In this week's Friday Free Plug-in, we are featuring the second of two plug-ins from HoRNet, their CompExp plug-in.
HoRNet CompExp is a compressor expander based on the design of a commander chip designed for telephone lines and used in many electronic devices to reduce the noise.
The chip works with a fixed threshold and HoRNet has set the plug-in internally set to -18dBFS, when the “amount” knob is at a value greater than 1 the gain is increased by the specified factor. If the signal is below the threshold and decreased if above. If the chip is set to work as an expander, the contrary happens, the gain is increased if above the threshold and decreased if below.
The system is designed for dynamic compression on telephone lines and compressor and expander are used together in this configuration, but HoRNet has found that these models sound interesting by themselves.
Internally the gain is compensated so that the output is always kept to around -18dB RMS
Features
- Compression and expansion
- Fixed ratio and gain compensation
- Attack and release times
- Mac OS X (>=10.5 Intel only) and Windows support.
- 64-bit compatibility both on Mac and Windows.
- Audio Units AAX, RTAS, VST2.4 and VST3 format.
How Do I Get This Plug-in?
If you go to the HoRNet CompExp page you will see that the Download button is blocked with a floating window. To get this free plug-in you will need to share it on social media. When I originally tried there was also a Google+ option, but it didn't seem to work. So I reached out to HoRNet and Saverio came back to me apologising that the Wordpress plug-in he uses doesn't work with Google+ anymore, so you see that you only have Twitter and Facebook options available. Once you have shared the news the Download button will become accessible and you will be able to download the installer.