On this is superimposed a fairly conventional EQ-like interface which allows you to configure the band splitting. The default visualisation shows an FFT-style instantaneous plot of peak level across the frequency spectrum when the limiter bands are applying gain reduction, the top part of the graph turns a lighter shade of blue. The green sections show where the limiter is active, and the red lines indicate gain reduction taking place.
Limitless’s ‘time view’ shows the input signal as a scrolling waveform display. The large central section, meanwhile, is devoted to visualising the settings of the band crossovers and the effect of any limiting on the input signal. However, the window can be freely resized, and clicking a small icon in the plug-in toolbar makes visible a list of additional parameters in the lower left and right panes. Although Limitless is easily the most comprehensively featured limiter I’ve ever come across, DMG have managed to harness all of its power within a friendly and well thought-out user interface.īy default, Limitless opens in a fairly small window that presents only the main Threshold, Ceiling and Release time controls on the left, and the output meters on the right.
There are times when the sheer range of options available in Compassion or Equilibrium can feel overwhelming, but that’s not the case here. This can help to achieve natural-sounding results with material that has loud peaks in specific frequency ranges, because you can ensure that other areas of the spectrum are not ducked along with the peaking frequencies. The limiting can be configured as a conventional full-bandwidth process, but Limitless also offers the option to have it operate independently in up to six frequency bands. The second then squishes the transients, in conjunction with the third of Limitless’s processing elements: a soft-clip stage preceding the limiter, which can mimic the characteristics of several different clipping options. Two separate limiters are designed to work in tandem the first is intended to allow transient events to pass through, but control dynamic variation with slower attack and release characteristics. Limitless reflects this approach and includes not one but three processing stages, all of them highly configurable. What’s more, many mastering engineers don’t only use limiting to control the latter: there are cases where allowing transients to clip the input of an A-D converter can actually sound more natural than having a limiter do all the work. To achieve the loudest possible master with the fewest possible side-effects, it may be necessary to tackle longer-term dynamic variation separately from the transient peaks. At the ‘micro’ level, most mixes contain instantaneous, transient peaks caused by events such as drum hits but the level of the audio also changes in a ‘macro’ fashion too. The reason for this is that dynamic variation within programme audio happens on different timescales.
Putting a simple output limiter across the master bus is fine when you need to send clients a quick reference mix, but mastering engineers in pursuit of the best results will often use more than one stage of processing. Many limiting plug-ins thus have hardly any user controls beyond a simple threshold or gain setting - but you probably won’t be surprised to learn that DMG Audio’s Limitless is not among them. After all, a mastering limiter is intended to do one very specific thing: to make your mixes as loud as possible, with as few side-effects as possible. His Equilibrium equaliser and Compassion compressor are already the most comprehensive examples of those two processors I’ve ever come across, and now he’s turned his attention to the challenge of creating the ultimate plug-in mastering limiter.Īt first glance, this seems like a less ambitious goal than designing the mother of all equalisers, or the compressor to end all compressors. If you’re feeling limited by your existing limiter, perhaps DMG Audio have the answer?ĭave Gamble is a plug-in developer who sets out to make his products the very last word in whatever it is they do.
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