Achieving max plugin volume without clipping

[Casey Kolb]

Hey all,

I'm noticing in general my plugin is really quiet compared to Omnisphere or other big VSTs. I've tried cranking the gain on a Limiter at the end of the chain, but it always ends up clipping. Does anyone have some good tips on how to ship a loud plugin?

I'm not sure if my samples are too quiet, or if I need to be putting the limiter in a different place. There are 8 samplers total with a master FX chain in the global container.

Thanks!

[d.healey]

Everyone has the same maximum, 0dB. If you have long samples or loops with a wide dynamic range then perhaps run the samples through a compressor before you export them.

[Casey Kolb]

Yep, that much I know, but HISE seems to be summing the outputs a little differently than Kontakt or some other plugins. Or it might just be that the HISE limiter is a bit iffy. It's been difficult for me to achieve any sort of consistent loudness without clipping. I'll play around with the HISE compression a bit more.

[DimitrisSP]

@Lunacy-Audio Hi bro!
It is almost impossible to have the final volume as you describe (like Omnisphere for example) (if you will not use some techniques...as compression and/or saturation or both before importing to Hise or any other sampler) and as @d-healey said all the plugins have the same output volume (0db is for everyone)......but.....
same number (lets say 0 db is not same volume...i can send you now the same file where the only difference is that i used a gentle saturation on one of them and you will hear exactly the same sound they will be both 0db but one of them (SLIGHTLY SATURATED) plays clearly louder (about 4db louder)

NON SATURATED.wav
SLIGHTLY SATURATED.wav

So for Omnisphere and any other plugin that plays loud for sure these techniques were used before importing the final samples in the sampler... Trust me there is no other way to achieve this...ok you can use the Limiter of your plugin to achieve the volume but it is a post prossesing action and it does not have the same transparent final result as a clever saturation senario

Listen to these 2 files i send you and you will understand what i say...and i have to mention that this initial file was already treated the way i describe so if i used for an example a raw uncompressed and unsaturated file the difference would be even greater.

[Lindon]

@Lunacy-Audio - have you tried checking the lufs not the dB?

• its a perception thing:

What are LUFS? Loudness Metering for Streaming Platforms

Learn what LUFS are and how they're used to measure loudness in audio. From dynamic range to integrated LUFS, here's everything you need to know.

LANDR Blog (blog.landr.com)

[d.healey]

The one that's saturated generally has slightly higher peaks than the none saturated one and the sections in-between the peaks are louder. This is why I asked if you are using longer samples with a wide dynamic range. With a sample like this the way to make it "louder" is to reduce the dynamic range so the louder parts are quieter and then boost the overall volume.

[DimitrisSP]

@d-healey Exactly...it is exactly as you said...this is the only way to have a louder result using saturation(of course very carefuly...we dont want much saturation)...the higher peaks of the sound will be altered on a tranparent way (not as compression acts) so we will have finaly in the middle area (and this is the real acoustic area that is perceived by human ears) clearly more volume.

For example you listen to the same track that is mixed by 2 different but lets say good producers

The one of them used no compression and no saturation and made a good mix
The other made the same good mix but used a combination of saturation and compression but not only globally on the Master channel (imagine that every different track needs different approatch)

Finally we have 2 finished tracks both play at 0db but the second is about 6 dbs louder (i am talking now as a producer that i have seen that hundrends of times)...
Final conlusion...if you will not saturate or compress or the better of the 2 worlds both you will never be loud enough as the other senario...

If you dont care about the volume it's perfectly ok
If you care it is one way.

[Casey Kolb]

Thanks for the replies guys. Good stuff.

Yes, we've already checked all of our samples in LUFS and they're all mastered to -24-26 LUFS, which I believe is the industry standard for sample libraries. The samples are also already heavily compressed and EQ'd, so this is really a HISE thing I'm talking about. There's not much dynamic range in my samples because we've already squashed most of them. It might just be that my HISE compression settings aren't perfect for each sample type or we might just need some super squashing for our samples :face_screaming_in_fear: . I'll try some more things. Appreciate the responses!

[d.healey]

@Lunacy-Audio Compress and boost the samples outside of HISE before you export them.

The one on top has been compressed and boosted, the one underneath is the original:

[Casey Kolb]

@d-healey Yup, we've done a huge batch of pre-processing (including compression, EQ, tape saturation, limiting etc) on our samples :smiling_face: This was mostly just a question to see if there was some extra secret sauce in HISE to squeeze more out of the plugin volume. Thanks for your replies!