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A quantitative evaluation of signal masking in summed and compressed audio

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posted on 2023-07-26, 15:00 authored by Rob Toulson, Justin Paterson, William M. Campbell
In music production, it is common practice to apply dynamic-range compression to audio signals. Traditionally, the operator’s attention is drawn to the reduction in dynamic range and the sonic signature imposed by the envelope (settings) of the device, and the resulting distortions are familiar to studio practitioners. However, the non-linear characteristics of compression, combined with the interaction of these signals once summed, are likely to produce less familiar side effects, such as intermodulation distortion, manifesting itself as signal masking and other related artefacts. Comparative quantitative analysis of compressed simple and compound signal structures shows the products of this distortion to be realignment of harmonic structure, reduction of spectral and temporal clarity, and rearrangement of dynamic variances related to the rhythmic structure of musical signals. Although the rearrangement of the dynamic variances is expected (in that the variances are reduced), what is less expected is the extent to which amplitudes of certain individual components of summed signals are attenuated, effectively precipitating signal masking. This research shows that decreasing the number of signals interacting with each other whilst applying an equivalent amount of compression can reduce the intermodulation distortion and therefore improve the overall signal quality of commercial music.

History

Refereed

  • Yes

Page range

20-31

Number of pages

272

Publisher

Future Technology Press

Place of publication

Shoreham-by-Sea, UK

Title of book

Innovation In Music: 2013

ISBN

9780956151681

Editors

Russ Hepworth-Sawyer, Jay Hodgson, Justin Paterson, Rob Toulson

Language

  • other

Legacy posted date

2020-05-14

Legacy Faculty/School/Department

ARCHIVED Faculty of Arts, Law & Social Sciences (until September 2018)

Note

A COPY IS AVAILABLE AT: https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/q17v0/a-quantitative-evaluation-of-signal-masking-in-summed-and-compressed-audio

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