Development of a Compressor Circuit for an Automatic Sound Desk

The purpose of this project is to design, build and evaluate a compressor circuit that could be controlled manually. Compressor circuit is designed to avoid the output sound signal clipping (distortion). In order to design a system that could prevent the sound signal wave distortion, the definition of sound control desk (channel strip) and compressor circuit had to be researched. To get the best performance from any recording or transmission medium requires that some passages that are close to the maximum permissible level, and that they may momentarily or unpredictably exceed it. In such cases, the danger of frequency distortion is replaced by controlled (and usually less noticeable) distortion of dynamics. After most corrections have been made manually, the few that remain can be ?cleaned up' automatically by a compressor or by its more extreme form, limiter.

Dr.Subramaniam Arunachalam PhD, PGC, BEng (Hons), BSc, Dip(Tech), MIEE, teaches Manufacturing System Engineering and Product Design at the School of Computing, IT and Engineering at the University of East London, UK.