Limiter
On the Bose® Pro Portable PA Community you will read about "compression" when the L1™ is operating at high volume.
L1 Limiter on L1 Pro Models
Limiter in the L1® (applies to all L1 and L1 Pro Models)
- When you are running your L1® at maximum output and you introduce something else like a voice the limiter may kick in to prevent distortion and prevent damage. As a result the the level of the entire system is reduced. The addition of your voice is what is putting the system into the limiting state.
- You may noticing the limiter on the music and not your voice because when you talk or sing the entire level of the system comes down by "x"dB and but your voice level will still be relative to the music based on your mixer setting.
- When you stop talking the limiter disengages and ramps the music back up to the level it was before you started talking. Essentially the limiter releases and allows the audio to come back to max level.
Source: Craig-at-Bose
Related discussion: Low audio from product - L1 Pro16
On the Bose® Pro Portable PA Community you will read about "compression" when the L1™ is operating at high volume.
Limiter on Legacy L1 Models
This theory of operation applies to all L1 Models.
Hilmar-at-Bose tells us:
- There is no actual compressor. The only dynamic processing is a protective limiter. That should only kick in, when you are hitting it real hard.
- This limiter is not per-se frequency dependent, but there are independent ones for the L1 and B1 and they are tuned a little different.
Julio-at-Bose
- Model II limiter
- The limiters threshold is from -50.0dB to 0dB. A limiter is a type of compressor to limit the level of a signal to a certain threshold. A limiter will almost completely prevent any additional gain above the threshold. Limiters are used against signal peaking (clipping). They prevent occasional signal peaks which would be too loud or distorted.
Keywords: Limiter Compressor Ducking side-chain