Who's using PSP Xenon Limiter???

[aleatoric]

I made the mistake of demoing this plugin right when it came out and did not really run it through its paces. Needless to say my demo period has long since expired. I am going to email PSP and see if they will send me another demo license. In the meantime I am wondering how many of you are using the PSP Xenon limiter and your impressions. How do you feel it stacks up against some of the usual suspects (Elephant, Ozone, Sonnox, etc.)? Thanks.

[Stereophonic]

I recently built a new computer that supports live input monitoring, so I decided to demo the Xenon. For years I ran the L2 (hardware) at the end of my analog chain. Couple days into the trial I bought the Xenon and sold the L2.
The Xenon is very transparent even with heavy limiting. The 'auto' feature is priceless. There are many useful parameters to tweak, which I am still learning -- without a doubt the Xenon is worth every penny. Hat's off to PSP and all the ME who helped develop it!
I also have the Elephant limiter and have not used it since Xenon arrived.

[aleatoric]

Thank you for the input Timothy!

[Bob Weston]

We're big fans of the Xenon here.

bob weston
chicago mastering service

[gregor z]

My only limiter....it does everything I need and sounds great!

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Been using it for a couple of months. Works GREAT and is very transparent. 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. Nice feature,

[Luna Sound]

I think the Xenon is great. It seems to work better and on a wider range of material than my other limiters (sonnox & UAD PL). As others have already said it is very tweakable and the variable stereo linking can really help.

[Bob Olhsson]

I always try two or three different limiters including Xenon. Sometimes another is slightly better but when Xenon is the best, it can be by quite a margin. I wouldn't want to be without it.

[aleatoric]

Wow, lots of high praise from some experienced ME's thumbsup. Going to email PSP right now to see about getting another demo license for Xenon.

[Red Mastering]

I am big fan of all PSP plugins
Xenon is really great, but sometimes for obvious reasons I pick Oxford Limiter (modern stuff).
it's like 85% for Xenon to 15 % for Oxford.
Xenon is very transparent, for recordings like jazz, acoustic stuff - the best thing on market, imho.

[Jerry Tubb]

Another Xenon user here. Lots of "fiddly" parameters, but well worth it at times.

Old habits die hard, I still default to 1 dB limiting on my hardware L2, but if I need more control, or level ...Xenon gets the job.

JT

edit: I've since retired my L2, after many years use, the Xenon is clearly superior.

[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).

[OnlineMastering]

Hm, tried it and didn't like it. Didn't like the Flux either....
I think I like my UAD Limiter the most with Kjaerhus as no. 2 on that list.

[lowland]

I have it, but it won't work with SADiE :-( I bought without demoing first as Mastercomp was good and works. SADiE 6 is supposed to have a major overhaul of plug-in handling and should appear this month, but in the meantime I like Ozone 4 for the small amount of limiting I need.

[Alécio Costa]

PSP Xenon and TC Limiter on every mastering session

[Andy Krehm]

I use the PSP a lot here. It's the first digital limiter that I try.

The Massey 2007 is nice too. They both affect the music differently so it's nice to have choices.

My L2 hardware (my 3rd one) has broken for the 8th time but this time I can't be bothered to spend the $200. in repairs it takes to send it away and have it fixed. So it is just sitting in the rack. Sometimes the display lights up, sometimes part of it is dead.

IME, this is absolutely the most unreliable piece of gear I have ever owned! In fact, when it first came out, I had it replaced once under warantee and once with a little good will from Waves and my dealer.

BTW, and I know there is a difference of option here on this, but the software L2 is close enough and since I rarely use it any more, who cares!

Sorry for the rant! To reiterate, I use the PSP Zenon on a majority of my masters that require a limiter. I also have the TC 6000 but don't seem to find it's Brickwall Limiter as useful as the PSP or Massey.

[Beto_larski]

I tryed the demo and i think it can be great depending on the material. For electronic and dance music Xenon seems to eat the transients and soften the sound. But with acoustic material i think is amongst the best ones.

[Surbitone]

I own sonnox & elephant 3, do you think it might be worth checking out the xenon? I hate hoarding plugins, but if the xenon can do what the elephant does - but better, I might have a listen to it?

Is it in the same vein as elephant?

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by Surbitone

...if the xenon can do what the elephant does - but better, I might have a listen to it?...

The answer is sometimes depending on the program material.

There is no best that I've ever found. L2 still wins more than its share.

[masteringhouse]

I find Xenon to be a bit warmer and fuller sounding than Sonnox. I general I'll use Sonnox more for hard brickwall limiting and Xenon for softer limiting. At times I may even use both in combination when aggressive limiting is called for with each spreading out part of the load or just a little Sonnox enhancement with Xenon taking on most of the limiting.

They both have their advantages.

[Dove]

Xenon and Ozone 4 depending on what is required.

[jvt]

Depending on the source material and intended result, I'll almost always reach for either Xenon, TC Brickwall or the UAD Precision Limiter. On occasion I'll still use Waves L2 when that's what the material needs. I've got a half dozen other limiters that I won't name, but they seem to get very little use now.

[Alécio Costa]

I´m with Tom. Similar approach!

[MattGray]

Since purchasing Xenon, I've used it very little... When I think it could be useful I bypass Ozone 4 & have a play & then A/B against Ozone 4 with the same amount of gain. Usually Ozone 4's Intelligent II limiter sounds more transparent to my ears 99.9% of the time, your experience may vary...

[lowland]

Originally Posted by MattGray

Usually Ozone 4's Intelligent II limiter sounds more transparent to my ears 99.9% of the time, your experience may vary...

I like Ozone mainly because of its sound, but the fact that the interface is easy and not tweaky to set is also a plus point for me.

[Table Of Tone]

Originally Posted by MattGray

Since purchasing Xenon, I've used it very little... When I think it could be useful I bypass Ozone 4 & have a play & then A/B against Ozone 4 with the same amount of gain. Usually Ozone 4's Intelligent II limiter sounds more transparent to my ears 99.9% of the time, your experience may vary...

I'll go along with that!
I don't often limit, but when I do, I'll often see what Oz 4 intel II does to the signal.
I have the Xenon but it just doesn't hit the spot for me!
It is very transparent at making the snare almost vanish!

[jdg]

Originally Posted by Table Of Tone

It is very transparent at making the snare almost vanish!

[krytikal1]

I'll agree with Bob O. that it works when it works. I have a few different limiters that I try depending on the source/project. Sometimes it doesn't do it for me, sometimes it's great. Definitely worth the $.

K

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Originally Posted by Andy Krehm

I use the PSP a lot here. It's the first digital limiter that I try.

The Massey 2007 is nice too. They both affect the music differently so it's nice to have choices.

My L2 hardware (my 3rd one) has broken for the 8th time but this time I can't be bothered to spend the $200. in repairs it takes to send it away and have it fixed. So it is just sitting in the rack. Sometimes the display lights up, sometimes part of it is dead.

IME, this is absolutely the most unreliable piece of gear I have ever owned! In fact, when it first came out, I had it replaced once under warantee and once with a little good will from Waves and my dealer.

BTW, and I know there is a difference of option here on this, but the software L2 is close enough and since I rarely use it any more, who cares!

Sorry for the rant! To reiterate, I use the PSP Zenon on a majority of my masters that require a limiter. I also have the TC 6000 but don't seem to find it's Brickwall Limiter as useful as the PSP or Massey.

I got an L2 as a trial piece of equipment from our local Waves distributor. I listened to it and it sounded very harsh and was adding artifacts to the music I was putting through it. I contacted the distributor and they told me to send it back to them. They basically said I did not know what I was doing with the unit and other "audio engineers" had used the piece and had "no problems with it". I sent it back but I had a couple of people listen to what it was doing to the music and all agreed it was adding some artifacts and the music had a distorted sound. I sent the unit back as requested. I asked for another unit but was told that they only had one for demo. About a month later I again contracted the distributor just to double check myself and asked for a demo. They said their unit had gone back to the factory for repair when it was discovered that it had some massive power supply problems. They apologized for thinking that I did not know how to use the unit. When it came back from my trial they had put it up on their system to make sure there was not something wrong and heard the same problems I heard. That same "demo unit" spent more time at the factory than it did in the field and the components most likely to fail were the power supply capacitors.

Andy,

I feel sorry that you had to endure this but there are lots of horror stories out on the WWW about these units. It turns out that the prototype units that were lent to a lot of studios and reviewers were made somewhere other than the production models which were made in China and were not made as well. At least that is the story our distributor finally told me.

[nigel saunders]

demoing xenon - love psp plugs and have Squad and vintage warmer.

sounds really good to me. comparing with sonnox and voxengo which are both good but for the material I am playing sounds more organic/real rather than processed.

BTW cant stand the UAD limiter - sounds horribly digital to me
ymmv