How much is your Waves L2 Limiting?

[Minh]

I have a track that's more or less completed and notice that on the master fader the peak limiting is around -10 dB on the Waves L2. Is that too much? Should I be lowering the levels on everyting so it's not limiting as much or is this a reasonable amount? From a perception standpoint it's about the same level as most commercial tracks I'm hearing and I don't *think* I'm hearing any distortion from the limiting process.

And if I should be lowering the levels is there an easy way to do this? I know you can group all the faders and lower them, but that doesn't work for tracks with automation, and there's quite heavy automation on these tracks which makes the whole process cumbersome (as far as I can tell). I know I can strap some gain plugins on the channels and just lower em that but that would seem to degrade the signals for me and ain't a very elegant solution.

Thanks for reading this long post!
Minh

[norman_nomad]

L2 limiting/compression level setting is a matter of taste. There is no "right" amount. -10 is substantial, however, and probably squashing any "elegance" you might have woven into your tracks.

For reference, lowering the master fader works EXACTLY the same as lowering each individual track, and saves you the task of having to reautomate everything.

Are you planning on this song getting radio play?

[Chris Cavell]

Lowering the levels will only force you to limit further in order to achieve the same result.

How much limiting I use depends greatly on the style of music, what the rms level of the song is, which tunes come before and after that one on the CD, etc.

Is your -10 dB on the left hand control of the L2 or is it the actual amount of attenuation reported(indicated in the window to the far right)? If -10 dB is the amount of attenuation, then my experience would say you're probably limiting too much...I rarely if ever allow attenuation to go further than about -5 dB max. Try some compression prior to the L2, either in the mix on various tracks that you think could use it or on the master fader prior to the L2. On average, my attenuation reads between -3 and -4 max.

I hope this helps.

-Chris Cavell

[Jburn34]

I agree with Chris that 10db is too much. The L2 is pretty strong...It can really screw with stuff. Lower the master fader so its not limiting very much and then do what Chris said about adding some compression on the stereo bus pre-L2. If you need more compression, do it on the individual tracks or route stuff to busses and compress there.

Jeremy

[Minh]

Thanks for the replies guys. Thanks for the tip about the master fader, totally forgot that for the master channel is post fader (or is it?) thanks...

Ideally I'd like it to be a mainstream track, maybe I'll find a spot to post a clip somewhere.

The -9.6 is what's being read on the far right. I actually have the threshold set at 0 and the out celing at -0.3. It's the peak attenuation that's reading -10.

So does that mean I just got all my faders way too high?

[Jburn34]

Yeah, that pretty much means everything's up too hot. That's why the master fader is cool b/c you can just pull it down to taste.

[Chris Cavell]

Ahh, I see. Yes, the inserts on the master fader channel are post fader. If your threshold is at 0 and you're reading 10 dB of attenuation, then you can easily adjust things without having to mess with your mix by dropping the master fader until the peak meters (the left two windows of the L2) show a peak less than 0 but greater than around -6. Then adjust the threshold until you've got somewhere between -3 and -6 dB at the attenuation window. If it sounds like it's just not as hot as you want it, I'd toss up a compressor before the L2 and start the process over again.