Dynamic Compression and Harmonic Distortion

[RayDunzl]

So you got your new DAC and Hypex Amps with 0.00001% distortion numbers...

What about that new tune you were anxious to hear in all its glory?

Here's a short article that shows some distortion measurements when a sine is compressed.

From: http://theproaudiofiles.com/how-compression-affects-harmonic-distortion/

Spectrum of 80Hz sine, after dynamic compression.

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I suppose this is a 'simple case'. Are there advanced compressors that mitigate these effects?

 

[Ethan Winer]

Volume compression can increase distortion, even in theory (not from using toobs and transformers etc.), but it depends on the attack and release times. If those are too short the volume changes start to follow each individual cycle. That article seems to confirm this, so it's not new information.

I made an 80 Hz sine wave and compressed it 10 dB (software compressor) with an attack time of 1 ms and a release time of 200 ms. You can see that the added harmonics are much softer than when the times are faster.

--Ethan

 

[RayDunzl]

Far be it from me to be smart/dumb enough to come up with something new. But I'm definitely not educated enough to not know something old.

Thank you for the input.

 

[tomelex]

Keep up the technical posts, it all helps here, be thirsty my friend.....

 

[amirm]

Good stuff. Will copy to the library .

All limiters create nonlinearities so by definition you get harmonic distortion.