Back in the 70's and 80's, they were all the rage. Granted, we mostly had LPs, so limited to about 60 dB dynamic range. We now have CDs with closer to realistic, but a lot of them are still compressed and a lot of mine are old taken from compressed masters.
Now, in the days of a 3BX or even my old Phase 1000, they were not exactly distortion free. Quite the contrary. But might this concept still be viable? Did they go away like tone controls because it was the "purity" fad? ( I still have and USE my tone controls)
I know in my suite of tools from my IO box, compressors are still common and critical to recording, but I have not noticed any expanders.
Now, in the days of a 3BX or even my old Phase 1000, they were not exactly distortion free. Quite the contrary. But might this concept still be viable? Did they go away like tone controls because it was the "purity" fad? ( I still have and USE my tone controls)
I know in my suite of tools from my IO box, compressors are still common and critical to recording, but I have not noticed any expanders.