Expander enable, Band solo button, Threshold control – Metric Halo Production Bundle User Manual
Page 93: Attack control, Release control, 93 band solo button, 93 threshold control, 93 attack control, 93 release control
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Expander Enable
When this button is off, the expander section will not change the signal.
Band Solo Button
This button (the speaker icon next to the Enable button) allows you to monitor the selected expander's output.
This will allow you to listen one or more bands of compression in isolation. When you are done listening to
the soloed band(s), click this button again to hear Multiband Expander' normal output.
Threshold Control
The “Thresh” knob controls the level at which the expander begins to reduce the gain applied to the signal.
When the detector level is below the threshold level, no gain reduction is applied. As the detector level in-
creases above the threshold level, the gain is reduced as indicated by the knee diagram associated with the
expander. The expander knee is soft. The ratio increases as the difference between the detector level and the
threshold increases.
The expander threshold level is also indicated by the red bar above the gate input meter. You can adjust the
threshold level using this indicator as well as by using the “Thresh” knob.
Attack Control
The “Attack” knob allows you to adjust how quickly the gain reduction is increases when the detector level
goes above the threshold level. This control is calibrated in milliseconds and values range from 0 to 500 ms.
The expander has an 8 sample look-ahead buffer that allows it to have an “instant attack” when you set the
attack time to 0. Fast attack times will control the transients of impulsive sounds. Use longer attack times to
let the transients through but control the sustains.
Release Control
The “Release” knob controls the release time of the expander. This knob is calibrated in milliseconds and can
range from 5 ms to 5 sec. The release time controls how quickly the gain reduction returns to zero after the
detector drops below the threshold value. For settings below 40 ms or so the expander releases pretty abruptly
and may introduce unwanted artifacts into your audio, depending on the signal. In addition, be careful making
the release time faster than the attack time.