Metering Plugin (and Free Mastering Offer!)

There is a new metering standard called LUFS, which is quickly becoming a standard loudness measurement unit for mastering. Here is everything you never wanted to know about LUFS: https://tech.ebu.ch/loudness

Hoffa 4U makes a nice LUFS meter that packs a bunch more features, including some Mid/Side processing and panning.  It's called HOFA 4U Meter, Fader & MS-Pan.


https://hofa-plugins.de/en/plugins/4u/

Feeding a good limiter so that you get just enough gain reduction where it's not distorting and a reading of about 10-13 LUFS on the 4U meter will make any rock, pop or EDM song plenty, plenty loud while retaining clarity and punch.

I use this along with the TT Dynamic Range Meter to measure the peak-to-loudness ratio of the music I am mixing and mastering. It's well worth the price (free!).

If you are interested in having me master a song for you - for free - head over to www.levityproject.com/mastering and fill in the mastering form.

Here's to your music!
Ryan

Limiters

I use limiters in mixing. I do.

Mostly, I use them to do the job of a compressor when compression isn't cutting it.  I use them to tame uneven vocal performances, I use them to solidify uneven bass lines


But I've recently been challenging myself to listen to the character and sound of the limiters I use, and it's been very enlightening!

The first thing I've noticed is that the expensive L2 limiter from Waves is ... terrible. I used to use it as a staple, but I am now on the hunt for new, transparent limiters.

In the meantime, I love free software ... and a lot of the work I do relies on free VST plugins because I can't yet afford to make and manage subscriptions to big software purchases. I need to eat, after all!

So here is a list of what I believe to be the best of the best Free VST limiters. I'm still pushing the developers of reaper to create a transparent limiter for Reaper. There are a lot of JS limiters, but they all have a character sound of compression.

FREE Limiters
LoudMAX - http://loudmax.blogspot.ca/
Classic Master Limiter - http://www.acoustica.com/plugins/vst-directx.htm
TLS Pocket Limiter - http://hem.bredband.net/tbtaudio/archive/newtbtvstplugins.htm
W1 Limiter (a perfect clone of Waves L1) - http://www.yohng.com/software/w1limit.html

Automatic Gain Staging/Loudness Compensation with Reaper

 

 Image from TB software

I have been a huge fan of Reaper since version 0.xx came out sometime in the mid-to late 2000s. I even had a short lived stint on the beta testing team until I blew it by getting into philosophy debates on the main channel. What can I say, I love philosophy almost as much as I love music!

For a while now, I've been looking for a way to level match when I'm comparing my music to reference tracks. The only options I've found cost hundreds or more. Plugins like Ian Sheppard's perception and others are great, but too expensive for this recording artist. 

That's why I was SUPER excited to find this little gem! It's called AB Level Match. 

OK so it doesn't have the most creative name, but it does what it claims, and then some!

All you do is install the plugin into the Reaper Resources Folder (found in options --> Show Reaper Resource Folder"), then put the AB Source plugin before all of your other plugins, and put the AB control plugin after. Set the autogain to "ON", and use the Prefilter to get more accurate results. Use SYNC PDC to compensate for latency.

You will get an automatically level matched track so that you can hear precisely what your EQ, compression and other effects are doing without the added loudness.

If you don't use Reaper, they offer a paid version for around $79 CAD which is compatible with any host that can run VST FX, as well as Pro Tools.

Why use this, or something like it? Because one of the golden rules of audio is that louder usually sounds better to our ears. This means that a track will generally sound more lush, full and defined if it's played back louder that it's unprocessed source.  This is especially true during Mastering and other critical listening stages of production.

Loudness Compensation Plugins
http://www.tb-software.com/TBProAudio/ab_lm.html
http://www.meterplugs.com/perception 
http://www.tb-software.com/TBProAudio/download.html (for the free Reaper Version of AB LM)