Limiters are of course vitally important to modern mixing and mastering. In recent years, they've become more and more advanced, allowing you to squeeze every last drop of loudness out of your tracks whilst still retaining some semblance dynamic range.

As someone who’s brickwalled more tracks than a DIY enthusiast, here’s your guide to limiting that slaps harder than a disgruntled finger drummer on an MPC Live:

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1. FabFilter Pro-L 2 – The Transparent Tyrant

The “Swiss Army knife of loud” now with AI TruePeak detection that anticipates clipping before your DAC does. Perfect for Melodic Techno that needs dynamics AND loudness. One of THE industry standard choices

⚠️ Warning: May cause existential crises when you realize your mix wasn’t that good pre-limiting.

Become the Loudness Overlord

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2. DMG Limitless 2 – The Algorithmic Saviour

With 11 limiting algorithms, this is for producers who think “True Peak” is a mountain they haven’t climbed yet. Limitless has one of the most comprehensive metering systems on any Limiter plugin, and it's 6 band processing engine makes it one of the most powerful in the whole industry

💣 Pro Move: The new “Loudness War Simulator” shows how your track would’ve been mastered in 1999 vs 2025 (spoiler: both hurt) (spoiler 2: this is a joke)

Embrace the Darkness

3. Waves L3-LL Multimaximizer – The OG

The plugin that mastered every EDM track you’ve ever heard at the gym on all those terrible playlists. The 2025 update adds ultra low - latency, meaning you can use the 5 bands of Maximisation for tracking as well as mixing and of course mastering.

📱 Secret Sauce: Use the Xover frequency bands to ensure your drop survives AirPods.

Join the Dark Side

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4. Ozone 11 – The AI Loudness Whisperer

By now, iZotope and Ozone need no introduction. Incredibly widely used by both professional Mastering Engineers and bedroom artists alike, The new “Clarity” plugin makes crystallises your mixes like a psychoacoustic therapist for audio .

🤖 Pro Tip: iZotope’s AI now argues with you: “Are you SURE you want another dB? Let’s discuss your childhood.”

AI Salvation Here

5. Newfangled Audio Elevate - The MYT Choice

This thing has been Paul James Nolan's preferred Mastering Limiter for many years, it's intelligent multiband limiting, full control over transient processing and a truly amazing clipper, mean it's still the winner for many years to come.

🔥 Warning: May cause delusions of being Chris Lord - Alge.

Get Elevated

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Limiter Commandments:

• True Peak limiting is critical: Because Spotify’s algorithm is judgy
• -8LUFS is a perfect balance of loudness, competitiveness and dynamics for club play in most electronic music genres
• -14LUFS for Spotify and Streaming Services - because they suck.
• "It's not about how loud you make it, it's about how you make it loud" - Bob Katz, Godfather of modern mastering (and yes that is his real name)