Waves L2 Ultramaximizer (plug-in) user reviews ( 9/10) - 3 user reviews

• 07/05/11

  Hatsubai's review "Powerful and easy to use"

  Getting Started

  Along with the L1, the L2 is also one of the more popular adaptive limiters out there. Where as the the L1 adds this neat little bit of character to the mix, I find the L2 to be a little bit more natural sounding. Aside from that, they're really virtually identical. The plugin has sliders for threshold, output ceiling and release. It also has buttons to select bit rate, dither and shaping. To use this plugin, all you do is enable it on your master buss, and you're good to go. I never experienced any problems while using this plugin, and there's really no need to read the manual. If you've never used a limiter before, keep the ceiling below 0.0, and you'll be golden most of the time.

  Suitability/Performance

  This is the part where Waves plugins really excel. These are awesome when it comes to reliability and stability. First of all, this plugin is a cross platform compatible plugin. That means that it works on both Windows and OS X machines alike. I've never experienced a direct crash related to this plugin, and that's thanks to Waves' superior coding compared to certain other companies out there. It doesn't take up too much memory, and performance is awesome on this thing. It's a 32 bit plugin, but considering its age, it's hard to fault it for that. I hope that, in the future, they'll change this to 64 bit, but I'm not surprised if they won't simply because of their other options out there.

  Overall Opinion

  This is yet another loudness/limiter plugin. It works just as nicely as the L1. I really can't say which one is better because they're similar, and they both get the job done. Where as the L1 has these cool artifacts that can occur, the L2 is a bit more linear and transparent. It all depends on what kind of vibe you're going for. I've used both without any issues at all, but my main limiter is still usually the built-in Logic Pro one.
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• 10/13/10

  mooseherman's review "Great Limiter Plug-In"

  Getting Started

  This plug-in is pretty popular amongst studio owners as well as home studio users. It is a limiter plug-in, similar in style to the hardware that Waves apparantly makes (though I've never encountered that hardware and don't know how it compares.) There were not any compatibility issues with Waves on my system, nor at the studio where I work part-time. The manual, which was available with the software packaging as well as in a PDF, is really clear about what to do, as well as the requirements necessary in terms of your system. The setup was really pretty easy, the wizard will take you through the whole process pretty easily. The functions are really basic and easy.

  Suitability/Performance

  I have not had any problems with any of the Waves Plugins to date. They all work really well as long as they are used within reason. That is, don't use the L2 limiter on 20 tracks at once, and you'll be fine. If you have to use it for a lot of tracks, try and bus them to an auxiliary track. The performance with waves is really fast and awesome. I am very much a fan of it.

  Overall Opinion

  I think that this is a great limiter plug-in. It has a great versatility and ability to get great levels. From a mixing standpoint, it can add a greater dynamic consistency to a shaky part, or give a part a saturated, compressed sound that, while unnatural, can be very satisfying in a mix. I tend to avoid doing that so much, as there is no need for such compression, but I can think of many instances where other types of music would need it. I really like this plug-in for mastering, as it can give a great dynamic consistency to a track. If one needed to master something cheaply, this would probably be a good plug-in to use. Since it comes with a pretty solid bundle, I highly recommend this. It's definitely a little pricey, but all plug-ins seem overpriced until you think about how much you actually use them. Then you realize they are worth it.
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• 02/04/09

  moosers's review

  Getting Started

  I had no trouble installing the Waves Ltd. L2 Ultramaximizer on my machine. It was as straight forward as installing any plug-in that I have. I also had no compatibility issues at all. I never had a need to look at the manual as it is a straightforward plug-in, so I can't speak to how useful it is or not.

  Suitability/Performance

  I am running the Waves L2 with a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 duo processor and 4 GB of RAM. I am using it in Pro Tools LE 7.4 with a Digi 002 rack audio interface. It get great performance from this plug-in, but have only used it on one stereo track at a time. For this reason I can't say how fast it would be if you threw up a bunch of these on a bunch of different tracks because I haven't done it, but its really not made for that and I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't run too many of them. Since it is really a mastering type plug-in I wouldn't expect it to anything more than it is made to do, and it is great at what it is made to do.

  Overall Opinion

  I've been using the Waves L2 Ultramaximizer for about four years. It is an overall great sounding plug-in and is really capable of jacking up your overall volume on the master fader. It is very easy to use as it has a threshold slider, a out ceiling slider, and a release slider. It also has a few modes in terms of quantize, dither and shaping. The meters for everything is very helpful as it allows it to really show you where you level is at so you can set it exactly where you want it. It is real easy to get a louder signal on your mixes with and without smashing it to your hearts content. You can be subtle and it works for that application too, and it has a pretty clean signal overall. For what it does, the price is definitley reasonable and while you can get some other master limiters cheaper, the L2 has a reputation and quality that is hard to match. The L2 has become the industry standard for software based master limiting.
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