Salvador Tercero
Last January 25, as part of the monthly program of meetings that the AES México Section organizes, Salvador Tercero, Principal of Sala de Audio, gave a lecture on Dynamic Range and Compression at the Salon Blanco of the Lunario in Mexico City. He talked about the nature of sound and how we should understand sound as the fusion of two things: the effect that vibrating particles in the transmission media produces on the auditory system and the result of communicating a message. There's no sound without a brain. He mentioned the characteristics of sound waves and how the human brain interprets the frequency of a wave as the pitch or tone of a sound and its amplitude as intensity or sound pressure level.
Salvador also talked about how we measure pressure in Pascals and how we refer to sound pressure level using a simplified scale proportional to the way our brain interprets sound intensity: decibels. He explained dynamic range from its origins in the world of sound and how it translates to electronics in audio and also digitally.
Finally he pointed out that compressors are processors that reduce the dynamic range of a signal and their main characteristics: threshold, ratio, makeup gain and attack and release. The meeting was a success with a full house in a friendly and interesting manner and Salvador encouraged interruptions with questions from the audience.
