Manual

Hodor Limiter

A true-peak brickwall limiter for the master or bus. One shared oversampled path carries a pre-limit distortion stage into a lookahead true-peak limiter, then a ceiling clip, M/S-or-L/R stereo basis, dither and BS.1770-4 LUFS + true-peak + PSR metering. Self-contained — it is NOT a Levels-brain participant; its auto-config comes from its OWN 10-second Analyse window.

CODE LHodFORMAT AU · VST3 · StandaloneCATEGORY Mastering / True-Peak LimiterBUNDLE com.inotrak.levels-hodor

The interface - every control mapped

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1Presets - Streaming / mastering starting points; < > step them.

2ACCEPT / REJECT - Apply or discard the amber AutoConfig proposal — the → ghost values under each control.

3ANALYSE - Measures ~10 s of the signal path and proposes a full setting. Self-contained — no shared brain.

4Input - Input meter, Input Gain and Auto Gain (level-matched A/B).

5Distortion - Pre-limit harmonics: Amount · Tone · Character (Odd/Even/Both) · Pivot · Stage.

6Limiter timing - Attack · Release (+ Auto) · Lookahead.

7Release & mode - Release Character · Limiter Mode (Trans/Punchy/Aggr) · Oversampling.

8Output - Ceiling (the hard guarantee) · Stereo Link.

9Stereo & dither - L/R vs M/S basis · Dither.

10Output / True Peak - Output meter + true-peak with an over indicator.

11Metering - GR · LUFS (M/S/I vs target) · PSR dynamics · Correlation.

Quick start

Insert Hodor last on the master (or bus) chain.
Press ANALYSE and choose a delivery target (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal, Club / Dance, Transparent, CD / Broadcast).
Play your loudest section for 10 seconds — Hodor proposes a full setting as amber ghosts.
Press ACCEPT to apply, nudge any control to tweak, or REJECT to discard. Watch the Ceiling hold as a hard guarantee.

Analyse & AutoConfig

A local analysis brain — its own input only. Not the shared Levels brain.

ANALYSE + targetAnalyse

Opens a dialog to pick the delivery target, then captures 10 s of input and computes a full paramID → value proposal. Measurements + proposal + overlay serialise into the session, so a reopened project recalls everything with no re-analysis.

ACCEPT / REJECTAnalyse

Appear in the header only while a proposal is pending. ACCEPT applies the ghosts; REJECT discards them. Nothing changes audio until you Accept — tweaking any single control resolves that one ghost in place.

Change target (re-propose)Analyse

Choosing a different target re-proposes from the existing measurements — no second Analyse pass needed.

Hodor is self-contained (spec §10): it compiles no LevelsBrain.cpp and shares no session-wide state. All auto-config is from its own Analyse window. Do NOT expect it in the master Analyser’s ANALYSE broadcast.

Input & Distortion

Input Gain / Auto Gain

Input Gain (−30…+30 dB) drives the limiter. Auto Gain level-matches the output so a louder-driven setting stays fair to A/B against a quieter one.

Distortion (pre-limiter)

Adds harmonics before limiting, so the limiter catches them — loudness + character without overs. Amount 0–100% (0 = clean bypass), Character Odd/Even/Both, Tone a ±6 dB tilt around a selectable Pivot (250 Hz–5 kHz), Stage ACTIVE/BYPASS to A/B its contribution.

Limiter

Attack / Release / Auto

Attack = how fast it clamps (faster cleaner but can pump). Release + Auto (adapts fast for transients, slow for sustained).

Release Character

Clean (minimal), Smooth (longer), Punchy (fast with a brief hold to keep transient snap).

Limiter Mode

Transparent (cleanest), Punchy (keeps snap), Aggressive (soft-clips before the peak stage for maximum loudness). Also scales Attack for you.

Lookahead / Oversampling

Lookahead 0–5 ms (cleaner, adds reported latency). Oversampling Auto / 2× / 4× / 8× / 16× for true-peak catching — a factor change is an index swap (no audio-thread alloc) and re-reports latency to the host.

Output, stereo & metering

Ceiling

The hard output limit (−3…0 dB, default −1 dB — safe for lossy codecs). A post-dither safety clip keeps it a guarantee: true-peak output never exceeds it.

Stereo Link / Basis

Link 0–100% (100% moves both channels together; lower lets them limit independently). Basis L/R or M/S (limits Mid and Side separately, for mastering). M/S is never applied automatically — Analyse only *proposes* it.

Dither

Off / TPDF / noise-shaped at a 16- or 24-bit target, with a safety clip after it.

Meters (GR / TP / LUFS / PSR)

GR gain reduction (peak-hold). True Peak Out with an over indicator (CLEAR resets). LUFS Momentary/Short/Integrated (BS.1770-4) with the target shown (RESET restarts integration). PSR real-time dynamics (peak vs short-term loudness).