Compressors and Limiters


The compressor is an effect device and is used to limit the dynamic range of a signal. The dynamic course is thus compressed, the volume difference between the quiet and loud passages is reduced. The compressor is used wherever overloading due to sudden jumps in volume is to be avoided, where differences between very quiet and very loud signal components are to be reduced, for example, when editing a single vocal recording in a recording studio to make it more assertive than the instrumental tracks, or where a consistent loudness of different signals to be heard simultaneously or one after the other is required (e.g. at concerts, radio broadcasts or in discotheques). The limiter is an effect device that lowers the output level to a specific value.