Expander Plug-in? -Sound Forge - PC - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:Expander Plug-in? Posted by: porkjelly Date:8/29/2005 6:12:37 AM Anyone know of a plug-in that will undo the compression found in almost all of today's recordings, preferrably a plug-in with several de-compression pre-sets?
Subject:RE: Expander Plug-in? Reply by: rraud Date:8/29/2005 8:08:11 PM Once a file is compressed... or I should say peak-limit-clippered in todays max. volume insanity, there's not not much you can do. You could try using the Graphic Dynamics, using a "reverse" curve.. as an experment, but it woun't help much.
Subject:RE: Expander Plug-in? Reply by: jumbuk Date:8/29/2005 10:26:17 PM First comment: as compression reduces information, you can't completely remove the effects of compression by expansion. If the compression is so extreme as to be limiting, then obviously there is no information about the original levels to be expanded. However, I have had some success with mild expansion. You can't use the Sony plug-ins, because none of them have a ratio that goes below 1. I use the Waves C1 with the expander/gate option. This might be a bit expensive for occasional use. Check out K-v-r for some free or cheap plug-ins. The most difficult thing is to find the threshold that exactly matches the setting that was used to compress in the first place. As always, experiment and use your ears. I found this really useful when mastering an album recently. We wanted to use a live recording as one of the tracks, but it had been compressed heavily for a radio release. We couldn't get the original recording. A bit of expanison, plus some EQ and ambience, and we had something quite useful.
Subject:RE: Expander Plug-in? Reply by: porkjelly Date:8/30/2005 11:18:11 AM I have tried to use Sony's Graphic Dynamics with some half-decent results, although I wish the plug-in had the ability to right-click and enter specific numerical values, as well as automated curves between points. I have seen other plug-ins do this similarily. Unfortunately, I have become so displeased with the way today's music is mixed and mastered--specifically, overcompression to the point that the music loses it's dynamic range--it's almost an obsession to attempt to de-compressed (to some level or degree) all the new music I purchase today using Sound Forge. So my quest for a better Expander continues, and I will definitely look into the suggestions given to me here. Thanks, guys.
Subject:RE: Expander Plug-in? Reply by: jumbuk Date:8/30/2005 5:43:22 PM Hmmm ... I was wrong about the Sony plug-ins - you can of course use the graphic dynamics to get a ratio under 1.0 (even though the sldier control doesn't go below 1.0). In that case, you probably can't do much better with anything else. You could download the documentation for Waves C1 for free from their site. It contains some really useful discussion, particularly the description of the library presets.

Subject:Expander Plug-in?

Posted by: porkjelly

Date:8/29/2005 6:12:37 AM

Anyone know of a plug-in that will undo the compression found in almost all of today's recordings, preferrably a plug-in with several de-compression pre-sets?

Subject:RE: Expander Plug-in?

Reply by: rraud

Date:8/29/2005 8:08:11 PM

Once a file is compressed... or I should say peak-limit-clippered in todays max. volume insanity, there's not not much you can do.

You could try using the Graphic Dynamics, using a "reverse" curve.. as an experment, but it woun't help much.

Subject:RE: Expander Plug-in?

Reply by: jumbuk

Date:8/29/2005 10:26:17 PM

First comment: as compression reduces information, you can't completely remove the effects of compression by expansion. If the compression is so extreme as to be limiting, then obviously there is no information about the original levels to be expanded.

However, I have had some success with mild expansion. You can't use the Sony plug-ins, because none of them have a ratio that goes below 1. I use the Waves C1 with the expander/gate option. This might be a bit expensive for occasional use. Check out K-v-r for some free or cheap plug-ins.

The most difficult thing is to find the threshold that exactly matches the setting that was used to compress in the first place. As always, experiment and use your ears.

I found this really useful when mastering an album recently. We wanted to use a live recording as one of the tracks, but it had been compressed heavily for a radio release. We couldn't get the original recording. A bit of expanison, plus some EQ and ambience, and we had something quite useful.

Subject:RE: Expander Plug-in?

Reply by: porkjelly

Date:8/30/2005 11:18:11 AM

I have tried to use Sony's Graphic Dynamics with some half-decent results, although I wish the plug-in had the ability to right-click and enter specific numerical values, as well as automated curves between points. I have seen other plug-ins do this similarily. Unfortunately, I have become so displeased with the way today's music is mixed and mastered--specifically, overcompression to the point that the music loses it's dynamic range--it's almost an obsession to attempt to de-compressed (to some level or degree) all the new music I purchase today using Sound Forge. So my quest for a better Expander continues, and I will definitely look into the suggestions given to me here. Thanks, guys.

Subject:RE: Expander Plug-in?

Reply by: jumbuk

Date:8/30/2005 5:43:22 PM

Hmmm ... I was wrong about the Sony plug-ins - you can of course use the graphic dynamics to get a ratio under 1.0 (even though the sldier control doesn't go below 1.0). In that case, you probably can't do much better with anything else.

You could download the documentation for Waves C1 for free from their site. It contains some really useful discussion, particularly the description of the library presets.