08-09-2015, 05:16 PM
In a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), we use a scale from 0 at the peak and below. 0 is how far from clipping the audio volume is. Clipping is when the audio exceeds the ability of the file or device to reproduce it fully, and audio data is lost.
Beyond 0, you typically have things so loud that it causes speaker distortion. That's pretty durned loud.
The thermometer scale is measuring decibels, not decibels-to-peak. I am using the decibels-to-peak notation. If -32 was charted on the scale the thermometer graphic is using, it would be so quiet that it would go below the threshold of reproduction; speakers wouldn't be able to generate a sound that quiet, and you surely could not hear it at all. It would not affect your ears, and would be useless.
On the scale I am using, -32 dB is pretty loud. It's loud enough that if I play a song on my cell phone at that volume, it is too loud to listen to comfortably without being annoying. It is loud enough that I can play a song at that volume with my cell phone on my desk, and it would be audible to me in my neighbor's office 30 feet away. It's loud, but not ridiculously loud. Aside from that I would say it is approximately in the range of loud speech. It's plenty.
Beyond 0, you typically have things so loud that it causes speaker distortion. That's pretty durned loud.
The thermometer scale is measuring decibels, not decibels-to-peak. I am using the decibels-to-peak notation. If -32 was charted on the scale the thermometer graphic is using, it would be so quiet that it would go below the threshold of reproduction; speakers wouldn't be able to generate a sound that quiet, and you surely could not hear it at all. It would not affect your ears, and would be useless.
On the scale I am using, -32 dB is pretty loud. It's loud enough that if I play a song on my cell phone at that volume, it is too loud to listen to comfortably without being annoying. It is loud enough that I can play a song at that volume with my cell phone on my desk, and it would be audible to me in my neighbor's office 30 feet away. It's loud, but not ridiculously loud. Aside from that I would say it is approximately in the range of loud speech. It's plenty.
Subliminal Audio Specialist & Administrator
The scientist has a question to find an answer for. The pseudo-scientist has an answer to find a question for. ~ "Failure is the path of least persistence." - Chinese Fortune Cookie ~ Logic left. Emotion right. But thinking, straight ahead. ~ Sperate supra omnia in valorem. (The value of trust is above all else.) ~ Meowsomeness!
The scientist has a question to find an answer for. The pseudo-scientist has an answer to find a question for. ~ "Failure is the path of least persistence." - Chinese Fortune Cookie ~ Logic left. Emotion right. But thinking, straight ahead. ~ Sperate supra omnia in valorem. (The value of trust is above all else.) ~ Meowsomeness!
