eli5: how do compresors work? Audio related.
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A compressor reduces the dynamic range of an audio signal (reduces the peak to peak amplitude), which allows for a much higher average signal level without clipping / distorting the peaks.
Compression is why when you are watching TV, the ads tend to seem so much louder than your program material. The peaks are at the same level, but the average level of the ad is much higher. The tradeoff is in fidelity and loss of realism. In the ad, the difference in volume between a whisper and a hurricane is minimal. In a high quality recording, the average level has to be significantly lower in order to have sufficient headroom to accurately reproduce the extreme peaks when they occur.
Proper application of compression tames the most extreme peaks in a signal so that they can be reproduced without distortion while maintaining a reasonable average signal level.
The so-called “loudness wars” in recording describe a trend of increasing use of compression in order to record tracks at hotter signal levels, but with a consequent loss of emotion, realism, and dynamics.
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