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Forum: General Discussion

Topic: Built in Compresser/Limiter
Using VDJ for Windows...
I have noticed (for a long time) that there is a "Limiter" button/icon in the upper right of the screen, yet I have seen nowhere in any options menu, or anywhere else, to set it up or change the settings. I have also never seen it lite up or come on.

1. Does it work or just there for show?
2. Is there a way to adjust it (just for informational purposes)

In general, I am very careful about over driving the audio system by redlining the input/out puts of the software or my RANE Performer board, nor and I clipping any input signals to the rest of the equipment.

Thanks for any answers!

Michael
 
Posted 2 days ago @ 4:19 pm
It's a hard limiter when the signal crosses the threshold of whatever you set setting zeroBD, only then does it kick in.

That you don't see it doing much means you have your gain structure under control [or your signals are much weaker than your zeroDB setting but even that is fine as long as you're happy]
 
ok, awesome!!! Thank you!
 
locoDog wrote :
It's a hard limiter when the signal crosses the threshold of whatever you set setting zeroBD, only then does it kick in.

Not exactly right.
Yes, VirtualDJ's limiter is a brickwall (hard knee / hard) limiter.
But it doesn't kick in "above your zerodb threshold".
In fact the whole zerodb threshold exists for this very reason (to avoid hitting the limiter)
The limiter kicks in when the resulted volume would be above 0dbfs* and thus it would result in distortion.
The zerodb setting lowers the point at which VirtualDJ autogain targets all tracks. Therefore, by lowering zerodb setting, you lower your overall gain, allowing you to have more headroom before hitting the limiter.
For most modern controllers and sound cards, I would personally recommend to set zerodb at -6db or -9db
This gives enough headroom for most operations, without sacrificing too much volume loudness, that you can simply make up by adjusting the master volume level just "half" a notch higher...

*PS:
Digital world uses a different scale than analog media.
On analog media you can reach +19db VU and even higher.
Of course above +19db VU the output already clips and the voltage on the output is dangerously high for the next piece of equipment down the signal chain.
However, it is still "technically" possible to go beyond that.
On the digital world the same principle does not apply.
On the digital world the scale is not db VU and it's not measured with voltages.
It's dbfs = db full scale, and it means that all the values that represent the amplitude of a wave are negative, while the absolute maximum value is 0 (0 dbfs)
That's where VirtualDJ limiter comes in place.
Since VirtualDJ cannot send values such as +3db or +9db to your soundcard's DAC if you apply too much gain, it would either have to "clip" them (so that anything above 0 results being 0 - flatline) or compress them so that they still resemble a waveform, albeit a different one from the original.
VirtualDJ's limiter is just a "last chance" tool that tries to prevent digital distortion/clipping.
It's not meant to be used as a dynamics processor / loudness maximizer. That's why it doesn't have any settings. Because it doesn't need any..
If you want a dynamics processor / loudness maximizer, then VirtualDJ supports VST effects and therefore you can use many well known VST effects for this job. iZotope Ozone, Thimeo Stereo Tool and Loudmax are some of the most known among VirtualDJ users.
Depending on the preset you use, latency can be an issue as some presets use "look ahead" compressors/limiters, but generally if you have some time to play and tweak them you can get quite nice results out of them.