Brands:

• AMX
• BSS Audio

Models:

• AVX Architect

Overview:

This article will explore the VIRTUAL view of AVX Architect and look at the Limiter object. 

To see a video of this article, click HERE.

Description:

The Limiter is found in the VIRTUAL view, under the Dynamics section of the audio processing objects.

The Limiter reduces the level of signals that go above a threshold level to reduce the dynamic range of the signal passing through it. Limiters act like compressors but with a very high ratio.

Factory Panel:

ENABLE - This parameter will turn on the limiter processing. When this is off, the limiter will not change the signal, acting as a bypass.

THRESHOLD - This parameter adjusts the level threshold above which compression will take place. Below this threshold, no compression will take place.

OVEREASY – This parameter will smooth out the knee of the limiter. The higher the number, the greater the smoothing.

PEAKSTOP PLUS – This is a feature of this limiter that will use Instantaneous Transient Clamp to tame harsh peaks and transients. Enabling this will allow the control of the OVERSHOOT parameter, and Peakstop Plus will aim to reduce these peaks that exceed the OVERSHOOT parameter level. 

AUTO - This parameter will make the limiter dynamically set its attack, hold, and release parameters based on the input signal and will disable the manual control of these parameters on the bottom.

ATTACK – This parameter adjusts the time it takes for the limiter to respond after the signal level goes above the threshold.

HOLD - This parameter adjusts how long the limiter will hold the gain reduction after the signal falls below the threshold.

RELEASE – This parameter adjusts the time it takes for the limiter to recover after the signal falls below the threshold and after the HOLD time. Remember that the limiter can cause distortion if the ATTACK and RELEASE times are too fast since it will be trying to apply dynamic gain reduction to the instantaneous values of lower frequency waveforms.

The GAIN REDUCTION meter will display the amount of gain reduction being applied.

At the top of the factory panel, we have Object Name, Lock Button, and Selection Mode switch.

Properties:

The PROPERTIES section has the object Name, workspace location, and DSP allocation options.

The OPTIONS section contains the channel count of the object block. Dynamics processing objects like compressors or gates are limited to a maximum of 128 channels.

The Sidechain option is off by default. Turning it on will add an input source to the limiter object labeled as side chain. The Limiter will then listen to our side chain input, and processing on our main input source will be controlled and dynamically affected by the sidechain input. When using side chain on multi-channel limiters, the sidechain input will control the limiting of all channels.​

​When using multi-channel limiters, the Mode can be changed between Independent and Shared. When independent, each channel gets limited based on the signal level of its own input. In Shared mode, all channels get limited simultaneously based on the signal level of the loudest input.

​