Old 10-12-2021, 11:59 AM   #1
Codeseven
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Default In Ear Monitor Limiter

I’ve grown leery of using my In Ear Monitors after accidentally blasting my ears a few times. I’m looking for a Limiter, either hardware or software (is there a built in limiter in Reaper?).

What do you IEM users use?
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Old 10-12-2021, 02:49 PM   #2
Alistair S
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Funny you should ask!

Apart from various built-in JS limiters, Realimit was included in today's update and is very good.

Maybe just shove a limiter in your Monitor FX and then it will be on everything?

There's also an "auto-mute" setting (found in Prefs -> Mute/Solo) where you can set the max level either per track or for the master. The default is +18db but you can set it as you wish.
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Old 10-12-2021, 03:15 PM   #3
Codeseven
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Funny you should ask!

Apart from various built-in JS limiters, Realimit was included in today's update and is very good.

Maybe just shove a limiter in your Monitor FX and then it will be on everything?

There's also an "auto-mute" setting (found in Prefs -> Mute/Solo) where you can set the max level either per track or for the master. The default is +18db but you can set it as you wish.

Nice! Thanks for the info Alistair, I’ll download todays update.
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Old 10-12-2021, 07:15 PM   #4
fakemaxwell
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You need a 0 latency limiter. ReaComp has a Limit option, but it doesn't sound great. Fircomp (https://jonvaudio.com/fircomp/) is what you want, in the free version just turn the knobs until you have infinite ratio, hard knee, and 0 attack. Maybe turn the threshold down to -0.1. Fircomp2 (paid version) just has a button that says "limit" that will do all of that for you.
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Old 10-12-2021, 07:59 PM   #5
Codeseven
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Originally Posted by fakemaxwell View Post
You need a 0 latency limiter. ReaComp has a Limit option, but it doesn't sound great. Fircomp (https://jonvaudio.com/fircomp/) is what you want, in the free version just turn the knobs until you have infinite ratio, hard knee, and 0 attack. Maybe turn the threshold down to -0.1. Fircomp2 (paid version) just has a button that says "limit" that will do all of that for you.
Thank you!
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Old 10-13-2021, 12:50 PM   #6
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There's a pretty definite limit to how loud anything can come out of your DAC. How loud that is at your ears depends on factors outside of Reaper's control. If you lower Reaper's limit but then turn the monitors up, you're back in pain. Turn down the in ears so that as loud as it gets isn't too loud. Then, if you want, you can use some more gentle limiter so that it doesn't sound quite so bad when Reaper tries to go past 0dbFS, but it's just not the right place to try to control your SPLs.
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Old 10-13-2021, 08:04 PM   #7
Codeseven
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There's a pretty definite limit to how loud anything can come out of your DAC. How loud that is at your ears depends on factors outside of Reaper's control. If you lower Reaper's limit but then turn the monitors up, you're back in pain. Turn down the in ears so that as loud as it gets isn't too loud. Then, if you want, you can use some more gentle limiter so that it doesn't sound quite so bad when Reaper tries to go past 0dbFS, but it's just not the right place to try to control your SPLs.
Thank you ashcat.

The problem may be in where I’m plugging my IEM’s into. My signal chain is Mic’s->Audio Interface->Computer. My IEM’s are plugged into my Audio Interface. So I think what your saying is that’s beyond Reaper at that point and now dependent on the volume knob on the Interface.

If I plugged the IEM’s into my Computer instead I think even that is beyond Reaper and now dependent on the sound volume controls of the Computer.

I’ll have to look into it but, it would seem the solution would be plugging the IEM’s into a separate hardware Limiter then it wouldn’t matter where that was plugged into (Interface or Computer). Correct?
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Old 10-13-2021, 11:41 PM   #8
Alistair S
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Thank you ashcat.

The problem may be in where I’m plugging my IEM’s into. My signal chain is Mic’s->Audio Interface->Computer. My IEM’s are plugged into my Audio Interface. So I think what your saying is that’s beyond Reaper at that point and now dependent on the volume knob on the Interface.

If I plugged the IEM’s into my Computer instead I think even that is beyond Reaper and now dependent on the sound volume controls of the Computer.

I’ll have to look into it but, it would seem the solution would be plugging the IEM’s into a separate hardware Limiter then it wouldn’t matter where that was plugged into (Interface or Computer). Correct?
I think he was simply suggesting that you should turn down the headphone volume on your interface.
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Old 10-14-2021, 01:32 PM   #9
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I mean I figure there's probably 3 volume knobs on the hardware end beyond Reaper. Turn at least one of those.

Best for S/N purposes would be to leave the output of the interface itself all the way up, adjust the input gain of the transmitter so that 0dbFS out of Reaper is just below clipping that, then adjust the volume on the receiver so that it never gets too loud at your ears. Seriously just basic gain staging and common sense.
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Old 10-14-2021, 08:21 PM   #10
Codeseven
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Originally Posted by ashcat_lt View Post
I mean I figure there's probably 3 volume knobs on the hardware end beyond Reaper. Turn at least one of those.

Best for S/N purposes would be to leave the output of the interface itself all the way up, adjust the input gain of the transmitter so that 0dbFS out of Reaper is just below clipping that, then adjust the volume on the receiver so that it never gets too loud at your ears. Seriously just basic gain staging and common sense.
Got it, thanks.
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