Brick-wall limiter

Question

Dear all, I apologise for what is doubtless a novice question. I have been using Kyma some months, but it's beginning to exact a toll on my eardrums. Particularly when working with filters, I'm badly in need of what I believe would be termed a brick-wall limiter, i.e., a limiter that cuts in at and above a certain level of volume to eliminate any further increase in amplitude. I've been attempting to build one using the 'Limiter' sound, but I confess compression was never my strong suit... (I don't seem to be able to find a combination of ratio and threshold that will provide protection). I should stress that I am not after a subtle sonic intervention, but rather a 'health and safety' precaution. If anyone has constructed a brick-wall limiter, I'd be very grateful for your hints. Many thanks (and apologies again), Stephen

Comments

Hi Stephen, which filters are you working with?  What parameter settings and inputs are you using?  Thanks!

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Hi ssc, I've been using sets of pairs of low pass/high pass filters connected in series. I want to vary the bandwidth of the filter depending on the frequency to which it's being applied, hence I'm not using a FilterBank (which, as I understand it, applies one bandwidth across the board). I've set the filters with high 'Order' settings to get the precision I'd like to see on the spectrogram.

Answer 1

Modal filters are particularly easy to blow up with either low frequency content or moderately loud input signal.

I'd suggest a pre-input pad of say -12 dB (possibly more) going into a modal filter and then a corresponding boost afterwards

Comments

Thank you very much for your suggestion. I'm actually creating bandpass filters (from high pass/low pass combinations), and need the feedback set high as otherwise in parts of the spectrum I'm filtering the signal is just too weak (the trouble being that, in other parts of the spectrum, the same amount of feedback becomes too loud). Reducing the input first by 12db (if I've understood you correctly) would render some of the spectrum I'm interested in inaudible. However, I've only just started reading about modal filters, so I know nothing whatever about the specific area that you mention...! Thank you again.