Limiter

Purpose

The limiter provides a means of limiting the dynamics in an audio signal. Limiters are often used as a last line of defense to prevent clipping and protect speaker drivers.

The main difference between the Limiter and the Compressor is that the Limiter uses a peak level detector on at the Side Chain input whereas the Compressor uses an RMS level detector.

Controls and Indicators

The Limiter has the same controls, indicators and essentially the same Schematic as the Compressor.  Please refer to the Compressor documentation.  Only controls and indicators which operate significantly differently on the Limiter are documented here.

Ratio

The ratio control adjusts the severity of gain reduction produced by the limiter once the input signal has exceeded the threshold level.

Dynamic variations in the input signal will be reduced by a factor equal to the compression ratio.

Threshold

Specifies the input peak signal level above which gain reduction will occur in the limiter.  If the level of a signal leaving the input level control is below the Threshold setting the signal will be passed through the limiter unaffected (assuming Soft Knee is off).  If the signal level at the output of the input level control is above the threshold setting the limiter will act upon the signal level in a manner determined by the other limiter control settings.

Note: When Soft Knee is enabled, the limiter begins introducing gain reduction (at a reduced compression ratio) when the input signal is 12dB below the threshold level.