From the excellent mastering engineer Streaky (streaky.com):
"these are my starting point for the limiter.
I tweak from here but 80% of the time the only thing I’m changing is the gain and the style dropdown.
Style: I like the ‘Allround’ & ‘Punchy’ mainly so I’ll a/b between them depending on the track.
Lookahead: Just a touch of this I find it starts effecting the transients when I go too far with it.
Attack & Release Times:
Long attack time (starting point: about 12 o’ clock on the knob) will mean you are not using the release therefore you are just limiting the peaks, keeping it loud and punchy. (add release and slower attacks if it’s getting crunchy)
True Peak: I’m not a fan of using it, A/B with it on and off and make the decision yourself (listen to transients)
Channel Linking: Unlinking these makes the limiting more open and louder sounding to my ear but have a play A/B them and hear for yourself.
Oversampling: Go as high as your CPU will allow at least x16 for a cleaner sound.
Output Level: I set this to -0.197 this is so it doesn’t throw meters into the reds anywhere (clients love that!)
1: 1 Button: This is Unity gain so it will match the input / output levels, use this to hear how much distortion and pump is being added by the limiting (adjust back down the chain to keep the level but reduce the pump)
Bonus Sidenote :
Most limiters work in a similar way so these settings are pretty universal…use them as a starting point on your fav limiter. "