Psyre wrote:Inconuucl wrote:BetterOffShred wrote:Anybody have any experience with limiters? I am experiencing some strong volume variance from string to string with certain effects chains on my 8 string and I think maybe a limiter might be just what I'm after .. I tried a little compression but that didn't seem to be the cure. Any opinions welcome

There are no difference between a compressor and a limiter other than setting.

That said the effect you want sounds like a compressor's job. Which did you have and how were you setting it?
I'm not sure this is entirely accurate. Compression adjusts the envelope surrounding the initial attack and draws the upper and lower most frequencies into the center spectrum. Limiters in comparison do not adjust the frequencies, they just decapitate the both ends of the spectrum, for lack of a better term.
Certainly some units are more or less capable of both, but not all limiters can exactly compress and vice versa, whereas some units (even budget like 3630) have a limiter setting.
That being said I may be being a bit dense or daft.
I mean, that's why I said setting. All Limiters are compressors with an extremely high compression ratio and an extremely fast attack time. Some compressor pedals don't reach those ratios/speeds for easy of use/price. Generally when you want to use a limiter is when there is an absolute limit (lol) to the volume you want to reach at any point, and so you set up a compressor that will automatically snap once it does so, therefore a really high attack and a ratio of 1:20 or above. You obviously don't want a limiter to be triggering often, else you need to look elsewhere.
Now, pedantics aside, limiters absolutely deserve getting their own categories in the same vein overdrives/distortions/fuzzes do. The feature sets you want when limiting are different than for compressing. But that's more of a surrounding features sort of deal than actual mechanics.
The trick to setting a compressor is knowing what exactly is happening when you change a control, as it's less noticeable than with other effects. For your case, BetterOffShred, I would do a light compression with a fast attack, keeping playing between your lower notes and higher while adjusting the sustain until they sound about even. I would also say to keep your release a bit higher, but I'm 99% the CS-2 doesn't have a release knob.
If you still want a limiter I would recommend getting the MXR Studio/Bass Compressor (same circuit), it'll also do limiting and has a really handy read out of when your signal is getting compressed.