These days if you're cutting a record on digital equipment, it's almost imperative to have some sort of audio compression acting on the signal. Audio compression helps all the dynamic subtleties to be properly boosted as well as maintaining control over fast or sporadic transient spikes. Audio compression can take place at the tracking stage , the mixing stage and then the mastering stage. If valves were used at the tracking stage then indirectly that's even more compression and if analog tape or tape emulation was used then again that's more compression. If the sounds were recorded through a speaker , like a guitar amp , then that's more compression. If it has distortion , then it has a type of compression. If you heard it on radio or television then it has more compression on it . If you heard it online , you most likely heard something compressed...and in different ways.