What is a limiter?

A limiter is a compressor with a very high ratio and a short attack time, used to stop a signal from rising above a set ceiling. The Wikipedia article on dynamic range compression describes it in exactly those terms, and notes that ratios of 10:1 or more are generally considered limiting.

If compression turns loud parts down by a proportion, a limiter turns them down to a line.

How it works

Set a threshold (often called the ceiling on mastering limiters). Anything below passes untouched. Anything above is pulled back. At the extreme, an infinity:1 ratio, any signal over the threshold is brought down to the threshold once the attack time has passed, per Wikipedia.

Brick-wall limiting is the strictest form: ratios from 20:1 to infinity:1 with a very fast attack. The same article warns that more than momentary brick-wall limiting sounds harsh, which is why it is common as a safety device in live sound and broadcast.

Some compressors and limiters use look-ahead: they read the audio slightly early so they can react before a peak arrives. The cost is added latency through the processor (Wikipedia).

Where you meet one

• Last in a mastering chain, setting the final peak level and, if pushed, the loudness.
• On a live or broadcast output, as a safety net against clipping.
• Inside streaming players. Spotify says it applies a limiter to prevent distortion and clipping in soft tracks, engaging at -1 dB, for its Loud setting (Spotify for Artists).

The numbers that matter for release

Spotify normalises playback to -14 LUFS and recommends keeping masters below -1 dB true peak, or below -2 dB true peak if the master is louder than -14 LUFS integrated, to avoid extra distortion in lossy formats (Spotify for Artists). For what LUFS measures, see what is LUFS; for each service's target, see streaming loudness targets in 2026.

What we think

Treat the limiter's ceiling as the job and its loudness as a side effect. Since services turn loud masters down anyway, the gain from driving a limiter hard mostly disappears on playback, while the harshness Wikipedia describes stays baked in. Our rule of thumb: set the ceiling to the true-peak figure above, then back off the input until the limiter is only catching occasional peaks rather than working constantly. If a master only sounds finished when the limiter is working on every beat, the fix usually belongs earlier, in the mix. That is our judgement, not a measured result; trust your ears and a loudness meter over any single number.