I tried to play your song and the link doesn't work. For some reason the "..." stays in the address when I click on it.... Weird.
I'm not familiar with Garage Band at all (I'm strickly a PC guy
) but all a limiter does is keep the signal from "clipping". Digital clipping occurs when the signal goes above 0dB. Anything above 0dB is chopped off and you get a bunch of samples in a row at 0dB, which produces some really nasty pops and clicks. These pops are the sound of digital clipping and it is very unpleasant.
NOTE: Another key point to make is that you may not necessarily hear these pops and clicks in your recording program, but you will hear it when you mixdown to a wave file or mp3 file. This has to do with the bitdepth of your recording program, which usually are 32-bit float point, which won't clip internally. But once you mixdown to a wave file or mp3 file, you will generally be at 16bit which can clip very easily. So the moral of this story is to
always stay below 0dB even if you cannot hear any clipping in your recording program. You might think it's ok in your recording program, until you mixdown.
Now, this is where the limiter comes in handy, the limiter makes sure the signal ALWAYS stays below a certain value (set by you). That value is usually just below 0dB to make sure the signal never actually reaches 0dB (in case something slips past the limiter). I generally go somewhere between -0.3dB and -0.7dB.
Here are some links that will go into a little more detail. They are mostly on compression, but start by first understanding compression. Once you understand how a compressor works then it will be really easy to understand how a limiter works, because a limiter
is a compressor with a very high ratio. (10:1 and above)
(Sorry, this forum won't let me post links, so just add an extra "w" at the beginning of the links.
)
Good charts:
Better explainations for the controls on a compressor:
Quote:
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Someone with regards to my above track mentioned that if I used a Limiter on Master track it woud improve sound a lot
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I haven't heard the tracks, but if you have clipping in your tracks, then yes a limiter might help. However if you clipped during recording, then I'm afraid a limiter isn't going to help and there's not a whole lot you can do unless you get some sort of de-clicker plugin or restoration program that can clean up various noises in an audio file. Re-recording the song would be a better option if you did clip while recording.
Without hearing the song, it's hard to tell though, so I'm trying to throw out some different possibilities.
Hope that helps.
-tkr