#WAVES L2 ULTRAMAXIMIZER HARDWARE MANUAL#
#WAVES L2 ULTRAMAXIMIZER HARDWARE SOFTWARE#

When I was getting my last album mastered, the mastering engineer used this and showed me the difference between it on and off and also the difference between this and the plug-in, which is quite different. The sound of the Waves L2 UltraMaximizer is quite awesome, as it makes what you put through it sound great right off the bat.

#WAVES L2 ULTRAMAXIMIZER HARDWARE MANUAL#

The manual might be a good thing to check out once or twice, but once you get into it, it won't be necessary. There are more settings here but these are the main things to think about the L2. The main parameters found here are for threshold, output ceiling, attenuation, and release, and you can also adjust the volumes of each channel independently. The configuration of the Waves L2 UltraMaximizer is definitely a bit more in depth than the plug-in version but still isn't terribly hard to use. It is rack mountable and will take up two of your rack spaces. I'm not sure on the connections, as the mastering studio that I used this in had it all hooked up and good to go. It's a digital processor that can handle up to 96 K sample rates and has a pretty high quality 24 bit analog to digital and digital to analog converter.

#WAVES L2 ULTRAMAXIMIZER HARDWARE SOFTWARE#

The L2 hardware version came before the L2 software plug-in, but is modeled after the L1 plug-in. The Waves L2 UltraMaximizer is a hardware version of the ever popular L2 limiting plug-in. But thatвЂ™s good news for the rest of us if youвЂ™re not setting up a hardware-based mastering studio, the much cheaper plugin will probably do the job just as well. The one major downside? It sounds virtually identical to the plugin on which itвЂ™s based. If youвЂ™ve ever compared your own mix with a chart hit and wondered how theyвЂ™ve managed to push the mix that loud then you can all but guarantee that a maximiser like the L2 has played a pivotal role somewhere in the mastering chain. But that doesnвЂ™t stop it being one of the most popular pieces of outboard among mastering engineers looking to squeeze that last fraction of a decibel out of a mix. When pushed hard itвЂ™ll happily destroy the dynamics of your track, introduce distortion and eventually create the most horrifically clipped, harsh sound you can imagine. Under the covers the L2 works like any other limiter, by effectively reducing the peak signals in a mix so that everything can be amplified in order to increase the average loudness.Д«ut how does it actually sound? LetвЂ™s just say youвЂ™re not buying the L2 for its character. As such, itвЂ™s become a go-to weapon in many mastering engineersвЂ™ arsenals. In the era of aggressive loudness, the appeal of the L2 is obvious: it makes tracks louder.

Only very recently have plugins caught up with analogue technology when it comes to controlling the dynamics of a signal. Compression is one of those areas where DSP-based units have traditionally been noticeably inferior to their analogue counterparts. This вЂultramaximizerвЂ™ (essentially a look-ahead stereo mastering limiter) is the only digital unit to make the cut.

Waves l2 ultramaximizer hardware