Ask Jonah: Clearing Up Misconceptions About Compression

ProSoundWeb: This time out, we’re conquering a trio of common confusions about compression. Even the term can be troublesome. In the context of live sound, compression refers to a type of dynamics processing that acts to reduce the dynamic range of the signal; basically, reduce the difference between the loud parts and the soft parts.

However, in the recording and broadcast segments of the audio industry, there’s an additional type of compression: data rate compression, which deals with reducing the amount of bandwidth or space required to transmit or store a signal (like mp3, for instance). It’s important not to get the two confused, because they’re totally different concepts.