I've known about Spotify's limiter for years.

Here's the funny thing, though - I never really listened to it... until now.

At first, they applied it to everything – which was bad. Then, they switched it off, which was better - unless you were a subscriber and had chosen the "Loud" option in the preferences.

I wrote about it at the time, and always highlighted this nuance – but because it only affects less than 1% of music streaming users and I'm not a big fan of loudness, I never really paid the limiter itself much attention.

Until recently though, when Ian Kerr from MeterPlugs told me he'd been able to emulate Spotify's limiter for the new version of our Loudness Penalty plugin.

I knew the limiter was very simple and didn't sound great... but as it turns out, I had no idea.

To hear it for yourself, check out the video above.

And to give it a try yourself, click here.