It's highly flexible, sounds superb, and is an absolute steal at 1/4th the cost of many competing top-end limiting plugins.
Overview
Limiters are, in my experience, the category of plugins that exhibit the most drastic differences in quality between built-in DAW options and high-end third party offerings - and in both Electronic and Hip Hop music, a great limiter is one of the most essential mix tools a producer or engineer can have at his or her disposal. While limiting often goes hand in hand with master buss processing, a good limiter can and should find its way into many areas of a mix; limiting drums to eat peaks and increase perceived volume, keeping busses under control on their way into the master channel, and squaring off vocals for an in-your-face, modern pop sound all come to mind.
Over the past several years, boutique plugin developer Tokyo Dawn Labs has created some serious buzz among engineers and producers with their string of affordable, stellar (and often free) releases; their TDR Koletnikov Compressor and SlickEQ are among the most praised plugins you can find on Gearspace and KVR Forums in any category. In this review, we’ll put their newest offering - the TDR Limiter 6 Gentlemen’s Edition - to the test to see where it ranks among our favourite ITB limiters available today.
Conclusion / Recommended For
In my experience, it’s good to keep several limiters on standby in your plugin arsenal; while some may claim there’s one ‘best’ limiter for all purposes, in reality some source material simply responds better to a certain limiting algorithm more than others. As such, while I’m hesitant to crown any single processor as definitively the single best ITB limiting option, TDR Limiter GE most definitely makes a compelling case for the crown. Its highly flexible, sounds superb, and is an absolute steal at 1/4th the cost of many competing top-end limiting plugins. If you’re considering buying your first third-party limiter, it’s hard to argue that TDR Limiter GE shouldn’t be right at the top of your list; and even if you’re a well-seasoned engineer with a folder full of limiter plugins on hand already, this one is most definitely worth a try.
Pros:
- Flexible. Modules can be deactivated and re-ordered.
- Sounds superb. Capable of serious transparent gain reduction.
- Excellent clipper and compressor.
- Incredible value - 1/4 the price of many top-notch limiting plugins.
Cons:
- Knobs can be a bit ‘heavy’ - sometimes takes more pressure to make broad adjustments than you’d expect.
- Excellent output metering, but individual module meters could allow for more direct dB range adjustments.
Overall Score: 9/10
Read the full review over at DJ Booth.net.
