What’s an Audio Compressor?

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An audio compressor can be a piece of software or hardware that takes a digital audio signal and applies an algorithm to the data to reduce the size of the signal for both storage and transmission. The term “audio compressor” also describes the hardware or software used to modify audio channels to remove or normalize frequencies outside a defined threshold, usually to improve perceived sound quality. When describing data compression, an audio compressor can compress digital data into a lossless format, so that all audio data is kept intact, or into a lossy format, so some data is modified or removed to increase the efficiency of the compression algorithm. Almost all digitally transmitted audio data uses some type of compression, leading to the development of hardware dedicated to real-time audio compression. Similarly, many forms of digital audio recording, such as a compact disc (CD) or the audio on a digital video disc (DVD), use compression to save space and allow more information to be stored.

There are a number of common algorithms that are regularly used to compress different types of digital data. Audio signals, however, are very erratic and don’t benefit from traditional compression in the same way as an image or other data. Instead, an audio compressor may choose to create very large files that have a minimal compression ratio, or they may be designed to modify the audio data to make it more suitable for compression, even if this will result in lossy compression where some elements of the original signal will be changed or lost.

One way an audio compressor can prepare audio data for compression is to remove sonic elements whose presence is not necessarily identifiable in the first place. This includes frequencies that are outside the range of human hearing and sounds that generate data but are actually masked by louder sounds in the same amount of time. Also, an audio compressor will sometimes attempt to modify fast changes in a signal to be smoother, smoother, or more predictable. All of these methods allow you to use different compression techniques to ensure that an audio file or signal achieves a good amount of compression and still maintains acceptable quality.

When music is being recorded or edited, an audio compressor can be hardware or software that helps smooth out the sound of an audio channel or track. This software will eventually make soft noises seem louder and anomalous peaks seem weaker. The channel compressor can also simply remove these peaks from an audio channel, increasing the perceived sharpness of the remaining sounds.

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