Patent ID: 8229125

Claim:
A method of adjusting a dynamic range of an audio system comprising: providing an audio system that includes variable values for at least the following parameters: (i) an output signal dynamic range, (ii) a maximum output signal level, and (iii) a minimum output signal level; receiving a user specified value for at least a first of the parameters; determining a value of a second of the parameters, wherein the determined value of the second parameter is based at least in part on the user-specified value of the first parameter, and applying a gain to an input signal as a function of time to compress the input signal to fit within a value set for the output signal dynamic range parameter, wherein the input signal is divided into a plurality of frequency bands and a gain is applied to the input signal in each frequency band to compress the input signal to fit within an output signal dynamic range set for each frequency band, and wherein the gain applied to each frequency band is adjusted by a negative feedback servo loop wherein the servo loop computes the time average of the gains, scales the time averaged gains, and subtracts the scaled, time averaged gains from the gains applied to each frequency band, to reduce tilt across frequency of the long term average gains of individual frequency bands.