The Waves L1 Ultramaximizer is the first of it's kind in being a look ahead peak limiting software plug-in. The plug-in is still available to buy, but it's probably not as good as it's followers in the L2 and L3. I installed it along with other Waves plug-ins, which is an easy process and shouldn't be much different than installing any other software. Using the L1 is a very simple process as it doesn't have too much going on, although it does have more than the simple L2 Ultramaximizer. That said, it still just has sliders to control your input level, threshold, out ceiling, and release. It also has dither, shaping, and quantize options. That's all there is to the L1, and if you have used the L2 or L3 before, you'll feel right at home here. A manual shouldn't be necessary, but ya never know.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I've got the Waves L1 Ultramaximizer running on my system at home, which is Pro Tools 9 based. I've got a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM and run Pro Tools 9 with a Digi 002R audio interface. This has been enough for me to run a lot of RTAS plug-ins without issues, and in the case of the L1, I've only used it on the master buss anyway so it hasn't caused any problems for me...

OVERALL OPINION

Even though it's the first of it's kind from Waves, and has since been surpassed, the Waves L1 Ultramaximizer is a great limiting plug-in. I don't know if it's cheaper to buy this one individually when compared to the L2 or L3, but if it's not I'd definitely recommend going with the L3 Multimaximizer since there's more control and it does the same thing. Still, the L1 is a great plug-in and if you've already got it and haven't been using it, I'd suggest throwing it up on your master buss to check it out. You can certainly get your mixes louder with this, and even though it's the original Ultramaximizer, it still sounds great and brings a lot to the table.