Evaluating harmonic and intermodulation distortion of mixed signals processed with dynamic range compression

Dynamic range compression of simple signals results in harmonic nonlinear distortion. However, for summed signals, predominantly inharmonic intermodulation distortion (IMD) is generated. This research compares the methods of compressing signals prior to and after summation in order to identify approaches to reduce the level of IMD. Results show that lower IMD values are achieved by applying compression prior to summation.