Hard limiting....again

Rather than go through the process of "riding" peaks in a wave (after the fact) I've been using the hard limit option to lower the peaks above a specified range. For example, if I want to lower only only the peaks by 2db I'll set the Audition hard limit to the corresponding maximum amplitude with a 0db boost. Or, using the Waves L2 plugin I'll set threshold and ceiling to the same amount so that only the peaks are affected. While this seems to work very well in either case I'm wondering if the process simply lowers the peaks or actually chops them off. Anyone know if this is a safe way to get what I want?  Thanks.

G.

It does not chop - at least in the testing I've done with the default read-ahead and attack values.  It also has no impact on material below the peak amplitude.

It's quite educational and enlightening to do tests for this sort of thing and see the results.  Generate some tone bursts alternating -.5dB, then -6dB in half-second bursts (or whatever) for a few pulses.  Then run that through the hard limiter with different settings and see what comes out.

Also, using normal audio, use the "amplify" effect instead of the hard limit one (amplifying by the same amount as you would with the hard limiter), then invert that against the hard-limited version - so all you hear are the changes in the audio introduced by the hard limiter.  All you should hear are occasional "spitches" of audio where the limiter cuts in and out.  Handy test of any such effect - and quite revealing - if you hear anything other than very short spitches, then I'd be deeply suspicious of what the limiter was doing to the audio.

If you zoom right in to the limited peaks after the event you can easily see for yourself that it doesn't clip. Karl is perfectly correct:

It does not chop - at least in the testing I've done with the default read-ahead and attack values.  It also has no impact on material below the peak amplitude.