@maruLimiter
AvailableEffect

Limiter

Catch the peaks. Keep the stereo image.

@maru shared this effect so you can play it in your DAW, remix it or put it on your site.

What it does

A stereo lookahead limiter: push a mix or a track against a ceiling, catch the peaks, and keep the stereo image intact. An Output trim lets you compare the limited sound with the original at a fair level.

The idea

The limiter watches the left and right channels separately but turns both down together. A peak on one side, or a hard-panned or anti-phase peak, lowers the whole signal rather than pulling the image towards the other side. A short lookahead lets it see a transient coming and reduce the gain before it arrives.

The ceiling is checked against an estimate of the peaks between samples, not just the samples themselves, which is what matters once a file is played back or encoded.

Guide and controls

How it works.

Independent left and right peak detectors feed one gain envelope. Both delayed channels receive the same reduction, so anti-phase and hard-panned peaks preserve the stereo image.

The ceiling is a reconstruction estimate. Encoding and later processing can create different peaks; check the file you deliver with a meter.

What would you make with Limiter?

Describe what you want to make. Build it with the Studio agent.

Goes well with.

Prototype

Compressor

A full dynamics compressor with a filterable detector.

Prototype

Metergram

See a stereo signal from every angle.