L2 and Gain Reduction

[Mike Caffrey]

I don't own one, so I'm wondering if I don't understand how it works. I get the look ahead aspect, but what does it do when it sees a peak?

I believe that it temporarily reduces the volume/gain and then releases. It limits the peak with gain reduction. It's the same as a compressor, but far faster, and the detector works differently. And of course it's digital, so it's useing math to lower the volume, but for the sake of this question, it's just semantics.

The reason I'm asking is because a friend, who owns one and uses it all the time, told me that I'm wrong and that's not how it works. He said "I doesn't use gain reduction, it just cuts of the top of the wave form, as if it was a knife." This would essentially be clipping as opposed to peak limiting.

It seems to me that academically "perfect" peak limiting, especially with a look ahead limiter that could quickly calculate how to reduces the peak with gain reduciton could achieve the same thing as clipping, but that it's not semantics to say that the two processes are different even though they achieve the same results.


So, does the L2 use gain redcution when it limits the peaks?


And isn't that what some of the led segmented meters show?

[3rd world order]

Originally Posted by Mike Caffrey

I don't own one, so I'm wondering if I don't understand how it works. I get the look ahead aspect, but what does it do when it sees a peak?

I believe that it temporarily reduces the volume/gain and then releases. It limits the peak with gain reduction. It's the same as a compressor, but far faster, and the detector works differently. And of course it's digital, so it's useing math to lower the volume, but for the sake of this question, it's just semantics.

sounds about right to me

it does some rounding of the waveform or else you'd just hear clipping... so it's not hard clipping.. it sort of re-curves the tops of the waveforms...

generally i just hit it with 3-4dB and increase the release time up to about 10ms.