Mastering Limiter Software
Unique to SADiE, the Mastering Limiter intelligently limits the audio in order to maintain the peaks at a fixed level. The gain control will increase the perceived "loudness" or "punch" of your masters without ever overloading the digital outputs. The process is equally suitable for CD mastering or broadcasting applications.
The Mastering Limiter is designed to intelligently limit the audio level for CD mastering. A gain control allows the perceived audio level to be maximised without overloading the output. The process is equally suitable for CD or DDP mastering.
The Mastering Limiter plug-in allows gain to be added to a signal before it is limited to a set level. You can define the limiting in -dBFS to avoid overloads. The Limiter enables the audio material to achieve 'loudness' while avoiding digital clipping. This is achieved by analysing the waveform on either side of a peak and reducing the gain to avoid distortion. As with other normal plug-ins, this module patches into the mixing desk via the internal busses. There is an 'LED' array which displays the amount of gain reduction.
There are two icons for the Mastering Limiter in the process window - one creates a mono process, the other is stereo.
- GAIN: adjusts pre-gain to the signal to 'push' it into the limiter.
- LIMIT: sets the maximum peak level.
- RELEASE: sets the release time for the gain reduction.
- IMPACT: sets the rate of change of gain reduction. This is a little like the more familiar attack function but on a microscopic scale. A sound with a fast attack - say, a piano - would require a high impact setting, as the transient nature of the sound would need the gain reduction to react very quickly, whereas a smoother sound would benefit from a lower, more damped setting.
- HYSTERESIS: increasing this value reduces the sensitivity of the process to avoid the limiter being triggered by high transient, low level, gain changes. Note that the range of this control is reduced as you increase the gain
