Sonnox Oxford Limiter Native

What Oxford Limiter (Native) Is For

Oxford Limiter (Native) is a limiting plugin dedicated to finalizing and loudness control on a master bus, a stem (drums, vocals, music), or individual sources requiring a high level without audible distortion. It is aimed at mixing and mastering engineers, producers, and content creators who want to push levels confidently while maintaining a sense of space, precise attacks, and a stable sound image.

Designed to meet modern broadcast constraints (streaming, broadcast, video, podcast), it facilitates the pursuit of a clean and solid master by limiting not only the "visible" peaks in digital audio but also the reconstructed peaks that may appear after conversion or encoding.

Main Features

Precise and Musical Limiting

Oxford Limiter offers peak limiting with Attack, Release, and a variable soft-knee to adapt the limiter's behavior to the program. You can opt for an imperceptible action on an already balanced mix or, conversely, seek a more pronounced density and a firmer "grip" on transients. The goal remains the same: to increase the apparent level without falling into the typical crushing of conventional brick-wall limiting.

Look-ahead and Real Overs Control

The look-ahead processing anticipates peaks, helping to preserve definition and avoid artifacts on fast attacks (kick, snare, percussion, vocal consonants). At the same time, the plugin emphasizes signal reality: the Recon meter displays the "reconstructed" level (not just sampled values) to detect overloads that can remain invisible on a simple peak meter.

Auto Comp and True Peak Compliance

When reconstruction overs appear, Auto Comp automatically corrects them without losing the overall loudness impression. This approach aims to produce reliable masters that hold up better during conversions, normalizations, and encodings, while aligning with the true peak measurement logic used in broadcast workflows.

Enhance: More Perceived Loudness, Fewer Compromises

The Enhance section is the plugin's signature: it provides a musical boost to perceived loudness, useful when you want to gain presence and density without simply "crushing" the signal. It can also become a creative tool to accentuate the energy of a chorus, reinforce a drop in electronic music, or solidify a vocal in a dense mix, all while maintaining control over peaks and headroom.

Dither and Noise Shaping for Broadcast-Ready Exports

Oxford Limiter includes TPDF dither options with auditioning, suitable for 24-bit or 16-bit outputs. Four modes of variable intensity noise shaping are offered, particularly useful on highly dynamic programs, to optimize the perception of quantization noise during bit-depth reduction. This is a practical asset for cleanly finalizing a master intended for CD, certain video exports, or specific deliverables.

Presets and Session Continuity

A factory preset library allows quick starts based on style and role (master, stem, peak control). The plugin also offers backward compatibility with previous versions, an important point for reopening sessions and maintaining consistent rendering on existing projects.

Technical specifications