By a good limiter, I mean maybe use one good for the details, the apparent nuances of an acoustic instrument. I’ve just made a list suggesting a couple which apparently preserve acoustic instrument timbre, or, even highlight it to some degree, along with another plugin suggestion that can make the timbre appear brought forward:
Please try some demos, once you’ve listened to a few plugin audio examples, those of vocals and acoustic instruments, especially.
Now about your above latest audio take, it appears the soft equalizer that took away the high edge (character) also ramped up the bass too much to exhort a sence of refreshing cool anymore. Perhaps you’ll want just to tame the highs as an alternative to your removing them, completely, from your wonderful previous instrument recording. To me, the character flaws the imperfections that were presented in your original effort became inconsequential to your last.
Let me stress you want the limiter good enough to bring your listener’s attention to the inherent imperfections characteristic of your chosen acoustic instrument —and even through professional polish, if ever added by the limiter itself.
Indeed, either one of the two (2) limiters just suggested by me is a fine example of a good limiter (that is) remarkably capable of all the professional polish —and some details as well!
Pianoteq 8 Studio Bundle, Pearl malletSTATION EM1, Roland (DRUM SOUND MODULE TD-30, HandSonic 10, AX-1), Akai EWI USB, Yamaha DIGITAL PIANO P-95, M-Audio STUDIOPHILE BX5, Focusrite Saffire PRO 24 DSP.