How SpecCraft before the limiter gets you 0.5 to 1 dB more loudness

So you’ve got your track finished, limited and hitting hard. Nice.

But in louder genres you want to be sure you’ve pushed the limiter right up to its full potential. Once you’re at that point, you have a few tricks to squeeze out even more volume. One of my favourites is giving the limiter a little space to breathe.

The tool: SpecCraft

I do it with SpecCraft, my secret weapon. Think of it like Soothe, but way more precise (and quick). It’s a super flexible tool.

SpecCraft is more than a fixer: it’s a dynamic resonance suppressor, spectrum compressor and smart EQ all in one. It hunts down harsh shrills, boomy muddiness and unwanted resonances, and does it per audio frame with surgical precision.

What we’re really doing

We will not use it to remove resonances. We will use it to tame the loudest transient peaks across the frequency spectrum, from 100 Hz up.

Once SpecCraft compresses those sharp peaks, the limiter doesn’t freak out as quickly. That means you can usually push an extra 0.5 to 1 dB without nasty distortion.

How I set it

1. Set the filter to 100 Hz, so we’re focusing above the low end.
2. Drop the threshold until you see those initial peaks come down.
3. Then experiment with the attack and release settings to make it more musical.

Just don’t overdo it. Push too hard and you’ll end up killing the sound instead of making it punchy.