More low end, more punch, more life.
More Than Just Loud.
L4 is an adaptive limiter that doesn’t just squash but enhances music – delivering beyond competitive level for streaming, and musicality.
More Low End. More Punch. More Life.
You get 5 unique limiting algorithms, adaptive Clipping & Release controls, Upward Compression, True Peak, and much more.
Loudness Was Yesterday’s Battle.
In the ’90s & 2000s, L1 and L2 were loudness. From Red Hot Chili Peppers to Metallica to Timbaland, the most legendary records ran through them – that was how you stood out. But today, music needs more. And L4 delivers.
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1 Like
I’m jumping for joy over here! I’ve been hoping for a Limiter update for a while now, and this exceeds all my expectations. Waves really nailed it with L4.
I’ve tried MANY limiters, and I narrowed down my favorites to two – both well-klnown by big names… And this has all the features I love about both, and more.
TruePeak. LUFS. Clipping. Good metering/display. Multiple algorithms (Even L2!), Upward Compression. Low latency. Adjustable release & stereo linking. They ticked all the boxes.
But what really hits home is I finally have a limiter I like that I can use during composition:
At 48khz – I was able to get it as low as 34 samples, which is perfect for use during composition and then I can dial up the features for mixing/finishing… (I really needed that low latency!)
But even with everything engaged this limiter is still respectably efficient while sounding great.
I love that the layout feels familar, like prior Waves Ultramaximizers… But the waveform view is both beautiful and useful! Kudos to your UI team, this is easy on the eyes.
And it’s included in Mercury – many cheers for that! The last year of updates have made the update plan well worth owning, and I will certainly re-up when it expires.
Congratulations on this new release. It’s been quite a year for Waves!!
2 Likes
Yeah, I just had a play with L4 (after watching Yoad’s video on it) and it really is very nice.
I’ve been using the L3 multiband for a long time, but honestly that was mostly because my mixes weren’t as balanced and so it helped a lot. These days, I think I can rely on getting my mix balanced well and then rely on L4 for a final wide-band push (though I wouldn’t refuse an L4 multi if it’s on its way… 
)
Just to think, we were just on here recently hoping to see a new limiter from Waves. Wish granted!! 
As for my second wish… 
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Hah Simon, I was thinking the same thing about “wish granted.”
Actually, I’ve noticed a number of things mentioned/discussed here that make it into the Waves products. It always makes me think, “Wow, they actually listen to us here!” 
But maybe some of our requests are widely requested or things they already planned.
Something I noticed is Waves is sometimes feels a little late to market with certain updates or their competition with other popular plugins…
But the wait is always worth it! Waves is the only company that has dared compete with VocAlign, and I like Sync Vx better! And L4 of course really feels like a cross between my two favorite competitor products. It’s awesome. (I just need multiband limiting now, which will hopefully be added as a selectable algorithm in L4, but I’d be just as happy to see an L416!)
Their entrance to the AutoEQ market is another that came late, but was worth waiting for. It’s almost like Waves watches the market to see where it’s going – then they issue their own unique take with improvements over what other companies are doing.
AQ, IDX, Curves Equator have all been really good products which beat competitors in my opinion.
Anyhow, L4 quickly became one of my favorite limiters, and my goto for low-latency submix bus limiting. Their low-latency algorithm is less than half the latency of L1/L2/etc. which is just awesome.
Yeah I do think that some of this stuff is widely requested, but it is quite possible they do read our posts as well because we tend to give then more useful things to go with than just “new limiter please”. I think the extra level of detail could potentially prove useful to them.
I agree that Waves isn’t always the first, but when they do turn up late to the game they tend to up the ante. That L4, for example, punches well above its weight and is quite comparable to goliaths like Fabfilter Pro-L. It may not have as many parameters to tweak, but it doesn’t really need it. It’s my opinion that there is something really intelligent and complex going on under the hood.
That new Magma Stessbox is also a simple plugin on the surface, but man it oozes character. Plus I’m also amazed how they can keep it around unity gain despite how much you compression or expansion you apply, relatively speaking.
2 Likes