CREST
true-peak limiter / maximizerA true-peak limiter and maximizer with 8 styles and full loudness metering. Push to streaming targets loud and clean — with auto-gain to hit your LUFS goal.
- 8 limiter styles — transparent → aggressive
- True-peak safe for streaming
- Auto-gain to your LUFS target
- Gain-reduction history
- Check our numbers against yours. Put Youlean or your DAW's loudness meter after Crest — we're confident they'll agree, and we'd love the confirmation from a machine that isn't ours. If they don't, that's a top-priority catch.
- Compare it to your current limiter at matched loudness, not matched gain. Tell us which one you'd pick, and on what kind of material.
- Push it 6 dB past sensible on a dense mix and tell us which of the 8 styles holds together best. That's the one we'll put in the demo.
- Set a −1 dBTP ceiling and encode to AAC/MP3 — confirm it stays under after the codec.
Learn CREST
QUICK-START · 6 MINHit a streaming loudness target with true-peak-safe limiting and no guesswork.
- 01
Set the CEILING and go true-peak
Set CEILING to −1 dB and switch TRUE PEAK on — that's inter-sample-peak-safe for lossy encoding and streaming delivery. Nothing will exceed it.
- 02
Pick a STYLE
Start with Transparent or Allround for most material; Punchy or Aggressive for trap and drums; Bus for glue; Safe when artifacts are unacceptable. The style changes the limiter's voicing, not just its speed.
- 03
Push GAIN
Raise GAIN into the limiter and watch the GR history — more gain means more limiting, louder and denser. On a dense mix, 3–6 dB of limiting is usually clean; past that, listen for pumping on the low end.
- 04
Shape the response
Raise PUNCH to let transients cut through before the limiter fully clamps — this keeps drums alive at high limiting depths. WINDOW smooths the detector for a more natural, less distorted character on sustained material.
- 05
Auto-gain to target
Pick a LOUDNESS TARGET (−14 LUFS for streaming, −9/−7 for club-loud), then press AUTO GAIN — CREST measures the program and nudges GAIN so Integrated LUFS hits the target. Verify on the LUFS / LRA / PSR meters.
- 06
Render settings
Enable DITHER at your export bit depth (16 for CD, 24 for most masters). Turn GAIN MATCH off before bouncing — it's a monitoring aid, not a render setting.
- Keep GAIN MATCH on while dialing in — it matches output loudness to input so you judge tone, not level. Louder always sounds better; don't let it lie to you.
- NATURAL mode prioritises sound quality over maximum loudness — try it on dynamic or acoustic material.
- Oversampling (up to 16×) catches inter-sample peaks the base rate misses — use at least 4× for final renders.
- AUTO LINK manages stereo linking from the signal to protect the image; manual LINK at 100% locks the channels for a stable centre.
Every control, its range, and what it actually does — the complete CREST manual.
Download manual (PDF)All manualsActivation
iLok (PACE) — machine, iLok Cloud or iLok USBLicense lands on your iLok
Accepted testers get every Wave-1 plugin deposited to their iLok account — machine activation, iLok Cloud or iLok USB, your call.
Open the plugin
Insert CREST in your DAW (AU · VST3 · AAX). First launch asks for activation via iLok License Manager.
You're in until August 30, 2026
Beta licenses run through the round. Your license codes and downloads live in the tester portal.
Not in the round yet? Applications are open — we accept in waves.
Apply for the closed beta