What is Soft Limit™?

What is Apogee Soft Limit?

Soft Limit™ is an analog design that prevents the digital clipping causing distortion by rounding off transient peaks before they reach the analog-to-digital converter. This technology helps capture several more decibels of apparent level while providing an analog-like warmth to the sound.

Which Apogee products include Soft Limit?

An Apogee technology first introduced in 1992 on Apogee’s AD-500 converter, Soft Limit has been widely used in professional recording and countless award winning records. Once a technology exclusively reserved for Apogee’s most advanced audio converters, the Soft Limit circuit can be found in most current Apogee products. Please visit the Apogee website for the most up-to-date list of supported products.

What Soft Limit settings are available?

With most Apogee interfaces, Soft Limit has a single setting utilizing the default -2dBFS threshold. When enabled, Soft Limit rounds off transient peaks above -2dBFS before they reach the analog-to-digital converter.

Is there a Soft Limit plugin version?

Apogee introduced a plugin version of Soft Limit, providing a software-based emulation of the original analog circuit. This implementation offers a unique set of behaviors that differ from the hardware version. For further details, refer to the Soft Limit Plugin User's Guide.