How Useful is Unity Gain Monitoring in Limiters?

[ITHertz]

Hi,

I'm looking to get a decent quality Limiter/Loudness Maximizer plug-in. The interwebs are awash with discussion about what's better, more transparent, etc.

However, something I've noticed in compiling my shortlist is that not all plug-ins have unity gain monitoring - i.e. the output gain is reduced so that the effects of the processing can be evaluated without the bias produced by the additional loudness.

To me this would seem to be very important and yet several highly-rated plug-ins don't have it (e.g. Weiss MM-1, TB Barricade 4).

How important is this feature?

Cheers,

Chris

[Jack Ruston]

It's really useful actually, provided it's well implemented. I'm using newfangled elevate a lot, and you can hear very clearly what the limiting is doing. That's a plug in with a LOT of extra shaping tools, and those type of things can make things better or worse, so it's fantastic to have that very revealing feature. T racks Stealth also has it, and is another limiter I'd highly recommend. I think true peak limiting should also be an essential these days.

[Zukan]

Elevate is truly good. I harped on about it when it was first released and my mind has not changed since.

[Martin Walker]

PSP's Xenon mastering limiter also has this feature, and it's really reassuring (as well as informative) to hear your A/B results without any change in volume.

Martin