Look Ahead

Look ahead is a technique employed by a dynamics processing plug-in such as a limiter as a way to ensure the device reacts quickly enough to catch an incoming transient. By employing look ahead, the plug-in is actually scanning the upcoming audio looking for peaks. Once audio has entered the look-ahead buffer, the detector reads the incoming audio and reacts accordingly in time to tame the peak. An example of a look-ahead time is 1.5ms as found on Universal Audio’s Precision Mastering Limiter. For a more in-depth look at limiting and how look ahead functions in a limiter, see the Tech Tip from 3/10/2006.