Welcome back to the ongoing series that began with Frequency Fundamentals. I trust and hope it has been as helpful for you as it was fun for me to write.

Moving along, this is the start of a new series that will dovetail with the frequency series. Consider it the second suite of a broader work. These new articles will continue our discussion and build on top of the foundation we laid down previously. This time we will focus on audio effects.

“Relevance?”, you ask.

Find me a musician, audio professional, or recording/mixing/mastering engineer that doesn’t use audio effects – and I will be the one to question if they have red blood coursing through their veins!

A more pertinent question would be this: “Effects… OK. But why now?”

If you are familiar with the previous frequency series, you should know the answer by now:
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Missed the start of the series? Catch up here.

Compressors, limiters, single band, multi band, soft knee, hard knee, ratios, attack, release… on and on and on.

These terms sound more like medical tools/procedures used in gastrointestinal bypass surgeries!

Despite some of their more gruesome sounding names, these are all terms related to, and describing dynamics – and dynamics control in audio. Let’s define a few items of interest.

Core Definitions in Dynamics

“Dynamics” in its simplest and most functional definition means this:

Dynamics: An audio signal’s lowest and highest points (with regards to volume), and the subsequent and continuous raising and lowering of those points, with consideration to everything else in between.

or:

Dynamics: The proportion/relationship between the loudest and softest parts of that audio signal.

A simpler definition is this:
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Missed the start of the series? Catch up here.

Last time around we looked at the basic controls of the compression effect, a core part of dynamics control in audio. This week we’ll look at some specialised variants: Limiters, Expanders, Gates, and Multi-Band compressors. Then… more listening!

Limiters

Limiters are in essence compressors with very high ratio settings – as high as “Infinity:1″!

The primary use of a limiter is not to manipulate, change or restructure a signal’s dynamics, but rather to contain them! It limits the peak of the signal from exceeding a predetermined setting. This is usually done to prevent overloading or clipping a recording device/mixer or P.A. system. A good limiter has no sound of its own. You shouldn’t even know it’s on. The only way you would know, is if it was turned off and you heard the clipping and distorting that it was protecting you from. Past that, once turned on, you would simply miss the clipping and distorting, and nothing more. Limiters are (or at least should be) the ultimate silent partner.

Note: Limiters are one of the key ingredients used AND abused in mastering studios.

Limiter Examples

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