FFmpeg How to use alimiter Filter?

Question

I cannot find enough documentation on the alimiter filter.

https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#alimiter

I used -filter_complex alimiter=limit=0.5 and it applied to the file but it boosted the volume.

I thought it was supposed to hardlimit the volume down?

FFmpeg says through cmd limit range [0.0625 - 1]

ffmpeg -i audio.wav -y -acodec libmp3lame -b:a 320k -ar 44100 -ac 2 -joint_stereo 1 -filter_complex alimiter=limit=0.5 audio.mp3

Here's a look at the two files through Adobe Audition

Original

FFmpeg alimiter 0.5

Answer 1

I found the problem was here:

level

Auto level output signal. Default is enabled. This normalizes audio back to 0dB if enabled. 

I tried chaining the filter like this using level=disabled

-filter_complex alimiter=level_in=1:level_out=1:limit=0.5:attack=7:release=100:level=disabled

It now hard limits without raising the volume.