Terry: there is no controls for balancing L/R. The controls are very simple - almost retro-simple as I mentioned. Each channel has two pairs of unbalanced stereo inputs, all inputs available simulataneously. The only outputs are the L/R XLR outputs on the back so I guess you could record off this.

More about the stereo expander effect - it's a phase control like that found on other devices like "vocal eliminators". By reversing the phase you get an "expand" effect but you tend to lose instruments that are "centered" more than those that are panned. Reverb tends to come out more. But it does have an interesting blending-effect that tends to work a bit like compression.