On Sun, Jan 03, 2010 at 08:09:10PM -0500, Tom Metro wrote:
> Compression is reducing the dynamic range such that the difference 
> between the highest volume portions and lowest volume portions is 
> minimized. 

Indeed.

> A common application for it is to make commercials sound louder (and
> presumably more noticeable) by artificially boosting any quiet bits.

That's counter to my experience both with sample work and digital
effects processing for amplified instruments (i.e. electric guitars).
Though I'll reiterate that I'm no expert, the audacity wiki seems to
agree with my expectations:

  http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Compressor

Another source describing guitar effects also seems to agree:

  http://www.gmarts.org/index.php?go=221#Cmp

My assumption is that it's easier to process the signal in this manner
with a lower probability of producing distortion, though I would have
no idea about the technical reasons why that might or might not be
true.

-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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