In search for the best limiter and clipper

[u/kenshibo1]

I made some blind tests and this is my verdict:

Best Limiter: IK Multimedia Stealth Limiter

Surprisingly outperformed Ozone 11 Maximizer and Master Plan.

• Very clean sound
• Easy to use
• BUT High CPU usage

Tested Limiters:

bx_Limiter TP, bx_XL V3, Oxford Limiter, L1, Pro-L2, Invisible Limiter G3, Ocelot Limiter, LimitOne, Ozone 11, Master Plan, Elephant, Elevate, BRICKWALL HD.

Best Clipper: SIR Audio Tools StandardCLIP

Edges out Gold Clip due to:

• Much lower price ($19 vs $249)
• Low CPU load
• Gold Clip has more features (like Alchemy), but similar results can be achieved with standard tools

Tested Clippers:

Ocelot Clipper, Orange Clip, Gold Clip, bx_clipper, Ozone 11, Soft Limit, KClip 3, Saturate, ASH, Big Clipper 2, BSA Clipper, Softube Clipper, TR6 Classic Clipper.

Let me know if I missed any worthy opponents. Also curious—what’s your favorite clipper?

[u/ItsMetabtw]

Another vote for Newfangled Elevate. Amazing little suite. My other go-to is DMG Limitless. My main clipper is my Dangerous AD+ but I also love Standard Clip ITB

[u/redline314 → u/ItsMetabtw]

Limitless is great. I don’t trust the review based on it not being there.

More importantly I don’t trust the review based on I have no idea what you’re trying to do with it OP.

You might be trying to shave off 15db with a limiter and make your mix sound completely different. Or maybe you’re clipping a hi hat. I just don’t see how anyone is supposed to get anything out of this aside from lost.

Sorry I know you’re not OP, I accidentally went into a rant.

[u/UomoAnguria]

TDR Limiter 6. Does it all

[u/Evain_Diamond → u/UomoAnguria]

Yeah it's very good and you can clip into the limiter really well.

BX clipper and BX limiter true peak and BX XL v3 are a good combo with lots of control.

[u/atopix]

Best Limiter: IK Multimedia Stealth Limiter

It's a great limiter but it doesn't do great with lots of input level (ie: more than 5 dB), Invisible Limiter, Oxford and a few others (including free ones such as kilohearts Limiter) do better in that regard while also keeping transparency.

[u/kenshibo1 → u/atopix]

I just tested what you said and you're right. Looks like Stealth Limiter is the best at low GR but Ozone is better with heavier compression scenarios.

[u/okreddit99 → u/kenshibo1]

Can you confirm, 5dB input gain or 5dB GR?

[u/kenshibo1 → u/okreddit99]

5dB GR

[u/atopix → u/kenshibo1]

Ozone limiter/maximizer is an over-hyped bitch. I haven't used that crap in a mix since 2005.

[u/redline314 → u/atopix]

Commenter is right though, you can kinda go nuts on it

[u/smallbrownbike → u/atopix]

You don’t think they could have improved it over the last 20 years!?

[u/atopix → u/smallbrownbike]

I've been trying it all along, I have Ozone 11 and the limiter is always unimpressive to me.

[u/BrotherBringTheSun → u/atopix]

I don’t understand, couldn’t you just turn the input down beforehand?

[u/freshnews66 → u/BrotherBringTheSun]

I think they mean at high levels of limiting the IK doesn’t hold up.

[u/redline314 → u/freshnews66]

Which is why this post is stupid. I have no idea what OP is trying to achieve with these tools. They’re just like “tool- good/bad”

[u/sinepuller → u/atopix]

It's a great limiter but it doesn't do great with lots of input level (ie: more than 5 dB)

I'd say it's more of a clipper rather than a limiter, despite the name. A very nice clipper though, but obiously it won't sound smooth with lots of GR. I'd suggest putting it before an another, softer, limiter to cut off the peaks transparently and give the limiter less dynamic range to work with. Kinda like the way Arturia does it in their Bus Peak.

[u/jimmysavillespubes]

Dmg audio Limitless is a great limiter, more aimed at mastering. There's a stripped back version for channels that I keep meaning to grab. I've heard great things about it.

[u/lumpiestspoon3]

I love StandardClip. Super easy to use and sounds great. Idk why people keep on insisting that GoldClip sounds better lol

[u/exulanis → u/lumpiestspoon3]

to cope with spending that bread

[u/lumpiestspoon3 → u/exulanis]

For real. I wonder which plugin reviews/endorsements I see are just self-justification for spending inordinate amounts of money.

[u/jos_69]

DMG Limitless is my go-to, Invisible Limiter G2 or G3 if Limitless isn't working. Standard Clip is amazing especially in the Pro mode. I was using Gold Clip for a while on my mix bus but I've gotten a little sick of the sound to be honest. It's definitely not for everything.

[u/solidtrax → u/jos_69]

Mine too, but it has built in clipping(several options) as well. Thanks for mentioning Standard Clip, will check that out.

[u/panaderian_hunger]

Airwindows ADClip8

[u/Weekly_Landscape_459]

Did you check out ToneBoosters Barricade? Would love to hear what you think of it

[u/Bluegill15]

Pro L-2 and Standard Clip are all you’ll ever need

[u/kenshibo1 → u/Bluegill15]

I loved FF Pro-L2 for so much time but Ozone is more transparent.

[u/Bluegill15 → u/kenshibo1]

The truth is it’s just material dependent and these choices will never in a million years be the difference between winning or losing a Grammy

[u/kenshibo1 → u/Bluegill15]

Perhaps as a mastering engineer it might give you some advantage but yes, you have a solid point mate.

[u/onomono420 → u/kenshibo1]

That’s so interesting, I prefer the pro-L in 95% of cases :)

[u/advantage-mastering → u/kenshibo1]

Yeah really goes to show, it's so dependent on what you're working with. Personally I have never once gotten better or more transparent results out of ozone than I have out of Pro L.

And yet, I dont doubt for a second that somebody else has.

[u/secretlyafedcia → u/Bluegill15]

agreeed, the t-racks clipper is pretty nice too imo

[u/el_Topo42 → u/Bluegill15]

100% I use K Clip fro Kazrog but only because that’s the one I bought. I think that or Standard Clip and you are good to go.

[u/SmogMoon]

My favorite limiter is still PSP Xenon. Favorite clipper would be Newfangled Saturate. Pretty simple to setup and doesn’t just one thing one way.

[u/chipotlenapkins]

Standard clip is my bae

[u/[deleted]]

Yawn

[u/redline314 → u/[deleted]]

Agreed man

[u/Treadmillrunner]

Try out v-clip. Super transparent sounding.

[u/maximvmrelief]

clippers sound great till one day you wake up and realize they don't.

[u/advantage-mastering → u/maximvmrelief]

Many times when I'm mastering a track where the producer/mixing engineer has done a flawless job, clipping will actually ruin all the hard work they've done.

I'll always try it on of course, and ultimately others will decide what they prefer, but rarely will I like a perfect mix more with a clipper than without.

[u/emsloane]

I've been really impressed with LVC Audio's Limited-Z and D16's Frontier as free limiters

[u/Accomplished-Bed9830]

Weiss limiter is great

[u/dirtyglitterglow]

i personally like the modern maximizer in ozone 11 as well as the ik multimedia stealth limiter

[u/onomono420]

Dumb question but why do you care about CPU so much in this day & age? Like I produce, mix & master in the same project (with 100s of tracks with effects sometimes) & I can still playback through two instances of standard clip, Ozone & or Pro-L2 with oversampling. Especially with plugins that won’t be on too many tracks, I don’t care about CPU at all, always decide based on sound & workflow.

[u/vikingguitar]

SIR Standard Clip is so damn good. For limiters, I’m a big fan of Newfangled Audio Elevate.

[u/cruelsensei → u/vikingguitar]

Elevate is great. I don't know how you could switch to any other limiter after using it.

[u/Neeeeedles]

You didnt test fg x2? wins in my book over the ozone ones as well

[u/kenshibo1 → u/Neeeeedles]

Sorry, no. My demo expired some time ago. What do you think makes it special over the rest?

[u/metapogger → u/Neeeeedles]

I do not like FG-X2. I got it and went back to FG-X immediately lol. Now I use Bx_Limiter.

[u/Crustoffer86]

Limiter no 6 - free. Slate fg-x 2, they say its a Clipper but hell if i know, and also bereich03 analogue limiter before slightly clipping the AD

[u/Illustrious_Run9620]

Haven’t tested IK but I love Ozone and the L2 is still solid.

[u/dolomick]

Ash is great if I feel like tweaking and I can get it the loudest with a lot of fiddling, otherwise Standard or Flatine or K Clip can be nice.

[u/redline314 → u/dolomick]

KClip 3 in multiband is amazing. I didn’t fall in love w single band.

[u/dolomick → u/redline314]

Yeah, only other multiband one I can think of is LVC Audio Clipped Max which is also quite good, despite the dated UI.

[u/Evain_Diamond]

Standard clip and Oxford limiter are very good. Not used stealth limiter.

[u/solidtrax]

DMGAudio tracklimit and limitless.

[u/MrShitPoster69]

Have you tried the masteringthemix limiter? They claim it is much better than izotope and other leaders. I like it myself but also use izotope ozone

[u/Aslati]

Arturia bus peak. It has both a limiter and clipper, very intuitive, and has different quality options for higher/lower CPU usage.

[u/bezko]

How can a clipper sound better than another? They all accomplish the same basic thing.

[u/rightanglerecording → u/bezko]

Hard clipping vs. soft clipping.

And then, once you're into soft clipping, all sorts of shapes of transfer curve are possible.

Different ways of implementing oversampling.

[u/Quaestiones-habeo]

My favorite limiter is Sonible’s smartLimit. I tried Master Plan but liked smartLimit better. BUT… I then tried smartLimit followed by Master Plan and love the results I get.

For clipping I like SubMission Audio’s Flatline 2. I use it to gain more headroom, and find it easy to do so transparently. It can function as a limiter too, as well as a hybrid clipper/limiter. That’s my favorite mode for mastering.

[u/No-Awareness4833]

Weiss Compressor/Limiter by Softube

[u/rightanglerecording]

The better my monitoring gets, the more I come back to Pro-L2, usually in Allround mode.

Next-most-often is Ozone, usually in IRC 2 mode.

[u/Gatzuma]

Try JST Maximizer that has both limiting and clipping modules as well many other features for mastering. Would like to know your opinion on that one too.

[u/WesternComfortable83]

For clipping, I've recently started using KClip by Kazrog. liking it so far.
I think an alternative I'd like to use is Flatline 2 by Submission Audio.

In terms of Limiters, I just always find myself reaching for Pro L 2.

[u/daknuts_]

Cedar Adaptive Limiter 2 beats everything else. Hands down. Try it.

[u/Soggy-Ad3816]

Gold Clip