to begin with. Your EQ balancing suggestions before compression/limiting is also great advice. I love these type of tutorials... keep them coming! If the limiter is softening the sound (as you say), wouldn't it work just to change the knee from 100% to 0% (Brick Wall)? ... or something less then 100% at least. I've noticed even 25% can be "way to soft" on certain material. Good question -- I tried reducing the knee after you suggested it, and it gives a different effect. Not necessarily wrong, but not what I'm trying to emulate in the video. It sounded OK but with this example I was specifically looking for edge and aggression, so the saturation works better. I think specifically for dance-music producers making music destined for the dancefloor, it's incredibly difficult not getting caught up in the loudness wars. I completely appreciate that the commercial track has been over-compressed and could sound a lot better in terms of quality, BUT on the dancefloor, when your tune needs to appeal to people who are under the influence of various substances -- those high frequencies and 'loud' synths sound so much more appealing when played next to a lesser compressed track. [...] Here is an excellent video on matching loudness when mastering from UK Mastering Engineer Ian Shepherd. Read the accompanying blogpost here: How to master a song loud -- and the price you pay. [...] Hi Ian, really enjoying reading your tutorials, and i am obviosly interested in getting my