Limiter
A limiter is a brick wall for level: it lets the mix get as loud as you set, then refuses to let it go higher. On an output bus it's your safety net — when several loud channels stack up, the limiter catches the peaks instead of letting them clip.
It lives in the left panel of the bus config screen, with a PRESET ▾, RESET and LIM ON switch.
Clipping on a stream or recording is permanent — there's no fixing it afterwards. A limiter a fraction of a dB below maximum guarantees the file/stream never clips, no matter how the mix peaks.
Controls
| Control | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| CEILING | −20…−0.1 dB | −0.3 | The hard maximum. Nothing leaves the bus louder than this. |
| RELEASE | 5…500 ms | 50 | How quickly the limiter recovers after catching a peak. |
| LOOKAHEAD | 0…10 ms | 5 | Lets the limiter "see" peaks a moment early and catch them transparently (at the cost of a little delay). |
Peak detection:
- True Peak — oversamples to catch inter-sample peaks that ordinary metering misses (strictest; best for streaming/broadcast).
- Sample Peak — checks sample values only (lighter).
A live gain-reduction graph shows the limiter working, alongside a Stereo Link indicator (left and right are limited together, so the stereo image stays centred).
A ceiling of −1.0 dBTP with True Peak detection is a safe default for anything destined for streaming platforms. You normally don't want the limiter doing heavy work — it's there to catch the occasional peak, not to squash the mix.