All user reviews of 4/5 for the Waves L1 Ultramaximizer

Waves has long since been one of the leaders when it comes to making very useful plugins. This plugin was one of the original loudness plugins in the Waves world, and it's been used on tons of mixes. While it's a bit dated today, it's still one of my go-to plugins for helping maximize loudness while retaining a safe barrier that doesn't distort the overall mix. Basically, this is a limiter plugin. In Logic Pro, they're called an adaptive limiter, and this has the same look-ahead feature that Logic's has. You have sliders for input, output ceiling, threshold, release, and different buttons for other things such as bit depth, dither, shaping and analog/digital. To use this, simply enable it on your master buss. You can use it on other busses as well, but it's usually used on the master buss. If you've used a limiter before, it should be very easy to use. If not, just keep the output ceiling below 0.0 and mess with the settings until you find something that sounds good. There's no need for a manual.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Waves is great with both performance and stability. They are awesome when it comes to stability. I've never experienced a direct crash related towards utilizing this plugin inside any of my projects. The plugin itself doesn't take up too much RAM or processing power, either. While this is usually used on the final master buss, it's important to keep the RAM and processing usage as low as possible. The plugin is also cross platform compatible, so it'll work with nearly any computer out there. There is one issue, however. This is a 32 bit plugin. In a 64 bit world, that means you need to utilize a special bridge application to use this. On top of that, it's somewhat limited compared to the other plugins that are used for loudness.

OVERALL OPINION

The plugin is definitely showing its age, especially considering that other DAWs have their own adaptive limiter with a look-ahead function. I've used this plugin with success in the past, and it's still one of my go-to plugins if I'm not using the standard Logic plugins. That said, it lacks the options the other ones have, and that can be a bit of a deal breaker for some.