Decibels are just a number expressed as a multiplier, so, in audio terms, 20dB means "100-times-louder-than". -20dB means "100-times-quiter-than".
For instance a signal to noise figure of -60dB means "The noise is 1 million times quieter than the signal". Remember 60dB is 6B and 0ne million has 6 noughts in it.
Choppy audio cut out at frustrating times as I tried intently to learn something that, actually, isn't explained in layman's terms anywhere I could readily find on Google (the first 2 pages). So it's worth it. I don't get why decibels are expressed in a negative integer though. That's what sent me on my search to begin with. Is there a + decibel?
@acousticcarnival The reason for negative decibels is purely for expression in exponents, if you take the range of human hearing from the quitest sound to the loudest sound before ear damage occure would be 10,000,000.000.000 Therefore it would take lots of pages to do calculations. Its much simpler writing in exponents eg. 10 to the power of minus 16 watts per squared centimeter is the threshold of human hearing, while 10 to the power of minus 4 is where ear damage starts.
Decibels are just a number expressed as a multiplier, so, in audio terms, 20dB means "100-times-louder-than". -20dB means "100-times-quiter-than".
For instance a signal to noise figure of -60dB means "The noise is 1 million times quieter than the signal". Remember 60dB is 6B and 0ne million has 6 noughts in it.
SolwiseMD 3 months ago
Choppy audio cut out at frustrating times as I tried intently to learn something that, actually, isn't explained in layman's terms anywhere I could readily find on Google (the first 2 pages). So it's worth it. I don't get why decibels are expressed in a negative integer though. That's what sent me on my search to begin with. Is there a + decibel?
acousticcarnival 7 months ago
@acousticcarnival The reason for negative decibels is purely for expression in exponents, if you take the range of human hearing from the quitest sound to the loudest sound before ear damage occure would be 10,000,000.000.000 Therefore it would take lots of pages to do calculations. Its much simpler writing in exponents eg. 10 to the power of minus 16 watts per squared centimeter is the threshold of human hearing, while 10 to the power of minus 4 is where ear damage starts.
APNAudiophile 5 months ago
Very informative
pawns17 8 months ago
Theres a certain irony for all the audio recording problems in this video - Still very informative
TotalComposure 10 months ago