How I set my master bus limiter, annotated

This might be helpful or interesting to someone or other, so I thought I’d share it!

I use the FabFilter Pro L-2 limiter. I own others and have made many albums with them; these days it’s always this one. Here’s how I set it:

• algorithm: Aggressive¹

• lookahead: 0.2 ms²

• attack: 0 ms³

• release: 5 ms⁴

• channel linking: transients 0%, release 100%⁵

• true peak limiting: off⁶

• output: -0.1 dB⁷

• oversampling: off⁸

• dither: off⁹

Now you know — jamie

1. I’m sure I could manage to work without the FabFilter Aggressive algorithm, but I’m glad I don’t have to!

2. If I’m mastering something more rootsy or singer-songwriter-y, I might increase the lookahead, to get that more pillowy kick sound. Generally I leave it alone though.

3. A brickwall limiter’s attack is always 0 ms; “attack” in this context refers to whether there’s any delay before the release behavior commences. You can use this if you’re really having trouble getting a kick to pop out, but honestly it’s better to go back to the mix and just turn the kick up.

4. 5 ms is where I start, and often where I finish. If I need the kick to cut through more, I might increase this, always carefully A/Bing with my eyes closed to make sure it’s actually helping and not harming.

5. I might occasionally tighten up the transient linking; I pretty much never unlink the releases though.

6. I’ve done extensive blind A/B testing with all kinds of program material in all kinds of genres, and I don’t prefer how true peak limiting sounds, with this limiter at least.

7. Because I’m not doing true peak limiting, my actual peak output levels are routinely above 0 dBFS. Yes, this is okay. No, you can’t hear it.

8. I’ve also done extensive blind A/B testing with oversampling, and, again, on this limiter, I don’t prefer how it sounds.

9. I do one final bounce at full native resolution, without dither — usually 24_48 — and I make any other versions of the file that I might need from that full-resolution master, applying dither if I reduce the bit depth, which I only need to do if the artist is making CDs.