Professor Alex Case of the University of Massachusetts Lowell entertains and informs The Pennsylvania State University's AES Student Chapter all about dynamic range compression. Meeting Date: Friday March 27, 2009
Penn State's Audio Engineering Society Student Chapter was pleased to host Alex Case as the 2009 Distinguished Lecturer in Audio Engineering. Case, a Sound Recording Technology professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, spoke about dynamic range compression and how audio engineers use (and sometimes misuse) it as a tool. An audience of undergraduate students, graduate students, and professors gained an understanding of the fundamentals of compression as an audio effect and when to use it. In particular, Professor Case addressed how to manipulate the obtuse compression parameters (ratio, threshold, attack and release) in order to achieve desired results. Audio examples of compression "in action" were taken from Case's work recording the band Who's The Fat Guy? (presented with and without compression) and were a key feature of the talk. Professor Case's presentation was especially illuminating on the subject of the ongoing "loudness war" in which the audio industry uses compression to increase perceived loudness at the cost of reducing dynamic range. Overall, Case gave a fantastic lecture that was both immensely entertaining and extremely informative. Thank you Alex!
