This disclosure provides methods, devices, and systems for active noise cancellation (ANC). The present implementations more specifically relate to the use of dynamic range compression (DRC) for ANC. In some aspects, an ANC system receives an input audio signal of a transient noise as measured by a microphone, performs DRC on the input audio signal to generate a compressed dynamic range audio signal, and performs ANC on the compressed dynamic range audio signal to generate a cancellation signal associated with the input audio signal. The cancellation signal is based on an adjusted gain of the input audio signal to prevent saturation or large spikes of the cancellation signal, which can cause undesirable audio during playback.