the whole loudness thing is actually more complicated than you might expect. loudness itself is actually a psychoacoustic phenomenon that has no objective measurement. there is not even scientific agreement on whether a -6 dB or -10 dB drop in signal level corresponds to an experience of half the loudness.
on the other hand, sound intensity and sound pressure levels are objectively measurable.
also, a decibel is not actually a measurement of any kind, it expresses the ratio between two measurements. in the case of human hearing, decibels are used because the range of human hearing is very large, and non-linear. using decibels transforms things so that we end up with a more compact and easily interpretable scale to use.
this page covers all the above in much more detail (the translation from German is a bit patchy in places though):
http://www.sengpielaudio.com/TableOfSou ... Levels.htm
Help on ableton meters...
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five_magics
- Posts: 37
- Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 8:31 pm
Re: Help on ableton meters...
Awsome article. Thanks.fishmonkey wrote:the whole loudness thing is actually more complicated than you might expect. loudness itself is actually a psychoacoustic phenomenon that has no objective measurement. there is not even scientific agreement on whether a -6 dB or -10 dB drop in signal level corresponds to an experience of half the loudness.
on the other hand, sound intensity and sound pressure levels are objectively measurable.
also, a decibel is not actually a measurement of any kind, it expresses the ratio between two measurements. in the case of human hearing, decibels are used because the range of human hearing is very large, and non-linear. using decibels transforms things so that we end up with a more compact and easily interpretable scale to use.
this page covers all the above in much more detail (the translation from German is a bit patchy in places though):
http://www.sengpielaudio.com/TableOfSou ... Levels.htm