Worth Using Expanders In Post?

[Goldmond]

Anybody found using expanders in post particularly helpful? I'm Mixing down the audio of a project and have been trying stick an expander on the dialogue to help bring it up from the noise floor. Anyone had good success with that? I'm finding it a bit challenging. If so did it work better before or after the compressor?

 

[Humanwire]

I've found using an expander helpful in removing some of the room reverb in production dialogue, but other than that I don't use an expander very often.

 

[Brad S.]

Expanders can be very useful in dialog mixing as part of the noise reduction process. It works best when used sparingly with only about eight dB of reduction at the most. The expander needs an extremely fast attack and a fast decay as well. I think it also works best when used on individual channels rather than strapped across the dialog buss.