Master and Limiter combinations

General
1

I never paid too much attention to the Master volume and the Limiter on the Play, or anywhere really. I set the Master to 0dB, the Limiter is there just in case, and that’s it. But then as I was starting to watch Basic Orientation & Workflow Guide Pt. 1 // Polyend Play Tutorial - YouTube (see Polyend Play Tutorials by creativeunderdogs) I saw that there the Master is a 12dB and the Limiter at -14dB. I guess I have been missing on something all along!

Can someone explain the basics or recommend where to learn more? Any context will do, this is not something exclusive to the Play (although the Play has specific Limiter types but that’s another story.)

3

Hey, the limiter is there to produce some pleasant effects if you set it in a specific way. For example, you can set which channel will be the source of a ducking effect (side chain) in the Master FX/Limiter menu. Then when set, lowering the limiter dB will produce this ducking effect according to the information in the set channel. Try it out, it’s fun. The limiter can also produce a subtle effect of gluing all your tracks together, try one of the presets in the Master FX menu and then lower the threshold slowly until everything just sounds a bit more punchy and tighter.

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