The trend in CD production over the last few years has been to make a mastered CD be a loud as possible, particularly for radio play, where a quieter track may not sound as "driven" as compared to the next. The problem with this process, is that the wrong equipment can introduce coloring, and under extreme limiting, destroy any dynamic range.
Digidesign's Maxim is a peak limiter plug-in that uses a proprietary "level maximizing" technique which optimizes the overall level of the audio input, while preserving the integrity of the original sound.
Maxim takes advantage of the Pro Tools non-linear production environment to intelligently process the signal, something an analog limiter can't do. It looks ahead to anticipate peaks in the audio file and then reduces them, relative to the track's lower level audio without changing the overall sound quality. The resulting process is transparent peak limiting.
While ideally suited to the stereo master of a mix, Maxim can be used as a dynamics processor on any channel in the Pro Tools mixing environment, while it also offers built-in 16, 18, or 20-bit dithering. A full-color histogram makes visual evaluation of the program material very simple.