Who's using PSP Xenon Limiter???

[John Moran]

Xenon, Sonnox, Elephant & Am-munition in the digital limiter department here and it's like Bob O says, it depends upon the material and the combination of what's needed. You need to audition them in context of what you are working on at the moment. They each have different tonality and effect and the differences in controls makes them even more disparate. Waves hardware or software are really no longer in use here.

jm

[Bob Olhsson]

What's amazing is how sometimes one can stand head and shoulders above the others yet I haven't been able to reliably pick which one it will be.

Choice is good!

[bassman]

99% Xenon here. Perhaps the UAD or TC, but Xenon is default for the first try.

-ashley

[Marogru]

Xenon is ok but not great. I used it on individual tracks and buss, UAD P limiter eats it alive.

[Farshad]

I almost always use the Xenon and agree with other about its transparency. But I admit that for my stuff, I rarely limit more than 2-3 on loud percussive transients. In those cases, Xenon is very transparent and sweet.

[aleatoric]

Just got an email, PSP Xenon is 60% off through April 7th! Special spring offer. Only $99 - less if you already own other PSP plugins.

[Jantex]

I have Waves L2, L3, Sonnox, T-racks 3, compared it directly to UAD P-limiter. IMHO PSP Xenon beats them all, you just need some time to set it up properly and to get to know its features. It offers alot of choices for transient treatment and it can be super transparent or pumping, but it always sounds musical (Sonnox and UAD on the other hand can sound plasticly synthetic). So my first choice is always Xenon. My second favorite is still L2 for its particular unique, more aggressive sound. I like to combine them in series to achieve some special results.

Now it is avalible for a really special and unbelievable price. PSP are great company and none of their plugins suck!

[aleatoric]

Could not help myself today.....bought Xenon a few hours ago! Very flexible and very transparent. Hitting auto and A/Bing with the bypass button to hear what the limiter is doing minus the actual loudness is amazing. It's also quite a testament to how transparent a properly dialed in Xenon can be. thumbsup

[aleatoric]

Originally Posted by SafeandSound

You know, one day I will have to get an Ilok.

I'd recommend it. There are a lot of great ilok only plugins out there.

[Cellotron]

Downloaded the demo last night and compared it to Voxengo Elephant 3 that I was using it on some squashed modern rock tracks. Those who are calling it "transparent" aren't really telling the whole truth as it definitely can get really pumpy as you push it and tended to mute the upper mids as pushed as well (so snares were getting a bit eaten) with a slightly "plasticky" sound for this track. However the highs were not as grainy or brittle as the Elephant's in the case of this particular track, and I can see on edgy tracks where the high mids were poky in the louder sections it could have use in taming this down. fwiw - ultimately I preferred the Elephant for the tracks I compared it on. I figure I also need to learn the controls on it a little more (although they are pretty straight forward relative to things like the Elephant - which is even way more straight forward than the Flux Limiter which I really haven't even figured out yet) before making any final judgments.

I can see it having uses as yet another limiter option though, and at $100 it's most likely worth picking up (where as $250 makes me more hesitant) so figure I'll probably buy it before the sale ends as well. Which would make it my 10th digital limiter in the tool box (although I've only been using half of those with any kind of regularity).

Those who are preferring the UA Precision Limiter have got me scratching my head as I've found very little use for it for the past 3 years as it always seems to be very obvious relative to other more current options.

Anyway - got to say imho NO digital limiter is "transparent" - they all leave some kind of distinct coloration on the track - and definitely there's no "one size fits all" with this either as far as I'm concerned.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[aleatoric]

Originally Posted by Cellotron

Anyway - got to say imho NO digital limiter is "transparent"

Well sure. I think everyone here is speaking in a matter of relativity when they use the word "transparent". No processor is 100% transparent, if it was then it is not doing any processing!

To my ears Xenon sounds very clean with few audible artifacts. I like the flexibility of the controls and was impressed how it held up when pushed hard.

It's an excellent tool to have around and at this 60% off discount rate it is a total steal IMHO.

[studioland]

I don't

prefer ozone 4, waves L2, L3

[Cellotron]

Originally Posted by studioland

I don't

prefer ozone 4, waves L2, L3

Maybe the first two - but I'll go on record stating that Waves L3 was one of the worst wastes of money I've ever spent.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[nigel saunders]

Originally Posted by Cellotron

Those who are preferring the UA Precision Limiter have got me scratching my head as I've found very little use for it for the past 3 years as it always seems to be very obvious relative to other more current options.


Best regards,
Steve Berson

Yes its weird - horses for courses I guess but to me the UAD sounds not very nice -I just put xenon on a track and it sounds nice (for want of a better word.)

[The Beatsmith]

i think it makes sense to mention the type of music that you usually work on when discussing this...

i usually work with hiphop and stuff with big transients

i used to have access to L2, but am no longer at that place. i am now using xenon and i think the L2 is a bit better, to be honest. it seems to work better for this kind of music. i don't like what xenon does to the top end, really.

i just don't want to pay the $400 for the L2, and don't particularly want to support waves either.

[Pale Pyramid]

Originally Posted by Bob Weston

We're big fans of the Xenon here.

bob weston
chicago mastering service

holy cr@p ,

if Weston digs it enough to post , then it must be the nazz

[finn]

Been using the L2 for quite awhile, and flux, which are both great for many things. Dl'd the Xenon, and out of the box it's definitely colorful, but I'll prob buy on sale--anyone--what kind of stuff is it good for? .

[Red Mastering]

the true about limiters is, when you go over 1,5 dB or more, then world 'transparency' transforms into something different...
I would say that Xenon is really transparent until you go 'crazy'
I like its metering system too,
for a 99$ it's steal imho
just go &grab it!

[aleatoric]

Originally Posted by finn

out of the box it's definitely colorful

Not to my ears. What settings are you using?

[arf]

Originally Posted by Cellotron

Downloaded the demo last night and compared it to Voxengo Elephant 3 that I was using it on some squashed modern rock tracks. Those who are calling it "transparent" aren't really telling the whole truth as it definitely can get really pumpy as you push it and tended to mute the upper mids as pushed as well (so snares were getting a bit eaten) ...

Did you try the react vs. predict mode?

[Cellotron]

Originally Posted by arf

Did you try the react vs. predict mode?

Yes I did. Again - the Xenon worked fine, it just wasn't anything that shined as better above my other current options for the tracks I was testing it on. I figure I'm going to buy it while the sale is going on any way as I could see where having yet another limiter option could be useful once in a while. It does indeed take more than a day or two to learn where a processor works best as well - so I haven't come to any definite conclusions about it yet. Testing it again on some avant garde material last night where it wasn't being pushed that hard it seemed to fair a good deal better and I couldn't come to a quick decision as to whether I preferred it or the Elephant.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Colin Leonard]

it's pretty nice, but it totally depends on the level of the audio you're applying it to. stating the obvious here, but if it's something that's already really loud it's not going to sound as good.

[arf]

All of the better limiters use adaptive release times based on their own algorithms, so depending on the source, one limiter might sound better than another. I think Xenon uses a "multi-loop" release time algorithm somewhat along the lines of the Junger hardware. It is always looking at frequency content and peak to average ratios.

[LGK_Dude]

Originally Posted by Marogru

Xenon is ok but not great. I used it on individual tracks and buss, UAD P limiter eats it alive.

I'm very interested in how this compares to the UAD limiter. Do you care to elaborate on your experiences? How do you normally use your limiter and on what type of material do you find the UAD to be much better?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

[Adara]

Nice feature, Works GREAT and is very transparent. Been using it for a couple of months.Lots of things you can change with sliders and knobs. One thing that sets it apart from other limiters is you can dial in the amount of coupling between the two channels.

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by arf

All of the better limiters use adaptive release times based on their own algorithms, so depending on the source, one limiter might sound better than another...

This is very important to understand. One limiter can indeed "eat the others alive" but it can be a different one on different program material.

It's always a tradeoff between what the limiter does well and what it screws up. We need to listen very carefully for both.

This is why I think monitoring is far more important than mastering gear.

[Cellotron]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

This is very important to understand. One limiter can indeed "eat the others alive" but it can be a different one on different program material.

It's always a tradeoff between what the limiter does well and what it screws up. We need to listen very carefully for both.

This is why I think monitoring is far more important than mastering gear.

100% agree! Very well said.

Anyway - I ended up buying it - the sale price is too good to pass up - and I ended up using it on 2 out 12 tracks in preference to my other options on an avant garde album already.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Andy Krehm]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

This is very important to understand. One limiter can indeed "eat the others alive" but it can be a different one on different program material.

It's always a tradeoff between what the limiter does well and what it screws up. We need to listen very carefully for both.

This is why I think monitoring is far more important than mastering gear.

That is a great point and the other EXTREMELY important thing to remember is that the amount of gain reduction used will affect the material differently with various limiters.

I guessing most mastering pros use between -1.0 dB and -2.5 dB as we have other tools/techniques to get the volume up before limiting. I'm also guessing that people who complain about a limiter plug-in causing the lost of some element in the mix, like the snare, are using more gain reduction that particular limiter is capable of handling in general or ON THAT MIX in particular. As been pointed out, some limiters handle some elements of the mix differently and/or better.

I was an exclusive hardware L2 user for years and years but over the last 2/3 years, have picked up a couple of software limiters that I like and use every day.The choices make my job much easier!

[Red 7]

Originally Posted by 4damind

Its a clean limiter, but not as clean as Flux or Sonnox. I would place the Xenon after Elephant and Sonnox (and the Flux Limiter).

Sonnox Limiter has a lot of character (color). It isn't "clean".

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by Andy Krehm

...I guessing most mastering pros use between -1.0 dB and -2.5 dB as we have other tools/techniques to get the volume up before limiting...

Sometimes just letting the limiter do the heavy lifting sounds better too.