i kind of invented that somehow (or a bit more than somehow.)

one method how to build that and the first one which i was
making in max is actually really simple:

– you build a dynamic gate with a variable breakpoint/treshold.

– it will have two outputs, one releases the part above the treshold and one the part below the treshold.

– now you cascade a few of them in a series. the "above
treshold" part of the first one goes into the second one
and so on.

– now you have split the signal onto several signals according
to their power. when you mix those signals together again you
get the original back. when you change the gain of the
individual channels, you can do any kind of nonlinear, non-
"normal compressor/gate" dynamic curve to your input.

there are other methods but this one is working well enough
for most things.

-110

-

no fast fouriers in 110 land.

simply an average/rms of the input which controls the
weight of output channel 1 via rampsmooth.

you can use the same time values for average and rampsmooth
in order to get nice round curves, but you dont have to.

the output channel 2 is made by (input minus channel 1).

-110

You should also look into the kompressor example in the examples folder a different aproach, but I’d go that way…