The Science of Sound Recording

CHAPTER SEVEN

Analog Signal Processing

Contents

Impedance Matching

Shielding

The Balanced Line

Grounding

Linear Amplifiers

Nonlinear Amplifiers

Dynamic Range Processors

Equalizers

Mixing Consoles

Suggested Reading

Amplifiers are the basic building blocks of analog signal processing devices. The narrow definition of amplifier is a “device that allows signals to be increased, either by increasing the voltage, the current, or both.” More generally, though, amplifiers are the active electronic circuits that allow us to perform most of what we consider audio processing. In addition to simply combining and managing the amplitude of audio signals, there are special function amplifiers that offer the ability to selectively operate on separate frequency ...