Waves Audio L360 Surround Limiter User Guide
Waves L360° UltraMaximizer
Software Audio Processor
Users Guide
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Introduction and Overview
Introducing Waves L360°, a Surround Peak Limiter and Level Maximizer for 5 or
5.1 channels . This tool is based on the legacy of its Mono and Stereo
predecessors – Waves L1 and L2 UltraMaximizers. It provides Brick Wall Peak
Limiting and the Waves IDR360° Increased Digital Resolution plug-in with
Dithering and Noise Shaping for multi-channel digital audio.
L360° supports operation at sample rates up to 96kHz.
BRIEF OVERVIEW
L360°’s Peak Limiter has a look-ahead mechanism to anticipate upcoming peaks
and start pre-attenuating to achieve absolute brickwall peak limiting with
maximum transparency. It also incorporates Waves ARC – Auto Release
Control. This technology sets the optimum program sensitive release time for the
applied gain attenuation.
The L360° allows linked dynamics processing for preserving the cross-channel
balance and phantom directions. It allows flexible link modes to fit right in with the
preferred grouping scheme that you wish to follow, or the one you think sounds
best. This is done on a single 5 or 5.1 Insert without the need to split to multiple
stereo and mono groups. You get all the options on the same multichannel insert.
HOW DOES L360° WORK?
The level maximization is gained by specifying a peak threshold and adding the
gain of the threshold to the output. The threshold, being a point that’s not to be
exceeded, creates headroom that is automatically made-up. For example, if the
threshold is at –6dB, then no audio will exceed –6dB, creating 6dB of headroom.
The output will then be boosted by 6dB to make up for the 6dB headroom,
boosting the whole signal by 6dB.
L360°’s 48-bit double-precision process maximizes resolution so that no bits are
lost in the Peak Limiting process. The dither eliminates further quantization noise
by adding some very low-level rapid noise completely de-correlated from the
program. The dither forces quantization noise to become part of this rapid lowlevel noise. As a result, instead of correlated distortion noise we get something
that’s more like tape hiss, but at an extremely low level.
WHEN TO USE L360°.
L360° is recommended for use in the last step of processing a 5.1 surround mix.
The best place to insert L360° is just after the final output master fader,
preferably with no gain stage after it.
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Classic use for L360° would be when Mastering ready-mixed 5.1 audio to its
designated format before it is transferred or encoded to its target medium,
whether it’s a movie soundtrack, or multi-channel music designated to play back
on common Home Theater systems or any 5.1 Surround Sound system.
L360° can also be useful when you have low amplitude 5.1 material which
needs to be boosted in the mix. This will work better than normalizing, because
the original peak value will not serve as a denominator. You will specify the peak
value with the ceiling control providing optimal gain adjustment control. Multiple
runs of dithering will boost dither noise further. That’s the reason why, when
applied last, this noise is extremely low in level but it is sufficient to mask preexisting quantization noise and eliminate new quantization noise effectively.
L360° PLUG-IN COMPONENTS.
The L360° UltraMaximizer consists of components for 5 or 5.1 (6) Channel
Inserts. When working on a surround mix in a DAW environment, the L360°
should be listed in the insert menus of any 5 or 5.1 tracks, auxiliary inputs and
master fader tracks.
LINKED FUNCTION OF L360°.
L360° supports flexible and versatile linked functionality. Parameter linking is
easily carried out by using global threshold and ceiling controls and Dynamic
process linking is subject to a user-selected Link Mode where certain channels
are linked to a common sidechain.
Parameter linking is important for the general settings. In this case, the user can
use a master threshold or master ceiling control to specify the same threshold or
ceiling value to all audio channels assuring a common general makeup or level
maximization value. For example, specifying a common –6dB threshold and a
0dB ceiling to all channels will result in a general uniform 6dB boost.
Another type of link can be described as linked dynamics processing. In this
case, we link several channels to a common process sidechain. All of the
channels linked to a common sidechain will get the same gain attenuation when
the level of any of them exceeds the specified threshold. This type of link is
critical for the preservation of the cross channel balance and direction of
phantom images. For example in a stereo image if we apply different attenuation
to the Left and Right channels, then the Stereo image symmetry is distorted. The
L360° offers up to 3 sidechains, which are equal to 3 stereo limiters. The
Dynamics process link is user selected in the Link Mode control right under the 3
attenuation meters and a straightforward color code helps you keep track of
which channels are linked to which sidechain.
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For a detailed description of the dynamic process link modes, see Chapter 3 –
Link Modes in L360°.
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