When it comes to Limiters, most (up-and-coming) producers have only one reason for using one.

Gandalf is the limiter, the Balrog is your audio signal. Think of Gandalf fending of the Balrog in The Lord Of The Rings. In the case of a Limiter’s infinite ratio, this would mean that the sound will be compressed so hard that not even a single peak is allowed to go past the set threshold, no matter how small or short those peaks may be. Note that compressing audio with a ratio of 10:1 or higher is generally considered limiting. Alternatively, a ratio of 20:1 would mean that a signal of 20 dB over threshold would be reduced to 1 dB over threshold, which boils down to a whopping 19 dB of gain reduction.

A ratio of 8:1 would mean that a signal of 8 dB over threshold level would be compressed until there’s only 1 dB left that exceeds that level. As explained in our article about Compression, the ratio setting determines how ‘hard’ you’re squashing the parts of a sound that exceed threshold level. Since limiting is meant to act as a shield against all peaks, it makes use of an infinite ratio. Given the right setting, a compressor could even act as a limiter. And that difference lies in the ratio.īoth Limiters and Compressors are tools that reduce the dynamic range of an audio signal. The simplest answer to that question would be saying that they’re essentially the same, but there is one difference. The above chart also shows us the difference between Limiting and Compression. What Is The Difference Between Limiting And Compression? This makes it the perfect tool to use when you don’t want your volume levels to go into the “red”. If a threshold of 20 dB is set for the limiter, not even the tiniest of peaks will go past that level.

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