Audio Compressor And Expander

This device is very similar to the gate.

Audio compressor and expander. Fortunately things can easily be explained just by looking at the according transfer curves and as an added sugar some more sophisticated insights can be obtained es well. Expanders can be used in place of noise gates as the drop off of the signal level below the threshold produces a more subtle and transparent effect rather than a sharp cut off of a noise gate. Dynamic range compression drc or simply compression is an audio signal processing operation that reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds thus reducing or compressing an audio signal s dynamic range compression is commonly used in sound recording and reproduction broadcasting live sound reinforcement and in some instrument amplifiers. Some might get confused sometimes when compressor expander and gate are discussed and especially when concepts like upward downward parallel or such like are thrown in.

An expansion ratio is the inverse of a compression ratio for example instead of 4 1 as seen with a compressor. An expander will have a ratio of 1 4. They are pretty much the opposite of compressors working by turning down the volume when the signal level falls below the threshold and turning the volume back up when the signal level goes above the threshold. This is a detailed explanation of soundbridge s compressor expander.

The only major difference is that instead of muting the signal once it falls below the threshold the expander still lets some signal through but at a lower level resulting in a signal of lower volume the level of signal that s reduced is controlled by the ratio setting on the audio expansion unit. What is an expander.