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djenkins1s
Guest
What is Brickwall Limiting? I've looked everywhere for a def.
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M
MASSIVE Mastering
Guest
It's more or less what it sounds like - Throwing a virtual brick wall in front of the signal. "Controlled clipping" would be a nice way to put it. You set the signal at a certain threshold and "none shall pass" after that.
Generally, it's not a very pretty or "musical" sounding thing - It's essentially permanently destroying any dynamics that would've been above that threshold.
Generally, it's not a very pretty or "musical" sounding thing - It's essentially permanently destroying any dynamics that would've been above that threshold.
M
Marxist
Guest
^^So What Is It USUALLY Used On?
W
whiteone
Guest
as MASSIVE said it is used to control clipping. it removes unwanted transients that will usually eat some of your materials dB. therefore brickwall gives you some extra dB and it is used mostly in mastering process. i hope that this helps.
Man, you are the person I most admire and trust on here for you knowledge of the technical aspects of production, lets get that out of the way up front. But I do find you quite severely dogmatic in your position on compression and limiting. You appear to be coming from an exclusively live audio recording perspective, and not from a sequencing samplers and synths "dance music" perspective much at all. I do strictly computer based house music, for club play, and I don't pay for mastering, I do it myself, and I do get stuff played. And for me both compression and limiting are not just good, they are a vital part of my sound. I think your position is too severe and you are not representing the full picture. You seem to think these things are basically "always bad". I don't think so.MASSIVE Mastering said:It's more or less what it sounds like - Throwing a virtual brick wall in front of the signal. "Controlled clipping" would be a nice way to put it. You set the signal at a certain threshold and "none shall pass" after that.
Generally, it's not a very pretty or "musical" sounding thing - It's essentially permanently destroying any dynamics that would've been above that threshold.
Today I was vocoding some vocals, and after processing I had the sound I wanted but wild variations in volume. I limited it very hard, and it worked well.
I compress my bass and kick every time at about 1:4 with a threshold set so I get around 3db reduction. I then single band compress again at mastering for 1db reduction only when the kick hits, and limit with vey fast settings again for 1db reduction. And I get a good sound. I have AB's my own mixes against the uncompressed and limited version and the processing is definitely doing something I want and need.
So wouldn't it be more reprasentative of reality for you to say that "over use, or incorrect use, or abuse" of these tools is the enemy, rather than what seems to be your mantra which is that it's all bad all the time?
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Buddha said:Man, you are the person I most admire and trust on here for you knowledge of the technical aspects of production, lets get that out of the way up front. But I do find you quite severely dogmatic in your position on compression and limiting. You appear to be coming from an exclusively live audio recording perspective, and not from a sequencing samplers and synths "dance music" perspective much at all. I do strictly computer based house music, for club play, and I don't pay for mastering, I do it myself, and I do get stuff played. And for me both compression and limiting are not just good, they are a vital part of my sound. I think your position is too severe and you are not representing the full picture. You seem to think these things are basically "always bad". I don't think so.
Today I was vocoding some vocals, and after processing I had the sound I wanted but wild variations in volume. I limited it very hard, and it worked well.
I compress my bass and kick every time at about 1:4 with a threshold set so I get around 3db reduction. I then single band compress again at mastering for 1db reduction only when the kick hits, and limit with vey fast settings again for 1db reduction. And I get a good sound. I have AB's my own mixes against the uncompressed and limited version and the processing is definitely doing something I want and need.
So wouldn't it be more reprasentative of reality for you to say that "over use, or incorrect use, or abuse" of these tools is the enemy, rather than what seems to be your mantra which is that it's all bad all the time?
Yes I see where you are coming from. I was just listening to some linkin park and sampletank audio clips (thinking of getting it) and there was one where they took a live drum loop and smashed it with a limiter and it sounds sick.
Massive Mastering: If you are so against using limiting, then what is the other option for achieving punch and loudness, normalize to 0db? Heck I dunno, is it possible to have a mix turn out as loud as a fully mastered track?
Electrodisiac
New member
I use brickwall limiting for the last part of my mastering process. I have a multiband compressor running just before it in my signal chain which I use to do 99% of the real compression. The limiter is just there to catch anything that's too intense for it to handle. The trick with a limiter is not to use a knee that's too intense... I find for dance you want about 0.3db of differnce between a "normal" signal with everything going (post multiband compresssion) and the absolute maximum level (I normalize to -0.1db just to be safe) I find Waves LM4 to work wonders. Nice and transparent.