Digital automatic level control system

A digital automatic level control system employs delay elements, which enable information about a signal parameter from the past, present and future to be processed to provide an optimal gain that can be used to level rapidly varying signals, such as bursty signals. As digital time samples of a signal are passed through first and second buffers, first and second accumulators maintain running sums that are related to the sum of the samples presently in the first and second buffers, respectively. The sums in the first and second accumulators represent information about the signal parameter for the future and the past, respectively. By choosing the maximum of these two values, the system can anticipate the beginning of a signal burst, and still have enough delay to compensate the end of a signal burst. In one embodiment of the invention, multiple channel signals can be leveled, either individually or in groups.