Dial In The Quiet With Downward Expansion & Upward Compression

Dynamic processing isn’t all about managing peaks, or making only the most prominent parts of your audio stand out. There’s plenty of information in the quieter parts of your source material that add character and feeling. Things like vocal breaths, fret noise and ghost notes — those elements in your audio that bring the vibe. 

Since Open Compressor was designed to be an all-in-one dynamics processing tool, it has comprehensive control over the peak levels, but the low-level parts of the sound, too. It also has comprehensive tone control, advanced visualizers and much more.

Open Compressor's Low Level knob

On the right side of the Open Compressor window, is the the blue Low Level knob. With its neutral position in the center, you turn the it to the right to 'upward compress' your audio, and increase the low level details. Turn it to the left to apply 'downward expansion', and decrease the low-level information. 

Downward Expansion makes quiet sounds quieter. (Turn Low Level counter-clockwise.)
Upward Compression makes quiet sounds louder. (Turn Low Level clockwise.)

The Low Level control is really useful on vocals and acoustic instruments to emphasize the tail-offs that add emotion; or suppress the noise between your words or phrases to make your takes super clean and focussed.

Open Compressor’s mission is to give you comprehensive control over your sound, and Low Level control is just one of the ways it does this. Try it for free here.