Modern dynamics
Get to grips with the latest compression, gating and hitherto uncategorisable dynamics processors with our guide
The fidelity of modern music wouldn’t have reached its current heights without the invention, evolution, implementation, and refinement of dynamic audio processing. This integral component of sound engineering has proven to be one of the key fundamentals that’s allowed us to truly sculpt audio and bend it to our will.
Likely the first true dynamicsprocessing unit (or compressor) was the Telefunken U3, created in the 1930s to control the dynamics of the PA system at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Engineers soon realised the widespread potential of this new technology, but it wasn’t until the late 1940s through to the ’60s that we saw real progress in these units for more creative purposes.
When audio is cut to vinyl, dynamic range is more than just a matter of sound quality. Running a needle through a microscopic groove filled with bumps and ridges is a fragile business. The waveform of the music being literally cut into the disc means that its properties in amplitude and frequency determine the width of any given groove, and therefore how close together grooves can be, and therefore the amount of audio that can be written to a single side of a record. In the analogue domain, audio decisions have ultimate physical consequences. Early dynamics processors worked with these things in mind, until they were adapted for more and more creative ends!