There is a surprising number of free limiter plugins available online in VST and AU formats, and even some in AAX format for Pro Tools.

They come with varying levels of features. Some are brickwall limiters, some are soft limiters, and some add extra clipping and compression features.

Some of the free limiters are exceptional, and have a better reputation than paid commercial gear.

Limiter #6 from vladgsound is one of the most popular free options.

There’s a clone of a Waves L1 limiter that is also quite popular.

Limiter plugins are very useful to limit the frequencies above a certain level. Here are a few good limiter plugins which you can use with vocal recordings. Vladg/sound’s Limiter №6 is one of the best free options for vocal limiter plugins. Here are some features of this vocal limiter. Home › Free VST Plugins › 12 Free Equalizer VST Plugins – Best Equalizer VSTs 12 Free Equalizer VST Plugins – Best Equalizer VSTs Here are the Best Free Equalizer VST Plugins online that can be used with FL Studio, Reason, Ableton Live, and other VST supported software. Frontier – FREE Limiter VST Plugin by D16 Group D16 Group announced that their Frontier limiter plugin is now available for free download for any registered user (no need to own any previous products as before).

Most DAWs include a limiter plugin as well, but they are can be fairly basic or not as transparent as some of the plugins below.

Lookahead it's a feature which permits to a limiter to see 'in the future' by delaying the input signal. Means that signal is delayed so it can be analysed by limiter. The delay is very small, aproximately 0.01ms-10ms which not affect the sound. The longer the delay time is the more precise to analysis. The summary of possible plugin formats is as follows: FL plugin - only works in FL Studio; VST plugin - works in all VST host programs. AU plugin - works on Mac OS X. Stand Alone - the plugin runs inside a self-contained host-wrapper. Buying FL Studio Producer or Signature Bundle gives you the FL Studio native format plugins (option 1 above).

Paid limiter plugins can cost upwards of a few hundred dollars each, like Waves’ Limiter plugins. But you can get pretty good results from these free options as well.

Best Free Limiter Plugins

Limiter No6

Limiter #6 is a mastering plugin that includes five modules: RMS compressor, peak limiter, high-frequency limiter, clipper, true peak limiter.

It has brickwall and soft limiting features with different timing settings, M/S and multiband modes, 4x oversampling, and more.

Limiter #6 is available in VST and AU formats for Mac and PC in 32 and 64 bit. There are 3 different GUIs (here’s the page with all three downloads).

LoudMax

LoudMax is a look-ahead brickwall limiter plugin designed to be a clean and transparent loudness maximizer that retains as much of the original sound of the music as possible. It’s a low latency, low CPU usage plugin with an easy to understand interface.

LoudMax is available to download in VST and AU formats in 32 and 64 bit. It works with Windows and Mac OS 10.5 and higher.

George Yohngs W1 Limiter

W1 Limiter is an easy-to-use plugin that was cloned from a Waves L1 limiter and boasts identical output. It also features an approximation of Waves L2 with adaptive release enabled.

Hard Limiter Plugin

W1 Limiter is available in VST, AU, and RTAS formats for windows and Mac (OS X) and it comes in both 32 and 64 bit.

EasyLimiter

EasyLimiter is a free, donationware VST limiter for Windows that features look-ahead peak detection, stereo link, and a number of other features. Its claim to fame is that it uses less CPU than other limiters.

EasyLimiter comes in VST format only and works with Windows 32 and 64 bit systems.

ClipShifter

ClipShifter is a clipping style limiter that can go from transparent compression to hard clipping distortion. It offers controls for clip shaping and harmonics, it has a waveform display, and is low on CPU usage. Kmsauto lite test4 for office 2016 free download.

There are free and paid versions of ClipShifter. The free version is fully-function; the paid version adds extra features like mid/side processing, oversampling, independent frequency clipping, etc.

ClipShifter is available in AU, VST, VST3, RTAS, and AAX formats for Windows and Mac, both 32 and 64 bit.

Xhip Limiter

According to the website description, Xhip Limiter is designed for maximal sustain and minimal distortion, and aims to be as transparent as possible in terms of timbre.

The Xhip Limiter plugin is available for Windows only, both 32 and 64 bit.

Faraday Limiter

Best Limiter Plugins

The Faraday Limiter from Goodhertz is described as having colorful dynamics with warm, tape-like saturation. It features advanced stereo linking, variable L/R or M/S linking, adjustable ratios, and a gain reduction history meter.

Free Limiter Plugin

Goodhertz plugins are only available in AU and AAX formats for 64-bit Macs with OS X 10.7 and up.

L2007 Mastering Limiter

According to the description, the L2007 is a mastering-grade look-ahead brickwall limiter. It’s made by Massey Plugins and is offered free with Massey’s other plugins but the free versions have limited features.

However, this one of the few free limiters that is available in AAX format for Pro Tools. Both Mac and PC are supported.

Maxwell Smart

Maxwell Smart is simple limiter plugin that claims to be a true transparent peak limiter and loudness maximizer with look-ahead functionality designed to increase loudness while maintaining transients without audible distortion.

Vst Plugin Fruity Limiter

The plugin features 3 modes to control the sound: smooth, normal and loud, and the compensated latency is 4ms. It’s available for Windows and is 32 bit only.