The secret weapon of the 80s: a classic limiter from an English recording console. Punchie drum and in your face guitars, bass and vocals!
Smash drums and then some.
The Talkback Limiter is an extreme limiter with high compression ratios, superfast attack and release, and its own characteristic FET distortion. It is known as a drum smasher, but it works in many situations, especially when used in parallel.
Discovered by accident, the Talkback Limiter became a studio staple in the 80s, crushing drums on everything from synth pop to heavy metal. It instantly makes any percussive instrument punchy.
It’s also capable of nuance. Use it in parallel to perk up anaemic vocals, add bite to acoustic and electric guitars, crunch tape loops or add some chunk to a bass.
Innovation often comes from an accident. As an example: the gated reverb drum sound that was prevalent in the 80s. Many claim to have created it first, but most of the evidence points to recording sessions at Townhouse Studios in 1979 for Peter Gabriel’s third solo album, referred to as Melt. The console at Townhouse had a limiter on the talkback microphones in the studio.
The talkback limiter raised the gain of the mics way up, so that the production staff in the control room could easily hear what was going on in the studio spaces. At one particular session, the staff added a noise gate to the talkback mic — the musicians in the studio that day were extra chatty. Suddenly, there was a thunderous WHACK through the monitors: the drummer hit the snare, the talkback limiter crushed it, the noise gate chopped the decay off like a guillotine blade. It was a happy accident that sounded fabulous.
Gated reverb became the sound of the 80s, but the talkback limiter was really the secret, and after gating came and went, engineers were still using the talkback limiter on drums and percussion. It’s all about the fast attack, the fast release, and the 100:1 compression ratio.
The Talkback Limiter is almost always sitting on the snare, the kick and the room mics. Adjust DRY/WET Blend if things get too aggressive. It also works well on the entire drum bus, and you’ll probably want to back down the DRY/WET a bit — things can be too punchy.
Remember, when you crush things with a fast release — the Talkback Limiter’s is around 2ms — it will bring up ambience and make things sound wetter.
For percussion tracks like congas and other struck hand percussion, it accentuates the slap and brings up the resonant shell. And of course, slapping the TBL across a drum loop is a no-brainer.
Our Talkback Limiter is based on an actual circuit, built by Dan Korneff over a decade ago. He wanted the sound of it for a Mayday Parade album he was working on, and he couldn’t modify the studio’s console. So he dug through the manuals, found a circuit diagram, and built one overnight. After some troubleshooting, he got it working and then tracked the session.
He also started experimenting with it on other sources — bass, vocal, across the mix bus. Dan found that it added a lovely flavor, due to its ridiculous compression antics and its unique saturation characteristics.
Dan further experimented with the original circuit, finding different ways of squeezing out more saturation. Our Talkback Limiter embodies that experimentation and creativity.
We’ve added controls on the back panel to let you adjust distortion, the BIAS of the FET compressor, and better craft the high end response — and perhaps get rid of some of the harshness you might get from heaping on the distortion.
And there’s an easter egg to play with too, but you’ll have to download a TBL demo to find out what it is!
You have done it again! From the moment I tried it I’ve been really loving it. So useful and a fresh approach. You can tell this comes from Dan’s many years experience making killer records. Innovative and professional tools. Love the Talkback!!
The sound and feel of Korneff Audio’s Talkback Limiter are unmistakable and indispensable in my workflow. It’s ridiculous and one of a kind.
Actually, every plug Korneff does is a winner. I like to mix with a kinda matrix of parallel and serial busses, bleeding things a lot, sending opposite instruments to different shared effects.
Especially when working with beats, ambient pads, and sequencers, I use Micro Digital Reverberator and The Echoleffe Tape Delay as tasty verb and delay FX, returning them through the A.I.P to tweak their tones. Then I like to set up Talkback Limiter on an effect send, set to strong to severe compression — smash ’n’ grab — all wet, then send small amounts of either dry instruments or their effects to the TL, adjusting the return level to taste!
Current Version: 1.2.2
Korneff Audio uses a software-based licensing system. No USB or hardware dongles, no special drivers are needed.
Our plugins can be activated on up to four (4) machines at the same time.
An internet connection is required to activate our software. Internet connection required for all demos.
Instantly fell in love with this plugin. It simply just works.
Awesome!!!!
What can I say that hasn’t been said so far…this thing is for real. I really, really, really didn’t think I needed yet another compressor/limiter until I tried this out, but it really does give you that instant SLL TB sound with more flexibility, just as it says on the tin. My only suggestion would be to put all of the controls on the one panel instead of having to flip to the back, but five stars regardless.
What can I say that hasn’t been said so far…this thing is for real. I really, really, really didn’t think I needed yet another compressor/limiter until I tried this out, but it really does give you that instant SLL TB sound with more flexibility, just as it says on the tin. My only suggestion would be to put all of the controls on the one panel instead of having to flip to the back, but five stars regardless.
Unbelievable!!!
just Great ? … other digital limiter does the job well.
But this isn’t just a limiter… sound like real hardware unit… pushing my material out off my speakers. Also nice to add a bit… You know… simple a bit more 😉
This was one of those plugins I didn’t know I needed, until I had it. The Dry/Wet control
makes it ideal for Drum Shells, Bass, Vocals,
Just spent 4 days using the TBL on a dedicated drum bus while I tracked a whole lotta drums for a client. We both loved it. Gave the drums the beef they need to help the drummer have fun while playing AND not hit so hard. Got some big tubby 70’s dry drum sounds, played with finesse. This is a killer limiter. Stoked to fine-tune it for the album mix.
Dude!! This thing kills!!! Love it! Nice to pop it open and tweak it too! Great on drums obviously and got some cool vocal efx going with it. Excellent work!!! Thanks again for a very useful piece!!
I downloaded the trial, and bought it 5 minutes later!!
This this is SICK!!
It sounds ok, but it’s marred by iLok nonsense.
I Love the Korneff Plugins. The talk back Limiter is a beast! It has become a staple on my drum bus, There is nothing like it
Man this thing rips on EVERYTHING I put it on. Unreal!
Another killer addition to my arsenal. At this price its a no brainer. Just buy it you will find a use for it for sure.