Studio Application 1
Mastering engineers and self-mastering producers preparing final stereo exports for Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Bandcamp.
Fat Berry DSP / Limiter plug-ins Buying Guide
Finish the level. Keep the impact.
Limiter plug-ins set an absolute output ceiling while raising integrated loudness for streaming, club playback, and broadcast delivery. Choose Finish Him or End Times to control true peaks, preserve kick and snare transient punch through loud choruses, and export masters that translate without pumping. Finish Him: Choose Transparent, Punch, Dense or Safe limiting. End Times: A loudness chain: clipping, spectral limiting and a true-peak ceiling in one. Begin with the full mix at a comfortable listening level and choose the loudest section. Raise the level gradually while checking the kick, snare and vocal consonants. Stop when extra level starts to flatten the groove or roughen the top end. Compare with bypass at matched loudness, then inspect the exported file with the meter your destination requires. Leave time for one final listen from beginning to end after making changes to the ceiling or input level. Try every paid option free for 30 days on your own tracks.
Written & tested by Rory Browne (Founder & DSP Developer) · Last updated:
Compare 2 limiter plug-ins
Use Cases & Fit
Who limiter plug-ins are for — and how to choose
A brickwall limiter is the final gatekeeper between your mix and the listener. Its job is to prevent digital overs above your chosen ceiling (typically -1.0 dBTP) while translating short transient spikes into clean perceived loudness without audible pumping or distortion.
Studio Application 2
Mix engineers placing a safety peak catcher on drum buses, instrument buses, or rough-mix reference prints.
Studio Application 3
Electronic and heavy music producers who need competitive loudness without destroying low-end kick weight.
At the desk
How do you choose and dial in limiter plug-ins?
Solve crest-factor problems upstream first
If a single snare hit jumps 6 dB above the rest of the mix, your master limiter will duck the entire song every time that snare hits. Shave runaway peaks on the drum bus with clipping or saturation so the final limiter only does 2–3 dB of work.
Audition at unity gain (loudness-matched)
A limiter that adds 5 dB of gain will always sound more exciting until you turn the monitor volume down by 5 dB. Always evaluate release timing and transient integrity at matched playback loudness.
Set a true-peak ceiling with codec headroom
Encoding and sample-rate conversion can change reconstructed peaks. Use the destination specification and measure the delivered file; a -1 dBTP ceiling is a starting point, not a universal guarantee against clipping.
Judge verse-to-chorus contrast
If pushing for another 1.5 LUFS of loudness makes the chorus hit smaller than the verse, back off the threshold so the song keeps its dynamic lift.
Signal-chain placement
Always place the brickwall limiter in the very last insert slot on your master bus (or stem bus), with no EQ, saturation, or spatial processing after it.
Side-by-side specifications
Limiter plug-ins comparison table
The specifications below come from the published catalogue and release metadata. All licences are perpetual single-user licences (3 machine activations, 14-day full refund window).
| Plug-in | Price (USD) | Formats | OS Support | Best For / Sonic Role | Walkthrough |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finish Him | $39.99 | VST3, AU | Windows 10 or later, 64-bit (x86-64) · 11.0 | Choose Transparent, Punch, Dense or Safe limiting. | Watch demo ↗ |
| End Times | $29.99 | VST3, AU | Windows 10 or later, 64-bit (x86-64) · 11.0 | A loudness chain: clipping, spectral limiting and a true-peak ceiling in one. | Watch demo ↗ |
How we test at -16 LUFS
Listening tests & common mix mistakes to avoid
Primary listening check
Play the transition from the pre-chorus into the first downbeat of the chorus at matched audition level. Verify the kick drum retains its sub-bass thump and the vocal does not duck.
Four-step studio audition checklist
- Set the output ceiling to -1.0 dB before increasing input gain or lowering threshold.
- Watch gain reduction on the loudest chorus downbeats; aim for 1.5 to 3.5 dB of peak attenuation.
- Listen specifically to low-end bass notes coinciding with vocal syllables to detect intermodulation distortion.
- Check the final fade-out and song tail to confirm no dither or threshold gate chatter occurs.
Common mistakes when using limiter plug-ins
- Setting the output ceiling to 0.0 dB and suffering inter-sample distortion after lossy streaming encoding.
- Expecting one master limiter to deliver 8 dB of gain reduction cleanly instead of staging compression and clipping across buses.
- Chasing -6 LUFS on an acoustic or dynamic arrangement that sounds best at -11 to -13 LUFS.
The tools
Limiter plug-ins, made by Fat Berry.
Each card links to current formats, controls, demos and the live price on its product page.
Limiter
Finish Him
Choose Transparent, Punch, Dense or Safe limiting.
Hear and inspect Finish Him ↗
Limiter
End Times
A loudness chain: clipping, spectral limiting and a true-peak ceiling in one.
Hear and inspect End Times ↗In-depth technical guides
Related production & mixing guides
Studio notes
Read it, then hear it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Limiter plug-ins FAQ
What LUFS and ceiling targets should I use for Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube?
Set your output ceiling to -1.0 dB for clean lossy transcoding. Most modern masters sit naturally between -9 and -14 LUFS integrated depending on genre; prioritise transient punch over hitting an arbitrary LUFS number.
What is the difference between Finish Him and End Times?
Finish Him ($79.99 USD regular price) offers four limiting styles with explicit timing, stereo and quality controls. End Times ($59.99 USD regular price) combines clipping, adaptive spectral limiting and a true-peak stage behind five controls. Compare their response on the actual mix or stem.
Should I leave a limiter on the master bus while mixing?
You can check your mix through a limiter periodically with 1–2 dB of reduction, but avoid mixing into 6 dB of limiting from the start, or you will struggle to judge real fader balances.