I was watching A Schepps on YouTube and he says he like to use a limiter on a bass guitar channel instead of a compressor.

I tried this on a track and I'm amazed, FINALLY the bass is very even and level. How many of you folks have tried a limiter on your bass channels instead of a comp?.

I have loved the Waves MV2 on Bass for years and now I realize that acts somewhat like a limiter too, raising the lower signal up. Now it makes sense why so many like that plug on bass.

If a lot of folks do this, why is it not mentioned more?. Is Schepps wrong in your opinion or what?

Not a bad idea, I don't think I've tried it.

I actually like Waves Bass Rider combined with a comp for that similar effect.

But sometimes, I don't like the bass to be too even. Depends on the song.

How much gain reduction, on average, are you doing? And is this with bass players who can actually play?

Just lowering the threshold to catch all the signal. I'll be experimenting more. As for the player, that's me, a guitar player, but I doubt Schepps is working with too many bass players that can't play I would think, and definitely he didn't say he did it to fix bad performances.

So I'll be using this trick from now on. Now I know why I love the Waves MV2 so much, it just never occurred to me it was acting like a limiter threshold.

Schepps pointed out though that a Limiter is still a compressor, it just has an extreme ratio. I think this is a tip I have been hoping for a long time.

Also, letting up on the SC filter in the mix buss comp won't unleash the bass too much so I think this will work well with the mixbus comp and SC filter.

[my bold]

If it's working all the time at a "limiter" ratio, the dynamic range is effectively nil.

On bass, I prefer a limiter on the peaks (reducing gain only intermittently) together with a compressor to lightly smooth things out. (Really depends on the player and the bass sound, though.)

Yeah, I back off some. The trick will be finding just the right balance. I want to be able to pay attention to the bass and hear the notes well, yet still have some DR too. Obviously this will be a song by song thing because there will be variables like number of instruments, tempo, and intended mood of the song and such.

Limiters on bass (or compressors with a high ratio, fast attack and high threshold at least) work very well for wrangling slap and pop parts.

Compression with a lower threshold and gentler ratio can be used to shape the bass envelope with the attack and release to tune attack, sustain and I find it really handy to maintain some consistent girth for the bass part in a mix.

But, my absolute favourite method of them all is to set up the gain and tone by ear and feel, then use technique to control the dynamics of the part. Nothing sounds better than this to me and having proper control over my instrument's dynamics is one of my priority goals as a bass player.

Adding to what was said already.

A limiter is simply a compressor with a 1/infinity ratio. It means that whenever the signal goes above the set threshold, it will be contained within an amplitude of 1db. If you'd set up a low threshold on a limiter, you could whisper or scream like a madman in your microphone and the volume would still be exactly the same. (I call that the "Nicolas Cage test" because in all of his movies, Nicolas Cage either screams or whispers)

Typically, the better of a bass player you'll be, the least compression you'll need. A small amount of limiting can be useful sometimes but I would only use it to shave occasional peaks and it means your limiter will only occasionally spring into action in order to tame the loudest notes. Whether it is compression or limiting, engineers will rarely use more than -3 db of gain reduction on bass. Personally I often use a 4.1 ratio with 3db of GR max.

I disagree with the “better player less compression” notion… compression can add attitude that can only be supplied by signal proccessing. Shaping attack and release, pump, girth, dirt… you can get an amazing player and smash the comp… sometimes no comp sometimes meter pegged.. i don’t understand the “small digit GR only”

Every case is different. One example: sometimes it's a good musical idea to play a downbeat on the bass and then release right when the backbeat happens to "open a window" for the snare. If the mixer smashes your bass to Kingdom Come, the release of that note (which sounded fine before) will turn into a noisy mess if it gets yanked up to where everything else is. Releases and mutes when you're playing with authority on roundwounds can go straight to hell if the dynamic range is toyed with. Especially if the player is playing with fingers, not a pick, where palm muting is either difficult or not going to happen.

I do use soft-clipper of any kind instead of limiter too often.
Channel overdriven emulation, tube amp emulation, pure soft-clipper.. i like’em better: no mess with envelope (no “ducking” of a peak even), and instead of loud peaks you’ll have a wide spectrum (harmonics!) splashes, which keeps perceptual loudness moments better, IMO.

Sometimes there’s a need for a limiter, yes, but it is a special tool here on a bass, i think... not the first choice of mine. Compression to shape A/R, bring more punch or any dynamic movement, then clipper to keep it smooth and even. Usually.