# Dynamics

Dynamics window

The Dynamics effect combines a Limiter, a Compressor, and an Expander in one effect. The Expander section can be used to attenuate background noise, for example.

Attack controls how quickly the Compressor and Limiter respond to loud signals, while Release controls how long it takes to stop attenuating after a loud signal ends. Low Release times can cause distortion at low frequencies.

Gain sets the amount of gain applied after dynamics processing has been completed.

The Transfer Curve on the left shows the effect of the current settings of all Limiter / Compressor / Expander knobs, and the Gain knob. The horizontal axis represents the input, the vertical axis represents the output.

The vertical Gain meter shows the current amount of gain applied by the effect. This value appears in the slot itself as well.

The Level History (top left) shows how much time the input signal spends at each level (the higher the bar, the more time). The Level History will be reset when either the transport is started or the Dynamics window is opened. You can reset it manually by pressing Command-R.