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4.4 Compander
The term Compander is a hybrid of Compressor and Expander. First the
signal enters the downwards expander, which has a fixed ratio of 1.5:1
and is designed to reduce room ambience, spill or breath noise that is
often brought up by the subsequent compression. The
Thresh
(threshold)
ranges from 0dB FS down to –96dB FS which essentially turns the
expander off.
The compressor offers both hard and soft knee modes alongside fully
variable
Ratio
,
Thresh
(threshold),
Attack
,
Releas
(release) and
Makeup
controls. The output stage which is sourced after the make-up gain features an optional
Drive
feature. This introduces
non-linear characteristics and hence harmonics to the signal and its intensity is controlled by the level of the make-
up gain knob. More make-up gain increases the level into the drive circuitry. If you use a lot of make up gain to drive
the circuit, the level can be reduced again by using the
Output
slider.
4.5 Process Order
The four processing blocks can be arranged
in any serial order using the process order
controls at the bottom of the plug-in. To use, just highlight the block you would like to move and press either the
left-hand
arrow or the right-hand
arrow to move it one place in that direction.
