Clean is the all-round style for pop, rock, and other recorded music. With less distortion, it's not as loud as Raw, but it's a safe bet for most styles.

Safe was designed for acoustic music, where you want to preserve the integrity of the song throughout the frequency range.

User Interface

Limit Go consists of two parts: meters in the top display and controls at the bottom.

Display

The display has three meters:

• Distortion (red): Shows the amount of distortion.

• Loudness Loss (yellow): Shows the amount of Loudness Loss, when the limiter can no longer make the song louder. As a rule of thumb, keep Loudness Loss below 2–3 dB.

• Gain Reduction (blue): Shows the total amount of gain reduction, with the left meter at the top and the right at the bottom.

The Gain Reduction meter is divided into two parts: light blue and dark blue. The light blue meter is the total gain reduction, while the dark blue part indicates gain reduction coming from the release circuits. For more information, please see the Limit Pro User Manual.

To the left of the Gain Reduction meter you have a maximum readout, showing the maximum amount of gain reduction since reset or the start of playback. Click the readout to reset the value.

To the right of the meters you have the temporary (4-second) maximum readout.

Loudness Loss

The Loudness Loss is a heuristic measurement of when a gain increase doesn't correspond to a louder mix.

For example, if you push the gain 12 dB and the LUFS readout gets 12 dB louder, that's great! You might be able to push it more since a 1 dB increase corresponds to a 1 dB louder mix.

But if you push the gain by 12 dB and the mix only gets 9 dB louder, you have 3 dB of loudness loss (12 − 9 = 3 dB). This suggests that you might want to back off a bit because you've hit a ceiling.

You can also lower the loudness loss by decreasing the release times, at the risk of adding more distortion.

It is good practice to keep the Loudness Loss below 3 dB.

Distortion Meter

The distortion meter measures how the limiter changes the audio and analyzes how that will affect the output audio.

Limiting will always introduce distortion, but not all distortion sounds the same. The smooth saturation of a tube is very different from a bit crusher or wave folder. Some types of distortion blend easily with the original audio, whereas others stick out like a sore thumb. The distortion meter analyzes what type of distortion will be introduced and reacts more to distortion that is likely to be audible and "bad".

The distortion meter doesn't have a unit; it's simply "more" or "less" distortion. Some mixes can handle a lot of distortion, others can't, so it's important to use your ears.

True Peak

Next to the distortion meter sits the "TP" button, which engages true peak limiting.

TP

Engages True Peak limiting.

Controls

Release

Sets the release of the limiter. Higher values will reduce distortion, while lower values increase loudness. Depending on the selected style, it will set the release time, the release amount, or a combination of both.

Limiter Gain

Sets the input gain to the limiter.

Smoothing

Sets the amount of smoothing in the peak suppression.

Style

Sets the style of the algorithm.

• Raw: Fast and loud

• Clean: All-round limiting

• Safe: Lowest possible distortion

Extended Features

The panels to the left and right are a part of Softube's Extended Features, which is available in all plug-ins.

The right hand panel is useful for A/B testing and final level control.

Output

Sets the output volume from the plug-in.

Bypass

Smooth and click-free bypass. Will not off-load CPU or latency.

Gain Match Input

Click to automatically match the bypassed volume with the processed volume. Use in tandem with Bypass to avoid gain differences.

Gain Match Reset

Click to set output volume back to 0 dB

Pre Fader Metering

Use together with Gain Match Input to see the LUFS levels even if the output volume fader is at a different value.

You can change the meter types (peak, RMS, true peak, LUFS, etc) from the settings menu on the top right corner.

Credits

Cameron Clark – Algorithm design
Fredrik Jansson – Algorithm design
Niklas Odelholm – Algorithm and product design
Patrik Holmström – UI programming
Arvid Rosén – DSP optimization
Johan Bremin – Quality assurance