As 2021 comes to an end and we enter 2022, we are getting more accustomed to the rise of machines in terms of ‘AI Plugins’. It’s a trend that I think isn’t going away any time soon. The latest entrant is from one of the early entrants in this space, Sonible. They have 2 big ones, the smart:EQ and the smart:comp that have most of your EQ and compression sorted out. Now they have a new, shiny plugin in the form of smart:limit.
If you consider a limiter to just be a compressor with an infinite ratio, then smart:limit can be seen as a mere tweak to the workflow and skin to the smart:comp. But as most of us know, a master limiter is definitely more sacred than that. Is the smart:limit a must-have mastering tool? Does it really help?
smart:limit delivers limiter settings that let your mix breathe and gives you all the loudness and dynamics info you need for confident publishing.
sonible
Familiar, Sleek and Comprehensive
The UI is extremely familiar if you are an existing user of any of the Sonible plugins. It still has the same design philosophy and interface. If you are new to Sonible plugins, it is still an intuitive plugin to navigate. Everything that you need is right there on the screen. There are not many hidden features and menus.
A large part of the real estate is dedicated to the monitoring of the transients and waveform of the incoming signal. Gain, Ceiling, Attack and Release are all superimposed on this screen in the form of sliders that you can move up and down.
On the upper part of this section (A), you can see the reduction in terms of how much of the signal is being attenuated in big red downward spikes. To the right of this section is the Loudness monitoring(B). This section pulls out or tucks in with a small button. You have very easy to read loudness meters that also specify the context that you have chosen. The different loudness scenarios can be chosen from a small dropdown. These include most of the streaming and broadcast standards. There is also a useful dynamic range meter at the very bottom. The optimum range is shown via a shaded region in the metering so that you can keep the vitals well within the coloured region. Above the two monitoring sections (G) you have a few small options – constant gain monitoring, Delta (which shows only the signal that’s being attenuated) and Stereo link.
Below the monitoring section, we have a set of interesting features. There are 4 adjustable parameters – Style, Saturation, Balance and Bass control (D). These automatically set themselves just like the other parameters. It allows an additional layer of control. A tiny window on the bottom (F) labelled ‘Distortion Monitoring’ lets you see the different areas of the spectrum that are experiencing distorting in real-time with the specific areas lighting up in red. This can be a little concerning to see but looks quite cool. To the right of the parameters, we have the ‘Quality Check’ button (E) which we’ll get to further in the review.
The last but most important for this plugin especially is the Smart section (C). It features the familiar “Read” button to help capture a signal for analysis and then has another small button to reset the values to the ‘Smart’ settings if you have messed around with them too much. A small drop-down features a long list of genres to choose from so the plugin can push to genre-specific parameters.
Set, Check and Publish?
For a beginner, using smart:limit couldn’t be easier. You just set the loudness section to your preferred streaming or broadcast standard, choose a genre (you can choose universal if you can’t figure this out), pick the loudest section of the song and then click the green record button and in a few seconds, the limiter has set itself! Sounds a little too easy right? Well, it is! It is almost like an auto-mastering service. In most cases, especially if your song is in a popular genre like Hip-Hop, Rock etc.. smart:limit does quite a good job. For someone starting out, the results will be quite satisfying.
If you’d like a bit more control, the 4 parameters are quite useful for this. The Style parameter, allows you to choose between Hard and Soft limiting. This allows you to choose if you want the limiting to be aggressive or gentle. It’s like a knee setting but with a bit more going on. Saturation is next and is quite self-explanatory. It adds a bit of drive to the signal. You can add subtle warmth or you can go completely nuts and turn it all the way up for some considerable grit. ‘Balancing’ is the next tool at your disposal. This one is a bit tricky. If you have used a plugin like Soundtheory’s Gulfoss, then this is a little bit like that. Sonible calls it “spectral polishing’ which is a fancy way of saying it does some EQ wizardry to help your track. I couldn’t get this to work very well, especially with mixes where you are already quite happy with the overall balance of your mix.
However, in cases where you feel there is room to push, it does help bring a slightly different perspective. But in most cases, I’m not sure if it’s helping the track for the better. The last control available is the “Bass Control”. This is there to help you achieve a “rich and compact low end”. It works reasonably well. It does help tighten bass on some tracks. I’ve also experienced it adding some muddiness on certain tracks as well. At any point, if you think you’ve strayed too far from the parameters the smart “AI” arrived at, you can hit the button next to the Learn button to set it all back to where it started.
Personal Sanity Check
I tested the smart:limit against 2 limiters that I know and use every day – the Fabfilter Pro L2 and the DMG Limitless. Most times, I was happier with the results I got from the Smart Limit vs the Pro L2. However, the DMG did a lot better every time. The smart:limit has a tightly packed sound to it. Everything feels nice and even, sometimes a bit too even. But it does great on a large variety of genres. With genres that are bass-heavy like hip hop, it does handle low end very well.
The extra controls help when you’re more heavy-handed than a transparent, little goes a long way kind of person. The DMG overall just seemed to be more open sounding and tracks seemed to breathe a tad bit more. Ultimately, the sound does boil down to tastes as there are people who do swear by the Pro L2. The smart:limit’s sound is nothing groundbreaking but is right up there and comparable to all the other big hitters.
Smackdown vs RAW
As with any of these ‘smart’ plugins, it is not going to sound absolutely spot on every single time you throw it on something. However, the success rate for smart:limit is quite promising. It is great if you want to get a quick master to take out and listen in your car etc. It’s also really good if you want to check how it’s going to sound at different streaming and broadcast standards.
In fact, the quality check option makes it really easy for someone to see how much volume they are going to lose when it is uploaded to said service. It also lets you see how well you are doing in the dynamics department. It lets you know if you are doing too much compression or too little based on the genre and standards that you have chosen. This right here is my favourite feature of the plugin.
These features make it very useful for you to do some QC on your mixes and eliminate any surprises when it goes live. These QC features are something that sets this limiter apart. How much you value these features will determine how much you should want this plugin.
smart:limit is available directly from sonible or from our partner Plugin Boutique
Find out more about soniible smart:limit
APG Score
- Sound quality
- Ease of use
- Interface
- Presets
- Value for money
- Smarty Pants
Summary
The difference-maker for this plugin is really in the metering and workflow. For me, the metering section is worth its weight in gold if you’ve not found it easy to understand loudness standards or how you can compete with genre-specific numbers. You won’t be disappointed with the purchase. By throwing some test masters at it, you’ll end up learning a lot more through the metering section than scouring through the interwebs for days.
