Waves L2 Hardware whats it worth today?

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John's pricing is spot on but What they sell for and what they are worth are two different things. I used L2 for 10 years but there are much better alternatives now. I use Limitless, Ozone 7 and 8, and Fab pro L2. All will consistently beat L2 for modern levels. The good news is you can buy all of them for the price you mentioned..
 
Hey ,

cheers guy's  just wanted to say i had owed 1 ,thanks for the heads up  ruairioflaherty  ,got the Fab pro L2 but  have not  looked into the ozone stuff yet ..

cheers

skal
 
skal1 said:
Hey ,

cheers guy's  just wanted to say i had owed 1 ,thanks for the heads up  ruairioflaherty  ,got the Fab pro L2 but  have not  looked into the ozone stuff yet ..

cheers

skal

Ozone isn't bad, can't think of any reason buying a hardware L2 though if you can get the software for something like 15$. They are essentially the same
 
weiss ,

i got those  WVS bits as well ,  i must not be using the tools right , probably need to look at some vids , explaining how to limit in the correct way.

cheers

sKal
 
skal1 said:
Hey ,

cheers guy's  just wanted to say i had owed 1 ,thanks for the heads up  ruairioflaherty  ,got the Fab pro L2 but  have not  looked into the ozone stuff yet ..

L2 was the one to beat for a long time and to this day I get refs from clients that use it and it holds up really well.

Unfortunately with limiters they all have strengths and weaknesses.  I have a default setting with matching gain reduction etc for all of my limiters and have them all set up on an aux so I can quickly choose the best one for a given master.  These days I guess right 90% of the time but sometimes it surprises me which one wins.  I did my highest profile ever project this weekend and Fab Pro L2 on transparent was the winner. 

Re Ozone I only use the limiters, the rest of the stuff in there sounds pretty average IMO, I can certainly beat it with other plugs.  Still worth owning.
 
ruairioflaherty said:
and Fab Pro L2 on transparent was the winner. 

I know sometimes when I use it I'm thinking "this can't be right".... lol

It's pretty amazing how they did this one.....

Edit....just saw this was about Fab Pro L2...... I still have the original..... Wow! Looks cool...... Fab Filter stuff is pretty top notch so I'm sure it's incredible.....
 
It's definitely a solid limiter, and a good all rounder.  I'm definitely not an advocate of having options in general, I own probably 30 plug in EQs including all the biggies and use just one, same for compressors. Limiters are a unique case though as they spend most of the day hanging on for dear life,  I've made auditioning and choosing a quick process.

For Fab, I have the EQ V1 and V2 but they are easily beaten by DMG.  The de-esser is ok but I never use it and actually use Pro-MB for that task, and mostly only that task.  I've never tried the compressor.

 
ruairioflaherty said:
The de-esser is ok but I never use it and actually use Pro-MB for that task, and mostly only that task.  I've never tried the compressor.

Cool! Interesting to hear an ME's take on some plug ins......

So are you using De-essers a lot in mastering? I know I have an old 70's limiter that has some fixed frequency de-esser and it always sounds better when I leave it on. I know I have read here and other places that these are used in mastering and was wondering if it's a pretty standard tool.  I'm not an ME but I find that a lot of work practices and some tools help when constructing and/or mixing and playing with sounds...

Thanks!  Sorry about the de-rail Skal!    Yeah 900 (is that quid?) seems pretty steep unless you're that Flower Pot guy on Ebay....
 
scott2000 said:
So are you using De-essers a lot in mastering? I know I have an old 70's limiter that has some fixed frequency de-esser and it always sounds better when I leave it on. I know I have read here and other places that these are used in mastering and was wondering if it's a pretty standard tool.  I'm not an ME but I find that a lot of work practices and some tools help when constructing and/or mixing and playing with sounds...

It's pretty common but certainly not a default thing.  I'll alternate between using a Maselec MDS-2, Fabfilter Pro MB in min phase mode, and spot de-easing in Isotope RX using spectral repair.  Each has their strengths.
 
I like the sound of the L2. I use Elephant but I tuned it to sound like an L2. I don't do much pop where they expect crazy hot levels. I do the occasional hip hop record where insane levels are expected. I guess I know the limiter well enough that my processing insures I won't be asking too much of the limiter.

A big part of why people like vinyl records is the HF limiting. People think that's part of the vinyl sound.
 
I love that Pro-L.  Combined with Izotope Insight and I recently just got Ian Shepperds Dynameter...I'm in master bus heaven.
 
Mbira said:
I love that Pro-L.  Combined with Izotope Insight and I recently just got Ian Shepperds Dynameter...I'm in master bus heaven.

+1 for dynameter  8)
Anyone else using flux limiter? I find it to be more transparent compared to others
 
It turned to be an interesting discussion on plugin limiters here! Nice to check what others are using. Keep it coming!

But since Skal1 asked about Waves hardware L2, I'll follow with a question on that unit.
For a while I was considering getting one to prevent clipping my converters and do the conversion when I'm tracking, but as it usually happens I found other toys to spend my money on. I don't use compressors when I record so it seemed cool to have it in case some signal (usually uncontrolled vocalist) overloads the AD.

Has anyone used it? What's the conversion like on it?

:)

Luka
 
shot said:
It turned to be an interesting discussion on plugin limiters here! Nice to check what others are using. Keep it coming!

But since Skal1 asked about Waves hardware L2, I'll follow with a question on that unit.
For a while I was considering getting one to prevent clipping my converters and do the conversion when I'm tracking, but as it usually happens I found other toys to spend my money on. I don't use compressors when I record so it seemed cool to have it in case some signal (usually uncontrolled vocalist) overloads the AD.

Has anyone used it? What's the conversion like on it?

:)

Luka

If you are clipping your converters in record you'll just clip the input of the L2 instead!  Why are coming anywhere near to 0dBFS, you shouldn't be seeing peaks above -10dBFS in a typical track situation. 
 
ruairioflaherty said:
If you are clipping your converters in record you'll just clip the input of the L2 instead!  Why are coming anywhere near to 0dBFS, you shouldn't be seeing peaks above -10dBFS in a typical track situation.

Unfortunately, it happens.
It's with vocalists usually. Some can't control their dynamics and you end up with an artistically good take that is technically bad. And I never push level from preamp output to go more than -5dbfs on the input of the converter. But artists can be unpredictable!

But you're right, I had to rethink the subject - it would just clip the input of L2 instead of some other converter. Brickwall limiting is in it's DSP and it's after the AD conversion so it doesn't matter.

:)

Luka
 
Just get a compressor and track vocals with it,  helps with overs and gives you a more finished sound on the way in.  Plenty of good projects on here  :)
 
shot said:
It's with vocalists usually. Some can't control their dynamics and you end up with an artistically good take that is technically bad. And I never push level from preamp output to go more than -5dbfs on the input of the converter. But artists can be unpredictable!

You are tracking too close to 0dBFS if a singer can clip on occasion.  You should take 10dB off of your pre-amp gains on everything you track, there is zero advantage to tracking that hot,
 
john12ax7 said:
Just get a compressor and track vocals with it,  helps with overs and gives you a more finished sound on the way in.  Plenty of good projects on here  :)

I did that for many years. And then I felt liberated when on few occasions I mixed stuff that I didn't record with compressor. It gave me more freedom to shape the mix the way I wanted. So I'm mostly recording without any processing on the way in. Maybe a touch of eq if needed desperately, but that's it. :)

ruairioflaherty said:
You are tracking too close to 0dBFS if a singer can clip on occasion.  You should take 10dB off of your pre-amp gains on everything you track, there is zero advantage to tracking that hot,

Yeah I know! Actually, in most cases I'm safely below any chance of hitting 0dbfs. But mistakes happen...
:)
 
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