[linux-audio-dev] Paper on dynamic range compression

[David Olofson]

On Tuesday 17 October 2006 16:43, Fons Adriaensen wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 09:59:10AM -0400, Paul Davis wrote:
> > On Tue, 2006-10-17 at 11:56 +0200, Fons Adriaensen wrote:
> > 
> > > 'THE SAMPLES ARE NOT THE SIGNAL'. The real peak level of a
> > > signal when converted to the analog domain can be several
> > > dB above that of the highest sample.
> > 
> > indeed. there are people who are coming to believe that
> > this "error" is responsible for a significant part of the audible
> > difference between digital and analog playback when the levels in
> > the source material are high. 
> 
> It could be. OTOH, most DACs today would upsample and filter before
> the real conversion takes place, and could allow for this. But maybe
> they don't, and just clip at that point.

I would consider that a hardware bug - but you never know... If this 
actually does happen, it would certainly cause a great deal of damage 
with the kind of compression applied to most things these days.


//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate

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