I read your post and wondering what you were on about I took a look at the link in the OP. That does throw a bit of perspective on this thread.MoreSpaceEcho wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 3:54 pmTrying to make a showing in the loudness wars with cheap analog gear is knife-to-a-gunfight stuff.
20:1 isn't going to do it. Digital brickwall limiters are like 1000:1, and they use algos specifically designed to somehow sound good doing this insanity. Even if a cheap analog limiter is actually fast enough to catch the peaks, it's going to be so, so, sooooooo much grungier than any of the current digital limiters.
I get not wanting to deal with a computer, but the tunes are going to have to go on a computer at some point if Snarl's ever gonna share them with anyone, it'd be simple business to set up a default REAPER session with a limiter (the stock one will probably work fine) on track one, drop the new mixes onto the track, adjust levels into the limiter, export masters. And there's probably some script so you could do this with like 2.2 mouse clicks.
He asked a question here about under -$500 analog limiters and to a limited extent I answered it. There are other options but not much for stereo and I don't recommend anything I haven't owned and used.
I just use the VLA II for tracking and just enough to tame some minor peaks when tracking. Most of my peaks are cured with technique. Multi-unit condo so I don't get real loud, ever.
Like the OP, I'm a "record myself at home" sort of studio rat.
We have way too many people already in Bellingham trying to make a buck recording other people, that market is glutted. Like many, I make do with what I can afford to spend on what is essentially a side hobby to support my songwriting habit/hobby. I've a good number of limiter plugins but I haven't gotten around to using most of them and the OP didn't ask about them anyway.
And I have zero interest in the "loudness wars", I thought the streaming sites put more or less an end to that for music with LUFS standards. Just a television commercial thing now as far as I can tell. I like dynamics, just not peaky "overs".
If I had $5k to buy a high end analog compressor, I'd put it in a Roth IRA, buy some stocks and let it make some money instead. It would certainly do better than another studio in this town.
Just my 2 cents, on to the next...