Hello ME fellows,

I would like to know which processor you use for upward expansion and where you usually use in your HW rig.

Usually, of course it always depends on the source, I find upward expansion useful after the compressors but there are not many HW machines able to achieve what digital comps can do in this regards.

Maselec MLA-4 here. It's a great tool to bring back life to overprocessed stuff, I never compress/expand with plugs.

I do quite a bit of expansion, but only use plugins :-(

I only practice digital ITB processing. I don't know any hardware compressor using a ratio inferior to 1 to produce upward expansion except the Maselec. Maybe a transient designer can help you to reach your goal as well ?

SPL KULTUBE in De-Comp Mode

Yep spl dynamaxx does it to. ITB you can use logic expander or waves renaissance compressor.

ITB here, too, with DMG's Essence, or Sequoia's multiband device.

Not hardware, but Flux Solera is a flexible plug-in that does both upward expansion and upward compression, as well as regular compression and downward expansion. The gain range (cap) setting, variable knee, variable lookahead, and advanced release (minimum, maximum/target and velocity of the semi-auto release) means you can do some very nice precision work.

Where do you usually place it in your rig?
Thanks

That depends highly on the situation.

I mostly use the Solera for its wideband upward compression feature, as an alternative to parallel compression. Unless I work with stems, upward expansion is something I tend to do more frequency selective with the FabFilter Pro-MB in dynamic phase mode for instance.

I did some upward expansion last week on the kick drum of a club track where there wasn't enough dynamic separation between the kick and the bass (the latter was deeper than the kick and a bit overpowering in level - and static EQ or multiband compression on the bass wasn't the best solution on this stereo mix). I performed this fairly early in the chain, before a bit of gentle overall analog compression, but it might have been inserted later on a different track. When you have range control I find it more flexible in terms of where it happens in the chain.

Like everybody else I use a combination of software and hardware, but I often like to fix specific (problematic) things as early as possible and do the more general strokes later in the chain.

Can someone else expand on this topic. maybe a few examples. Also, is this multiband expansion or just overall? whats the difference between upward and downward expansion? I can take guesses, but seams to be a bit of a hidden topic.

There are basically four different kinds of dynamic processing:

Downward compression
Downward compression reduces dynamic range by turning down the signal when it exceeds the threshold.

Limiting also falls into this category, but it's usually very fast and with a very high ratio.

For the sake of completion: compression can also do the opposite, i.e. expand the dynamics, depending on how you use it. This is why a compressor can be used for emphasizing or creating punch. Punch doesn't come from a higher average level (RMS) or density, but from the perceived attack of the sound.

Downward compression is often used for dynamic control, shaping the signal, increasing density, reducing peaks, etc.


Upward compression
This reduces dynamic range by turning up the signal when it falls below the threshold. Signal above the threshold won't trigger upward compression.

Upward compression is often misunderstood, so I'll expand (excuse the pun) on the subject:

Upward compression is somewhat similar to parallel compression in sound when a parallel compressor is set up for fast and hard compression. Both methods relatively increase the low level signals more than the peaks. However, real upward compression can be set up to virtually leave the peaks untouched while parallel compression can't do that and generally adds a fair amount of harmonics to the overall signal - which can be used intentionally.

A real upward compressor is specifically designed for upward compression or it will have a dedicated algorithm for this. The Flux Solera or FabFilter Pro-MB both have real upward compression algorithms. Although the Pro-MB is multiband it can be used in wideband mode as well, but I prefer the Solera for wideband purposes.

Fake upward compression
... is a way of achieving something similar in sound to real upward compression by setting up a downward compressor with a gain reduction cap (gain range) and a non-linear release that is faster during less gain reduction and slower during more gain reduction. The Waves Renaissance Compressor in Electro mode can be set up for this since it has a ratio dependent gain reduction cap (e.g. about a maximum of -6 dB GR at ratio 1.28:1 no matter how low you pull the threshold), and the Electro mode is non-linear. For this to work you must also have the GR hovering around the cap (e.g. -6 dB GR) during maximum GR and usually it requires a very fast attack too.

Note: Switching to Opto mode reverses the non-linear release behavior, causing the release to work faster during more gain reduction and slower during less gain reduction (the crossover happens around -3 dB of GR). For this reason the Electro mode is great for fake upward compression while the Opto works great on e.g. bass or a certain types of sum busses, where you don't want the tails pulled up too much.

Usage
Upward compression can be used alone or in conjunction with regular downward compression to reduce dynamics and increase clarity of low level signals, but it's usually applied in more delicate situations and you need to watch out for how it can pull up a lot of noise, reverb, and signal tails - this is where the range cap and advanced release settings come in handy.

In mastering, an example would be an orchestral piece of music where you might not want to downward compress the peaks at all, but without any compression the low level signals are simply too low. Correctly applying upward compression could help automatically and naturally (as opposed to manually micro managing volume automation data) pull up low level signals, but leave the peaks untouched.


Downward expansion
This increases dynamic range by turning down the signal when it falls below the threshold.

A gate is an example of downward expansion.

This also means that downward expansion could in fact end up reducing dynamic range instead. This will happen if the signal is cut off (like a gate is able to) instead of just turning it down.

Downward expansion can be used for a variety of things, such as lowering the tail of a kick drum or bass, creating more separation between notes or hits. An upward expander could achieve something similar in certain cases, but from a different perspective.


Upward expansion
This increases dynamic range by turning up the signal when it exceeds the threshold.

This is useful for making existing peaks pop out even more.

All of these dynamic options above can be used in both wideband and multiband processors, depending on what you need to address in the mix/master and if you have stems available or not.

TC Electronic MD3 here, in single or/and multiband, mostly closed to the end of the chain but it depends. Sometimes Waves C1 sounds good.

Sometimes I wonder why I tread around these forums still... well its because occasionally you will find a post like this! Thank you. Super clear and informative.

You're welcome! Maybe that's a subject for a YouTube video.

Here it is using the FLUX terminology

TC M5000 MD2
or
TC Powercore MD3

TDR Nova GE ist great for this!

Bravo to you sir for taking the time to type up this excellent explanation. Stuff like this that makes a forum great

I don't think MD3 can expand upwardly, it's a downward expander right?
TBH though I don't think I've ever really gotten any use out of the expander on MD3, so perhaps I'm missing something.

Lagerfeldt, thanks so much for this great explanation!

The first of your 4 categories sounds like what I consider to be "standard compression" -- for which I think most of us have our opinions on what gear/plugins we like to use.

But I'm pretty ignorant of plugins for your remaining three categories and am particularly interested in plugin recommendations (and usage tips?) for your last category, upward expansion.

I'm trying to match a quiet, acoustic, slightly jazzy/bluesy song to a reference track (Lyle Lovett's "Ain't It Something"). The reference track has an extremely wide dynamic range and even when I turn off all my (downward) compression, I can't seem to increase my dynamic range sufficiently to match that of the reference.

I'm thinking I should try upward expansion (?) and am wondering what to use.

Any advice (from anyone) greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

Flux Pure DCompressor

Despite the weird name it's in fact an upward expander.

https://www.flux.audio/project/pure-dcompressor/

It's great for accentuating existing peaks. It's got some of the most flexible functions around which willl allow you to get exactly the sound you're looking for.

You'll have to read the manual and experiment, since it's not a simple machine.

If you're not sure exactly how something works ping me here and I'll see if I can answer.

There's also the possibility of increasing dynamics in both ends, so to speak.

That is, upward expansion to accentuate the peaks as well as downward expansion.

The downward expander shouldn't be gating of course, just lowering at the other end of the range.

Both the Pure DCompressor and the Pure Expander has a range control to limit how much you're expanding. This allows you to use more radical settings or not to compromise on your other settings while putting a lid on the amount of expansion.

It might be cheaper or a better solution to simply get the Flux Solera, it's got all four processors in one. They can be used simultaneously or you can just open serial instances.

My next video on my YouTube channel Gear Grotto is all about these subjects, by the way.

Lagerfeldt -- thanks for the helpful advice -- and for your generosity of spirit in general re: sharing your knowledge. (I think it's you who did that incredible comparison chart on Logic's compressors some years ago?)

Anyway, I'm demo'ing Solera -- and, yup, instantly increased my dynamic range to competitive with my reference track-- just from a preset -- and without even reading the manual or actually playing with it further. I'll probably try DCompressor solo too, to see if I get the same result.

And very much looking forward to your video. Any idea when it will be up?

Many thanks again!