Cubase 12 Pro 5.1 project brickwall limiter issue

Hi there!

Anyone knows why Steinberg’s brickwall limiter doesn’t have an effect on intersample clipping in 5.1 project as opposed to stereo project?
It works as it is suppose to work, showing all 5 channels going in and out, but master level meter is clipping.
I use it just for basic peak treatment, signals are all healthy, limiter is barely working but still, intersample clipping occurs. There are no other plugins on master channel.

Thanks in advance,

Nemanja

Anyone? :pray:t2:

I have the same problem.
Whats 'brickwall" about it ? If I adjust a peak limit of -1db, it still goes over +1.5.
I have to set it at -3db or so to keep it under -1.0
(And yes, its placed under the green line)

Looking at the brickwall limiter, the max peak does not exceed the setting. but at the same time the loudness meter indicates that the said setting is exceeded
Is it possible that the loudness meter is not reliable?

How would the issue be related to intersample clipping ? True Peaks aren’t reported to the meters, only the actual sample values do. If the meter is clipping it’s because you have a gain increase in some place after the limiter. This has nothing to do with intersample.

I found my problem. It turned out that there were effects/inserts in the Stereo Out track…I clearly still have a few things to learn.
When opening a new default "Mastering "project in Cubase pro 12 - There are two inserts already active automaticly within the Mater stereo output channel . After removing these, the brickwall limiter works as aspected.

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You are right. I had a gain increase in some place after the limiter. AndThis has nothing to do with intersample.

What about me? :slight_smile: There is no any other plugin on master and no gain increase at all and “detect intersample clipping” is activated.

As as said, the master level meter doesn’t show intersample, it only shows digital sample values. If it goes red/clip and shows a number higher than 0, it’s because you really have something active that increases the gain, like channel EQ, filter, etc. By default the audio goes through the Inserts before the Strip, so assuming you have the default routing, the Strip could be a possible cause, and also the Sends.

And is the channel fader at unity/zero ? This is worth mentioning it because there were some folks here on the forum who posted that there was an level offset between Cubase master level and third-party metering plugins, without even noticing that on the same screenshots they sent, the output channel fader was not at zero… Hopefully some people pointed that out because the discussion could have kept going for ages :rofl:

Anyway, if everything is correct on your side after eliminating every possibility, then it’s probably an issue with the Brickwall Limiter itself not working properly in Surround.

Let me correct myself. I forgot to mention a few things, sorry for that.
I’m looking at loudness metering section in mixer where i can see true peak measurement which goes above 0. There is not a single thing on master channel except brickwall limiter, eq is off, no strip modules, nothing at all, fader at 0.
Btw, tried couple of other limiters that have true peak limiting, same result. I have the same project in stereo configuration and when i try those limiters including brickwall, they work perfect and true peak is never exceeding 0.