I don’t think it can be stressed enough that the limiting should be applied only AFTER you have done the work of balancing your setup - using the same mindset and care that you would apply to balancing songs when you’ve recorded tracks for an album.
If there are certain components which are problematic, why screw up the entire sound? Apply a limiter to that particular rack.
Only when you’ve addressed the problem areas within your setup would I advise slamming a limiter over the top - and then, only in the way that Torsten has prescribed.
If you happen to like what a certain limiter does to your sound and you’re incorporating it as part of your ‘production’ that’s a different story.
If what you’re doing is solving problems, go to the source of the problem first.
I had the same problems that you describe here: non transparent sound which leads to cranking up the volume to maximum which leads to a shitty sound.
Since I work as a professional musician I invested in new in-ears a few years ago. That costs me 1300€… a lot hugh? But all I can say: it was absolutely worth it.
When I first plugged in these headphones and listen to my sounds I really was shocked. So I began to tune my sounds and now I’m absolutely happy. No more problems with cutting through the band.
Of course I listened to some reference music so I know how the InEars sound…where do they boost and where do they cut!
After going through all my sounds I recognized that 90% of all VSTs had too much low-mid. So I used an EQ and cutted the sounds at about 300Hz drastically (sometimes 10db). After that adjustment the volume drops also drastically. But boosting the volume afterwards is not a big deal.
That adjustment leads to great transparency. So I’d highly suggest to try it out!!
I do only very very light compression to get rid of heavy spikes (like hitting the piano very hard).
When you talk about limiting, then it’s not enough to just talk about the plugins and settings. It highly depends on your headphones and the impedance. I made some measurements (I can go more into detail if someone is interested), because I designed a headphone amplifier and need to take care of that topic. While my InEars have only about 11Ohm, my studio headphones have about 130Ohm. This means: a limiter that works fine with the 130Ohm will not protect my ears in a 11Ohm headphone. If you put the same volume (measured in Volts) of a 130Ohm in a 11Ohm headphone it will blast your headphones and maybe leads to damage of your beloved ears.
Excellent post with some cool ideas and concepts! Thanks much Christian! 300 Hz is part of the “mud” zone so I understand how it might be involved. Do you use a bell or a shelf type filter?
I find this interesting, if you have the time could you elaborate.
I lately configured the master gain rack also voor most songs. And i must say it works perfect.
The overall level and mixing of the vsts is more balanced.
And if I want one vst a bit louder it works intuitive.
Before it was difficult because i only used cc7 of all the vsts separate to have volume control.
I also found this interesting gain vst.
Does a good job on fixed setting.