Expander (Native)

Parameters

Threshold — Level (in dB) below which expansion starts attenuating the signal. Signal above threshold passes through unchanged; signal below gets reduced — opposite of compression. Set the threshold just above the noise floor or background bleed you want pushed down, but below the program material you want to preserve.

Ratio — How aggressively signal below threshold is attenuated. 2:1 reduces signal at 2 dB for every 1 dB it falls below threshold — gentle, suited to taming room tone on vocals or drum mics. Higher ratios (5:1 to 10:1) act more like a soft gate. For full muting use the Gate node instead.

Attack — How fast the expander recovers (returns to unity) when signal crosses above the threshold, in ms. Fast attack (1–5 ms) catches the start of words or hits cleanly; slow attack (10–30 ms) can swallow the leading edge of transients, useful when you want to soften attacks rather than preserve them.

Release — How fast the expander clamps down (attenuates) when signal falls below the threshold, in ms. Fast release tightens the gating effect; slow release fades the signal away more naturally. Long releases (200–500 ms) sound like a gentle “pull-down” rather than a gate.

Range — Maximum attenuation in dB applied below threshold, −80 to 0. Acts as a floor — even at the deepest expansion the signal drops by no more than this. Use shallow ranges (−10 to −20 dB) for transparent leveling that pushes background noise down without making it disappear; use deep ranges (−40 to −80 dB) for near-gate behavior.

Knee — Soft-knee transition width around the threshold, 0–12 dB. Hard knee (0) — expansion engages abruptly at threshold. Soft knee (6+ dB) gradually engages, smoother and more transparent. Hard knee suits aggressive cleanup; soft knee suits subtle ambience reduction.

Sidechain Hpf — Highpass filter on the detection signal, 20–500 Hz. Prevents low-frequency rumble from being misread as program material — useful when expanding drum overheads or vocals where you want the expander to ignore HVAC rumble or stage thump and only respond to the real signal.

Dry/Wet — Equal-power blend between dry (0) and the expanded signal (1). Default 0.5 enables parallel-style use: keep the original signal forward while the expander pushes the noise floor down underneath. Node-specific — the FX-slot version handles wet/dry at the mixer.

Additional controls

Detection Mode — How the expander measures input level. Peak — instantaneous peak detection, fast and surgical. RMS — short-window average, slower and more program-aware. RMS is generally more musical for vocals and busses; Peak for percussion and surgical noise reduction.

Stereo Link — Channel detection mode. Dual — each channel independent (can shift the stereo image). Link — both channels follow combined detection (preserves image, most common). Choose Dual for asymmetric noise sources, Link for stereo program material.

About Expander (Native)

Expansion is the gentler cousin of gating. A gate is binary — open or closed. An expander reduces gain gradually below threshold, controlled by ratio and range. Use the expander when you want to push down room tone, breath noise, or bleed without the abrupt on/off of a gate; use the Gate node when you actually want silence.

Generated 2026-05-05 from K2K_Dev@96730bdc by scripts/gen_lexique.py. Edit _intros/ or _overrides/, not this file.