[DVDdoug]

of course you'd have to use a limiter

I've been thinking about that, and I wouldn't say "of course" and blindly put limiting on your production.




I'd say focus on the sound and make the best sounding mix you can! That may, or may not, include compression and/or limiting on the individual tracks and/or the master.


Then normalize (probably as a separate "mastering" step after rendering).


Then, if it's not loud enough you can start adding compression and limiting. At some point the compression/limiting will change (or damage) the sound and you'll have to decide if the loudness is worth it.


A professional mastering engineer can probably get more loudness with less damage than us amateurs, and the mastering engineer will probably use some EQ to offset some of that damage. But if you do have it mastered by someone else, it's important to communicate what you want... Do you want that modern constantly-loud sound or do you want to keep some (or most) of the dynamic contrast.

Limiters don't clip unless they have the extra feature added. Clippers clip.

It depends on how hard you push it. If you push a limiter hard enough the waveform gets squared-off (clipped). 20dB of limiting is indistinguishable from clipping. ...That's for a traditional limiter without look-ahead. A look-ahead limiter can reduce the level without changing the wave shape.