FabFilter Pro-L 2 Limiter Tutorial - Everything You Need to Know — Transcript

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1. 0:00sam smith here today i want to talk
2. 0:01about the fab filter pro l2
3. 0:03this is a pretty intuitive limiter
4. 0:05plug-in it has a lot of features under
5. 0:06the hood
6. 0:07and knowing how to properly use all
7. 0:08these features can really help you get
8. 0:10the best results when you're limiting
9. 0:12your tracks so let's get into it
10. 0:19at the top of the plugin we have the
11. 0:21presets
12. 0:22i'm going to leave it at the default
13. 0:24setting then we have the help
14. 0:25button if i have the show interactive
15. 0:27help hints menu option selected then
16. 0:30whenever i hover over a button it will
17. 0:31show me helpful information about that
18. 0:33button
19. 0:33as we can see here the next button with
20. 0:35the lock on it will lock your gain and
21. 0:37output settings
22. 0:38so that if you change presets you won't
23. 0:40have to continually adjust your gain in
24. 0:42output settings
25. 0:43so by default it's turned on so we'll
26. 0:46just leave that on
27. 0:47here we have the resize so we can make
28. 0:49this window smaller or larger
29. 0:50i'll leave it on medium on the side of
30. 0:52the plugin is the gain slider
31. 0:54raises up to make your track louder
32. 0:58[Music]
33. 1:04so the maximum output level is set in
34. 1:06the bottom bar over here
35. 1:07if i am using the pro l2 on my master i
36. 1:09like to set the output to
37. 1:11negative 0.1
38. 1:15or even negative 0.2 db just to make
39. 1:17sure that if any peaks make it past
40. 1:19the limiter they won't go above 0b and
41. 1:21distort this usually isn't an issue
42. 1:23though because if you activate this true
43. 1:26peak limiting this means that the true
44. 1:27peak output
45. 1:28is not going to exceed the output level
46. 1:30if you don't have this selected there is
47. 1:32a chance that some peaks in your audio
48. 1:34will make it past the limiter and go
49. 1:35above the output level
50. 1:36potentially causing distortion if it
51. 1:38goes above zero db so i always recommend
52. 1:40using the true peak limiting on your
53. 1:41master because of this oversampling sets
54. 1:44the amount of over sampling which
55. 1:45reduces aliasing
56. 1:46and inter sample peaks if you're using a
57. 1:48lot of limiting so you have a lot of
58. 1:50this
59. 1:50gain slider turned up which i do then
60. 1:53you'll want to turn on
61. 1:54oversampling that filter recommends
62. 1:55using between four times
63. 1:57and eight times the other options 16
64. 1:59times and 32 times will probably
65. 2:01destroy your cpu usage and may not make
66. 2:04that much of a difference
67. 2:05in the sound so fat filter doesn't
68. 2:07really recommend you going this high
69. 2:09so i'm going to select four times next
70. 2:10we have dither if you want to use
71. 2:12dithering you can turn this on
72. 2:14generally you would only want to use
73. 2:15differing if this limiter is the last
74. 2:17thing that touches your master
75. 2:18and only if you're going from a higher
76. 2:20bit depth to a lower bit depth
77. 2:22for example if you are working in 24 bit
78. 2:25and are bouncing down to 16 bit
79. 2:26then you want to use dithering to reduce
80. 2:29distortion that could occur
81. 2:30from going from a higher bit depth to a
82. 2:32lower bit depth i usually
83. 2:34work in 24 bit and i bounce
84. 2:37down my masters at 24 bit so i don't
85. 2:39have a need for this
86. 2:41so i'll just leave differing off here we
87. 2:43have the advanced settings
88. 2:45the advanced settings let you customize
89. 2:47the limiting styles the
90. 2:48default setting is modern so i usually
91. 2:51just leave it at
92. 2:52modern if you want to customize the
93. 2:54style more you can scroll through these
94. 2:56other options and see how they change
95. 2:58your mix transparent can be good for
96. 3:00rock or pop music
97. 3:01punchy is the least transparent and
98. 3:03gives you a pumping sound
99. 3:04dynamic is great on rock music all
100. 3:07around is good for just about everything
101. 3:09aggressive is good for edm modern is the
102. 3:11default style
103. 3:12bus is good for bus processing if you
104. 3:15put this limiter on a drum bus it's
105. 3:17great for that
106. 3:18and then you have safe which gives you
107. 3:20no distortion whatsoever so this is good
108. 3:22for acoustic music
109. 3:23next we have the look ahead a short look
110. 3:25ahead time will preserve transients
111. 3:27better
112. 3:27and increase loudness at the expense of
113. 3:29possible distortion
114. 3:30longer look ahead times are safer but
115. 3:33less loud and not as great for
116. 3:34preserving transients i'll just leave
117. 3:36this alone for now next we have the
118. 3:37attack and release
119. 3:38so in general short attack times and
120. 3:40long release times are safer
121. 3:42and cleaner but they can cause that
122. 3:44pumping effect on the other hand long
123. 3:46attack times and short release times can
124. 3:48increase apparent loudness and presence
125. 3:50at the expense of possible distortion so
126. 3:51next we have channel linking
127. 3:53i'm not sure when i would need to use
128. 3:55this but basically when you are limiting
129. 3:57a stereo signal you generally want to
130. 3:59process both channels the same way
131. 4:00if for some reason you have a short peak
132. 4:03in one channel so you have a peak
133. 4:04in the right channel and not the left
134. 4:06channel you can remove it
135. 4:08in only the channel where it occurs so
136. 4:10you can change this behavior with these
137. 4:11channel linking knobs
138. 4:12if this is the case where you have a
139. 4:14peak in one channel and not the other
140. 4:15then fat filter suggests choosing less
141. 4:17than 100 for this transience knob and
142. 4:19then starting at 100
143. 4:21for this release knob and then
144. 4:22decreasing it or changing it up or down
145. 4:24depending on how it affects your sound
146. 4:26so once again i wouldn't really get
147. 4:27bogged down with these knobs and i would
148. 4:29just leave them alone
149. 4:30over on the right hand side we have the
150. 4:31metering the first button
151. 4:33is tp for true peak metering if you have
152. 4:36true peak limiting activated then you'll
153. 4:38want to have true peak metering
154. 4:39activated so they can read the maximum
155. 4:41peaks of your audio
156. 4:42let me show you how this works
157. 4:43[Music]
158. 4:46if i turn off true peak limiting
159. 4:50then true peak metering is going to show
160. 4:51us that there are peaks going above the
161. 4:53output level
162. 4:58see it's in the red if i turn this off
163. 5:02[Music]
164. 5:04it's not going to show us any of the
165. 5:05true peaks
166. 5:08so we are going to want to activate
167. 5:10tropic limiting to make sure that
168. 5:11there are no peaks going above the
169. 5:13output level and then also activate
170. 5:14troubic metering
171. 5:15so that we can make sure that troop
172. 5:17limbing is working here we have the
173. 5:19real-time level display settings
174. 5:21first is slow down which lets the
175. 5:23display move slowly so you can easily
176. 5:25follow the level
177. 5:25and the peak gain reduction labels once
178. 5:27the incoming audio reaches the right
179. 5:29hand display edge the
180. 5:30display quickly scrolls back to make
181. 5:32room for new audio so i'll show you how
182. 5:33that works
183. 5:42so see how it shifts quickly like that
184. 5:44[Music]
185. 5:47next we have fast which moves the
186. 5:50display fast
187. 5:52slow moves of display slow
188. 5:58and infinite shows all incoming audio
189. 6:00since the plugin was opened or this mode
190. 6:02was selected
191. 6:06[Music]
192. 6:12then of course we have off which just
193. 6:14turns the display off this button is the
194. 6:16meter scale button
195. 6:18here are some normal scales k-system
196. 6:20metering scales and then loudness
197. 6:22i'm going to select loudness and now
198. 6:25this new section opens up
199. 6:26this shows us luffs which stands for
200. 6:28loudness units full scale
201. 6:30this is the best way to measure loudness
202. 6:31in my opinion here is a loudness meter
203. 6:33target
204. 6:34negative 14 this is set for streaming i
205. 6:36can click
206. 6:37on this streaming loudness meter target
207. 6:40and then
208. 6:41choose custom if i want to set my own
209. 6:42target i
210. 6:44will leave that alone because i don't
211. 6:45really use targets the loudness time
212. 6:47scale button at the bottom chooses
213. 6:49which loudness time scale is displayed
214. 6:52momentary for a continuously changing
215. 6:54reading
216. 6:57short term for a more slowly changing
217. 7:00level
218. 7:02and integrated for long-term
219. 7:03measurements since the plug-in was
220. 7:05last reset which we can reset
221. 7:08by hitting this reset button
222. 7:12this red line is the loudness curve
223. 7:14which displays the overall loudness over
224. 7:16time
225. 7:17in this real-time display the lra
226. 7:20represents the loudness range which
227. 7:21shows the variation of loudness over
228. 7:23time
229. 7:24for example the difference between the
230. 7:26quiet parts of your song and the loudest
231. 7:28parts of your song
232. 7:29let's talk about some of the settings
233. 7:30under the output knob dc stands for
234. 7:33filter dc
235. 7:34offset which we will ignore for now next
236. 7:36is the sidechain triggering button this
237. 7:38is useful for stem mastering where you
238. 7:39have to deliver the stems
239. 7:41with the same limiting as the master so
240. 7:43basically what you would do is you'd put
241. 7:44the pro l2
242. 7:45on the stem channel and feed the
243. 7:47original unlimited master to the side
244. 7:49chain put on the stem channel this
245. 7:51you probably won't use very much but
246. 7:52it's good to know that this is there in
247. 7:54case you need to use it next
248. 7:55is the unity gain button which allows
249. 7:57you to listen to the effect of the
250. 7:59limiting on the input signal
251. 8:00so this removes any gain that is added
252. 8:02from the plugin and
253. 8:04just lets you hear what effect that
254. 8:06limiting is having
255. 8:07on your original signal let's go ahead
256. 8:09and hear how it sounds
257. 8:12[Music]
258. 8:31basically you are listening to how the
259. 8:33limiter is affecting your original
260. 8:34signal without getting distracted by
261. 8:36the increase in loudness the headphones
262. 8:39button is the audition limiting option
263. 8:41which basically additions the actual
264. 8:43gain reduction
265. 8:44that is being applied so if i activate
266. 8:46this what we will hear are the parts of
267. 8:48the song that are getting the most
268. 8:49gain reduction applied to them
269. 8:58so as we see the gain reduction being
270. 9:00applied
271. 9:01we can hear it more as i raise this gain
272. 9:04slider up
273. 9:08[Music]
274. 9:11next to the output level knob is a
275. 9:13bypass button which you can turn on to
276. 9:15bypass the entire plugin
277. 9:17[Music]
278. 9:18there you have it those are some of the
279. 9:20features of the fabfilter pro l2
280. 9:22i hope that was helpful if you enjoyed
281. 9:24this video please like and subscribe
282. 9:25thank you so much