There is a big discrepancy between the dynamic range of a live performance and the dynamic range that can be reproduced by ordinary playback equipment. This is particularly the case with orchestral music, both ‘big band’ and classical. We can address this problem by artificially reducing the dynamic range of the signal, or, as it is picturesquely termed, ‘compressing’ the music. The device that does this job is called a dynamics processor, and it can be configured so that the compression characteristics are easily reproducible.