An audio leveler performs an audio process similar to

compression Compression may refer to: Physical science *Compression (physics), size reduction due to forces *Compression member, a structural element such as a column *Compressibility, susceptibility to compression * Gas compression *Compression ratio, of a ...

, which is used to reduce the

dynamic range Dynamics (from Greek δυναμικός ''dynamikos'' "powerful", from δύναμις ''dynamis'' " power") or dynamic may refer to: Physics and engineering * Dynamics (mechanics), the study of forces and their effect on motion Brands and ent ...

of a signal, so that the quietest portion of the signal is loud enough to hear and the loudest portion is not too loud. Levelers work especially well with vocals, as there are huge dynamic differences in the

human voice The human voice consists of sound Voice production, made by a human being using the vocal tract, including Speech, talking, singing, Laughter, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically ...

and levelers work in such a way as to sound very natural, letting the character of the sound change with the different levels but still maintaining a predictable and usable dynamic range. A leveler is different from a compressor in that the ratio and threshold are controlled with a single control. Levelers sometimes feature only an overall gain and peak level control (aka normalization control) on particular models to more accurately and subtly manage peak volume.

External links

TLA-100 Tube Levelling Amplifier
by Summit Audio Signal processing {{Signal-processing-stub