The fidelity of modern music wouldn’t have reached its current heights without the invention, evolution and refinement of dynamic audio processing. This integral component of sound engineering has proven to be one of the key fundamentals that’s allowed us to truly sculpt audio and bend it to our will.
Likely the first true dynamics-processing unit (or compressor) was the Telefunken U3, created in the 1930s to control the dynamics of the PA system at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Engineers soon realised the widespread potential of this new technology, but it wasn’t until the late 1940s through to the ’60s that we saw real progress in these units for more creative purposes.
