Leapwing LimitOne Limiter Plug-In, Download

A spectral approach to limiting and clipping

Limiting, but not limited
Audio limiting is the art of managing and controlling sound energy. Often the goal is to increase loudness by changing level dynamics in the most transparent way possible. Historically, this was done by using an electric circuit that follows the envelope of an audio signal and steers a variable gain to reduce peaks and boost low levels. These methods were later emulated in the digital domain and many variations and flavors have been created since.

LimitOne is different. Our goal was not to eliminate all other clippers or limiters out there, as they all add their own color, but to develop a novel approach and do things in a different way, allowing you to get results that weren't previously possible.

We found inspiration in two-stage limiter methods and multi-band compressor designs, in how clipping adds color and punch, and we also took note of the problems and artifacts that some processing introduces. Then we imagined what an easy-to-use tool would look like if we would not limit ourselves to existing methods. This led to the idea of a hybrid algorithm that combines the advantages of digital signal processing in the frequency domain and time domain.

LimitOne is different.
Our goal was not to eliminate all other clippers or limiters out there, as they all add their own color, but to develop a novel approach and do things in a different way, allowing you to get results that weren't previously possible.

Spectral and Time-based Processing
Unique hybrid algorithm design that provides adaptive dynamics control in both frequency and time domain

Control
Variable control over the balance between softer limiting or hard clipping

What's unique about LimitOne?

Unique hybrid algorithm design
Provides adaptive dynamics control in both frequency and time domain. LimitOne consists of two main algorithms, codenamed Pufferfish and Hedgehog.

Pufferfish
A frequency domain processor that aims to optimize the energy distribution across the whole frequency spectrum for a given Drive and Ceiling level. Another way to describe it: a fully automated adaptive multi-band dynamics controller.

Hedgehog
A time domain processor whose main purpose is to shape transients. It uses an adaptive control system that shares the same two parameters, Drive and Ceiling level.