DSP Compressor: Sidechain, Exponential Atk/Rls

This is an improvement to the current compressor which I have added
to my own Sansa Fuze V2 build.  I am submitting here in case others
find it interesting.

Features added to the existing compressor:
Attack, Look-ahead, Sidechain Filtering.
Exponential attack and release characteristic response.

Benefits from adding missing features:
Attack:
Preserve perceived "brightness" of tone by letting onset transients
come through at a higher level than the rest of the compressed program
material.

Look-ahead:
With Attack comes clipping on the leading several cycles of a transient
onset.  With look-ahead function, this can be pre-emptively mitigated with
a slower gain change (less distortion).  Look-ahead limiting is implemented
to prevent clipping while keeping gain change ramp to an interval near 3ms
instead of instant attack.

The existing compressor implementation distorts the leading edge of a
transient by causing instant gain change, resulting in log() distortion.
This sounds "woofy" to me.

Exponential Attack/Release:
eMore natural sounding.  On attack, this is a true straight line of 10dB per
attack interval.  Release is a little different, however, sounds natural as
an analog compressor.

Sidechain Filtering:
Mild high-pass filter reduces response to low frequency onsets.  For example,
a hard kick drum is less likely to make the whole of the program material
appear to fade in and out.  Combined with a moderate attack time, such a
transient will ride through with minimal audible artifact.

Overall these changes make dynamic music sound more "open", more natural.  The
goal of a compressor is to make dyanamic music sound louder without necessarily
sounding as though it has been compressed.  I believe these changes come closer to this goal.

Enjoy.  If not, I am enjoying it

Change-Id: I664eace546c364b815b4dc9ed4a72849231a0eb2
Reviewed-on: http://gerrit.rockbox.org/626
Tested: Purling Nayuki <cyq.yzfl@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Michael Giacomelli <giac2000@hotmail.com>

1 files changed, 17 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/apps/lang/english.lang b/apps/lang/english.lang
index d0dc5c5fc4..dcad532f7a 100644
--- a/apps/lang/english.lang
+++ b/apps/lang/english.lang
@@ -11911,6 +11911,23 @@
   </voice>
 </phrase>
 <phrase>
+  id: LANG_COMPRESSOR_ATTACK
+  desc: in sound settings
+  user: core
+  <source>
+    *: none
+    swcodec: "Attack Time"
+  </source>
+  <dest>
+    *: none
+    swcodec: "Attack Time"
+  </dest>
+  <voice>
+    *: none
+    swcodec: "Attack Time"
+  </voice>
+</phrase>
+<phrase>
   id: LANG_COMPRESSOR_RELEASE
   desc: in sound settings
   user: core