Multiband Compressors And Limiters Are Explained

TUBE-TECH STEREO ANALOG MULTIBAND COMPRESSOR SMC 2B

Nowadays, with plugins starting to emerge, there are tons of multiband compressors and limiters. There are also analog versions of these compressors. Multiband Compressors and Limiters can be thought of as different versions of a normal compressor. To learn the working principles of the compressor, check out the ''What Is An Audio Compressor?'' article.

The difference between a Multiband Compressor, Limiter, and Normal compressor is that a multiband compressor has more control parameters that you can adjust than a normal compressor, while limiters have fewer control parameters.

Multiband Compressors:

When working with a standard compressor, when the signal level rises above the threshold level, the compressor is activated and applies gain reduction. The level may have increased due to bass, mid, or treble frequencies. However, the compressor cannot distinguish which frequency the level increase is and applies gain reduction on the entire audio signal.

Multiband compressor divides the signal into different frequency ranges and compresses each frequency range separately. If you use a plugin, you can change these frequency ranges as you wish, and increase or decrease the number of bands. You can use different compressor settings on each band you specify.

Limiters:

It is used to cut momentary high points in the audio signal. These points are called Peaks. The functions of all parameters on the limiter (threshold, ratio, attack, release) and the working principle of the limiter are the same. Since the purpose of using a limiter is only to clear the peaks, a very high ratio is used with very fast attack and release times.

In general, compression ratios of 10:1 and above are considered Limiting, while a ratio below 10:1 is called compression. Most limiters do not have a ratio setting and the ratio is 1:Infinity.

Waves L2 Limiter Plugin