Numero Uno

grand master
What's the appropriate amount of dB gain reduction you should do with Waves L2 Ultramaximizer mastering limiter?
 

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There are no hard and fast rules about gain reduction when using brickwall limiters like Waves Audio L2 Ultramaximizer or Waves Audio L1 Ultramaximizer. It's all about the desired sound you can achieve by using any audio mastering limiter. Although in contemporary times pushing Waves Audio L2 sounds nasty compared to other modern VST plug-ins.

Perhaps a guideline is somewhere around -1 dB to about -3 dB of gain reduction with the Waves Audio L2 plugin and then proceed to use a second VST brickwall limiter. It's all a matter of taste. For me, I personally wouldn't use Waves Audio L2 as a final brickwall limiter because both FabFilter Software Instruments' Pro-L and iZotope Ozone Maximizer sound way better, to say the least.

Goldmidi

The Goldmidi
Staff member
There are no hard and fast rules about gain reduction when using brickwall limiters like Waves Audio L2 Ultramaximizer or Waves Audio L1 Ultramaximizer. It's all about the desired sound you can achieve by using any audio mastering limiter. Although in contemporary times pushing Waves Audio L2 sounds nasty compared to other modern VST plug-ins.

Perhaps a guideline is somewhere around -1 dB to about -3 dB of gain reduction with the Waves Audio L2 plugin and then proceed to use a second VST brickwall limiter. It's all a matter of taste. For me, I personally wouldn't use Waves Audio L2 as a final brickwall limiter because both FabFilter Software Instruments' Pro-L and iZotope Ozone Maximizer sound way better, to say the least.
 
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Bla Jedza

apprentice
No, right now I know Waves L1 Ultramaximizer has been updated with a true-peak functionality, but as for Waves L2 Ultramaximizer, it's not yet a true-peak brickwall limiter.

So then how would you address a scenario of 'how to use Waves L2 Ultramaximizer' as though it was a true-peak limiter. Like is there any setting to address that?
 

Black Panther

grand master
What's up with the recommendation of leaving either -0.2 dB or -0.3 dB when setting the mastering limiter's output?

The logic behind leaving a headroom of 0.3 dB or 0.2 dB is meant to reduce the amount of clipping during Digital-to-Analog conversion or lossy mp3 audio format conversion. In reality, 0.3 dB will not completely prevent clipping although it will help to obviously reduce the level of clipping. You should also keep in mind that most inter-sample peaks are within a range of +0.3 dB, and most mp3 overshoots are within +1 dB.
 

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