Limiting and Compressing Peak Values

In Lesson 9, you learned that audio should not exceed a particular peak limit. By using the Audio tool, you watched the audio meters for peak audio that exceeded a particular threshold and then used the Audio Mix tool to lower the level for the clip.

You were manually limiting the dynamic range of the clip by lowering the overall level. You also learned how to apply keyframes so you could lower a particular range within a clip.

There are a few AudioSuite and RTAS effects that are capable of automating the process. They alter the dynamic range of a clip, so it makes sense that they’re found in the Dynamics category of the Effect palette, as shown in Figure 11.10.

Figure 11.10
The RTAS Dynamics category of the Effect palette.