Members A. Einstein Posted December 6, 2011 Members Share Posted December 6, 2011 What's the difference between a limiter/compressor and a volume maximizer? Craig, please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philbo Posted December 6, 2011 Members Share Posted December 6, 2011 OK, I'm not Craig.. but I haven't posted for a little while... A volume maximizer will crunch the top end of the dynamic range to a db or two or three, while pulling everything quieter up to about a 15 or 20 dB total dynamic range... You can do the same thing with a compressor followed by a limiter, but the volume maximizer has idiotized controls making it much easier to do, if you don't know how to set up a real compressor & limiter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted December 6, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 6, 2011 Volume maximizing/ceiling is a different process then compressing/limiting, Craig explained it once in popular scientific words some months ago... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beck Posted December 6, 2011 Members Share Posted December 6, 2011 Maximizer is one of those cool sounding words chosen for various products over the years by marketing departments to make people think a product will make their crappy sounding recordings sound better. A compressor/limiter can be configured for the same purpose, but people generally don't like to be compressed or limited... it sounds depressing, especially during winter months when the days are short and the sun doesn't shine as brightly. Compression sorta rhymes with depression, so people come up with more appealing names like Compellor, Leveler, Finalizer, Radiance Generator, Dominator, Cash-Flow Generator and Penis Enlarger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted December 7, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 7, 2011 Maximizer is one of those cool sounding words chosen for various products over the years by marketing departments to make people think a product will make their crappy sounding recordings sound better.A compressor/limiter can be configured for the same purpose, but people generally don't like to be compressed or limited... it sounds depressing, especially during winter months when the days are short and the sun doesn't shine as brightly. Compression sorta rhymes with depression, so people come up with more appealing names like Compellor, Leveler, Finalizer, Radiance Generator, Dominator, Cash-Flow Generator and Penis Enlarger. You're exactly my kinda guy. Are you interested in a well payed job as chief engineer in a large studio facility? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted December 7, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 7, 2011 Is Craig in the Bahamas, hidding some cash from the tax authorities? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted December 7, 2011 Members Share Posted December 7, 2011 Maximizers do a process not unlike re-drawing peaks manually. Think of it this way: You have a half-cycle of a waveform that's 6dB higher than other waveforms. So, you select just that half-cycle and bring it down 6dB, without interfering with the signal around it. That's one way to do maximizing; not all of them work the same way. I do this manually quite a bit. Compression is different because it's more of a feedback-based process, hence the need for attack and release controls. Limiting is very similar to maximizing, but tends to deal with broader swaths of volume rather than getting down to the individual cycle level. I really like using maximization on vocals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted December 7, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 7, 2011 Thanks Craig. So maximizer work similar like the Energizer plug-in in Logic, raising the lower levels and leave the peaks untouched, or vice versa as you said? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted December 7, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 7, 2011 I do this manually quite a bit. Me too, since years, to gain a little more overall level hee hee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted December 7, 2011 Members Share Posted December 7, 2011 I really like using maximization on vocals. I've been doing this for several years also and like it, but can't quite figure out why. Just seems to bring everything out quite well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted December 7, 2011 Members Share Posted December 7, 2011 I've been doing this for several years also and like it, but can't quite figure out why. Because to get the same amount of boost with compression, you'd likely hear artifacts (pumping, breathing, etc.). Those qualities interfere with what the voice does naturally..."breathing" on top of breathing doesn't really work Another factor is that during silence, a compressor will tend to raise levels; a maximizer won't. With voice, silence should be silence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted December 7, 2011 Members Share Posted December 7, 2011 Thanks Craig.So maximizer work similar like the Energizer plug-in in Logic, raising the lower levels and leave the peaks untouched, or vice versa as you said? Vice-versa, but bringing down peaks by definition brings up the average level, so softer sections are louder as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted December 8, 2011 Members Share Posted December 8, 2011 Because to get the same amount of boost with compression, you'd likely hear artifacts (pumping, breathing, etc.). Those qualities interfere with what the voice does naturally..."breathing" on top of breathing doesn't really work Another factor is that during silence, a compressor will tend to raise levels; a maximizer won't. With voice, silence should be silence. That describes it quite well, thanks. I've been using this in conjunction with the Vocal Rider and have been really liking it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted December 8, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 8, 2011 Vice-versa, but bringing down peaks by definition brings up the average level, so softer sections are louder as well. but only when you raise the gain after manually taking down peak after peak, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted December 8, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 8, 2011 i make a test right know, do you think a sinus wave will show what a maximizer does to a signal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted December 8, 2011 Members Share Posted December 8, 2011 but only when you raise the gain after manually taking down peak after peak, right? Right Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted December 8, 2011 Members Share Posted December 8, 2011 i make a test right know,do you think a sinus wave will show what a maximizer does to a signal? Yes, and it will also make it easier to see distortion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beck Posted December 8, 2011 Members Share Posted December 8, 2011 You're exactly my kinda guy.Are you interested in a well payed job as chief engineer in a large studio facility? I once had a sort of well paying job as an engineer in a medium studio facility, but now I'm I computer networking consultant. Hmmm... well, what are the hours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted December 8, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 8, 2011 I once had a sort of well paying job as an engineer in a medium studio facility, but now I'm I computer networking consultant. Hmmm... well, what are the hours? 10:00 am to 02.00 am, including two hours pause for dinners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted December 8, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 8, 2011 Yes, and it will also make it easier to see distortion. no distortion happen, works precise down to 0.01 dB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted December 8, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 8, 2011 Yes, and it will also make it easier to see distortion. absolute no hearable artefacts or distortion, interesting is how clean Ceiling works when no Maximizing is engaged, far superior sonic quality then limiters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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