Expanders-- when/why/what do they do?

[Waylo]

Hey peeps,
Just realized that I'm not really clear on when you'd use an expander plugin. (and no not the Xpander... )

I have one on my vocal preamp, and it pretty much acts as a noise gate for when i'm recording in my apartment.

What does an expander do? When would you use it? Any best practices?

thanks!

[admin]

Expanders work like a sort of backwards compressor, or like you mentioned gate. The idea is to increase the ratio of the dynamics instead of reducing.

I think generally they are good for stuff that's been really squashed that you want to put some life back into it. I've only used them very rarely on cases where I needed to repair an over compressed track.

Have also used them a few times to get a cool feel on hihat patterns as you can get a good pumpy sound when set right.