A limiter is a compressor turned up to the extreme. It sets a ceiling, a level the audio is not allowed to cross, and turns down anything that tries to go past it so hard that nothing gets through. On a master it does two jobs at once: it stops the loudest peaks from clipping, and by driving the signal harder into that ceiling it lifts the overall loudness of the track.
The controls are much the same on almost every limiter, hardware or plugin: a ceiling or output level, an input or threshold that drives the signal into it, a release, and often a true peak mode. The figures here are approximate and depend on the material, so treat them as a starting zone rather than fixed rules. None of this is tied to one product.
A limiter stops audio from passing a level you set, called the ceiling. It is a compressor with a very high ratio, effectively infinity to 1, so once the signal reaches the ceiling it is held there and cannot go higher no matter how hard you push.
It works the same way a compressor does. It watches the incoming signal, and while the signal stays below the ceiling nothing happens and the sound passes through untouched. The difference is what happens at the top. Where a compressor over its threshold turns the signal down by a moderate ratio and still lets it rise a little, a limiter turns it down so completely that the output simply stops at the ceiling. That is why a limiter of this kind is called a brickwall limiter: the level hits the wall and goes no further.
A true peak limiter goes one step further and watches the real peaks the signal reaches between samples, the inter-sample peaks, not just the sample values a normal meter shows. Those hidden peaks can sit higher than the meter reads and push into clipping when a track is encoded for streaming. A true peak limiter holds the actual output to the ceiling you set, which is why it is the safe choice for the final stage of a master.
A limiter does not have a sound of its own when it is barely working. It is an automatic, very fast ceiling. Everything it is known for, the loudness and the density, comes from how hard you drive the signal into it and how quickly it lets go, not from any tone it adds. Push it gently and it just catches the odd peak; push it hard and it reshapes the whole track.
A limiter is a compressor with the ratio pushed so high that nothing gets past the ceiling. A normal compressor over its threshold turns the signal down by a moderate ratio, say 4 to 1, and the level still rises a little as the input rises. A limiter uses an effectively infinite ratio, so the output flattens against the ceiling and stops. Same mechanism, extreme setting, different job.
The practical difference is what each is for. You reach for a compressor to even out a part or shape its punch and sustain across its whole range, the job covered in our guide to what a compressor does and how to use it. You reach for a limiter to catch the few loudest peaks and hold a hard ceiling, usually at the very end of a chain. A compressor works on the body of the sound; a limiter works only on the peaks that reach the top.
| Tool | How it handles a peak that goes over the line | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Compressor | Turns it down by a set ratio, so it still rises a little, and shapes the whole part rather than just the top. | Evening out and shaping a part across its range |
| Limiter | Turns it down with an effectively infinite ratio so it cannot pass the ceiling at all, acting only on the peaks that reach the top. | Catching peaks and holding a hard ceiling, usually last in the chain |
| Clipper | Flatly cuts the top off the waveform instead of turning the level down, which adds distortion but keeps transients sharp. | Shaving stubborn peaks hard when a little added grit is acceptable |
The clipper is the one people mix up with a limiter. A limiter turns the level down smoothly to keep the peak under the ceiling, which protects the shape of the waveform but can dull the transient if you push it. A clipper instead slices the top off the waveform, which distorts that moment on purpose. Used lightly, a clipper can shave a few stubborn peaks while keeping transients punchy, at the cost of a little added harmonic distortion. Many loud masters use a touch of clipping before a final limiter, but a limiter on its own is the safer, more transparent default.
Put the limiter as the last item on your master chain, set its ceiling to around -1 dBTP, then raise its input, or lower its threshold, until the track reaches the loudness you are aiming for. Driving more signal into a fixed ceiling is what makes the track louder, because the peaks are held while the quieter parts are brought up toward them.
Two controls do most of the work, and it helps to think of them as the two ends of the process: the ceiling that decides how high the output can go, and the input that decides how hard you push the signal up against it.
| Control | What it does | A place to start |
|---|---|---|
| Ceiling / output | The level the output is not allowed to pass. On the final master this sets your true peak, so it decides how much headroom is left for the streaming encoder. | -1 dBTP for streaming, a little lower if you master hot |
| Input / threshold | How hard the signal is driven into the ceiling. More input, or a lower threshold, means more limiting, which reads as louder and, past a point, more squashed. | Raise it slowly while watching a LUFS meter |
| Release | How quickly the limiter stops reducing gain after a peak. Too fast can distort the low end; too slow can dull the track or make it pump. | An auto setting, then adjust by ear |
| True peak mode | Holds the real inter-sample peaks to the ceiling, not just the sample values, so the file does not clip once it is encoded to a streaming format. | On for the final master |
| Gain reduction meter | Shows how many dB the limiter is pulling the peaks down at any moment. This is how you see how hard it is working. | A few dB on peaks, not constant heavy reduction |
The limiter is the tool that finally sets your loudness, so use it against a LUFS meter and a target, not by ear alone. Raise the input until the integrated reading reaches the level you want, around -14 LUFS is a safe default for most streaming, then stop. Our guide to how loud your master should be covers those targets and why pushing past them does not make you louder on streaming. The limiter gets you to the number; going further only trades away dynamics.
Limiters are not only a mastering tool. On an individual track a gentle limiter can catch the odd peak a compressor missed, for example a stray loud word in a vocal or a single hard drum hit, without touching the rest of the part. That is a safety catch rather than a loudness tool. The heavy, loudness-setting limiting almost always belongs on the master bus, as the last plugin in the chain, where it acts on the finished balance of the whole mix rather than on one part at a time.
A limiter works on whatever reaches it, so it belongs at the very end of the master chain, after any EQ, compression or clipping. If you limit first and then boost the level or add tone after it, the signal can rise back above your ceiling and the peak protection is lost. Set the limiter last, and leave it last.
Use the least limiting that reaches your loudness target, watch the gain reduction meter, and compare against the unlimited track at a matched level. If the track sounds flat, the drums lose their snap, or you can hear it pumping and distorting, you have driven it too hard.
Over-limiting shows up in a few ways, and once you know them they are easy to hear:
The trap is the same one that catches people with compression. More limiting makes the track louder, and louder almost always sounds better in a quick comparison, so it is easy to push further than you need. Before you commit, turn the limited version down to match the quieter one and switch between them. The lighter setting often wins, and on streaming it will be turned to the same playback level anyway, so the loudness you fought for buys you nothing while the dynamics you lost are gone for good.
Watch the meter as well as your ears. A few dB of gain reduction on the loudest peaks is plenty for transparent peak control. If the limiter is showing heavy reduction almost all the time, the track is being squashed rather than caught. And if you cannot reach your target loudness without that much reduction, the fix is usually earlier in the chain, a better balance or some gentle compression, rather than more limiting at the end.
Louder is not the same as better, and on streaming it is not even louder. Because a limiter with enough input makes a track louder, it can seem to improve a mix it is actually flattening. Set a loudness target, reach it with the least limiting you can, and remember that the platform turns everyone to the same level on playback, so a clean, dynamic master usually beats a crushed one.
Limiting is the last step, and it is a fixing step. It only matters once you have a mix worth mastering, and the cleaner and more controlled that mix is going in, the less the limiter has to force at the end. Making the parts is the harder job; setting a ceiling is not.
The Collection is our three instruments together, ARGISH, SILT and REHEAT, with three separate licence keys. We do not make a limiter, and this page stays tool-agnostic on that. What we make is the source sound: ARGISH is a self-playing drone synth, SILT is a tape-loop instrument, and REHEAT writes acid lines. The cleaner and more controlled your parts are going in, the less a limiter has to fix at the end, and the easier it is to reach a competitive loudness without squashing the life out of the track. Every one ships as an Audio Unit, a VST3, an AAX for Pro Tools and a standalone app on macOS, and as a VST3 on Windows, all signed and notarized.
You can hear one free in your browser first, no install and no account, then decide.
We write these when there is something worth writing down. One email when a new one lands or a new Tunary instrument ships. No newsletter, no schedule.
Tunary