DxL Compander is a dedicated software app for adjusting audio dynamic range. It can be used as an additional post-expender after digitization of analog tapes, LPs and radio broadcasts that came with previous compressed mastering; or a pre-compressor before transmitting digital audio to analog tapes or radio broadcasts in order to avoid unmanaged compression. It can also be used for enhancing the dynamics of digital audio in a dbx-like manner.
Technically, the underlaying companding principle is linear-decibel, which is a digital equivalent of typical dbx linear-mode compander, but essentially differs from those more popular dbx-I/II/Disc Noise Reduction systems. It does not apply any frequency pre-/post-emphasis and therefore does not require complementary/symmetric encoding and decoding on both ends of the audio chain. Its a single-end commander. The software features continuous adjustable companding rate (up to 5:1), continuous adjustable threshold level, selectable RMS/Average level detector and adjustable capacitive attack/decay characteristics.
DxL Compander is a stand-alone GUI app without relying on any other DAW host. It can work in one of the following four modes:
- Audio-In to File (a digitizer/recorder).
- File to Audio-Out (a player).
- File to File (an off-line processor, with batch capability).
- Audio-In to Audio-Out (a through processor, with slight delay).
Currently supported audio file formats are:
WAV, FLAC, AIFF: up to 96k/24bit.
MP3, AAC, M4A: up to 48k/VBRS.
* Excluding some proprietary variants having the common file extensions, or additional format-normalization may be required.
