CJ: Totally agreed on the Ren EQ. Seems to leave a flattering ambience on a lot of tracks.

ORIGINAL: j boy

It's very common to use an expander on hi-hats. Acts like a gate but doesn't cut off just emphasizes the transient and main body and minimizes the sustain If you check out the first two songs on my Soundclick page I used the Sonalksis Gate in expander mode for the hi-hat.

Hey J.D., Thanks. Thats a great explanation and example. Hey, I like that Shady Grove tune. (check your email)!
~Mega

RE:  This is a response to John who mentioned DBX in relation to compressors / decompressors !
 
I have been looking for a replacement for my DBX 3BX and Pioneer EX-9000
 
    I recently found IQ4GUI.  However I'm not a professional and am confused in how to set it up to perform these functions.
How to divide the spectrum into 3 different sections of the audio spectrum, eludes me.  How would you know the cross over
points?  How do you determine the upper and lower limits of each section?  Is upward expansion the same as DBX's peak
recovery ?
 
It appears that these two units did down-ward expansion and upward-expansion at the same time  ?  This also is quite
confusing as it appears there would be a need for upward and downward controls for each of the 3 portions of the audio
frequency ranges.
 
Where would I start with my settings?  Is there another vst plug-in that is already designed for these functions ?
 
If you can help me, please let me know as I'm not an engineer, just some one who has collected close to 70 years of music
and would like to put it on to CD's.

This thread is way to old, most of these members are no longer around. Start a new thread  and in the version you are using ( X1 or 8.5 ) Every thing has changed a lot from 2008 so you'll get a better answer by starting a new thread. 

But my 2 cent's is you are better off using a wave editing program for CD transfers as most action will be way easier for you. Sonar is a multi track recorder and has almost no wave editing features. 

Use Wave Lab, Audacity or sound forge or ? 
With wave lab I use a Loudness Maximizer to crank up low level tracks ( after Normalizing) Takes 10 sec. 
Also these programs will separate tracks automatically allowing you to transfer unattended. Huge time saver.