db volume scaling

[Tim Blechmann]

>> still, a few questions:
>> - when i want to reduce the volume by 6 db in the decibel scale, how
>> much do i have to reduce the volume in amarok's percent scale?
>> - when setup A is 10 db louder than setup B (setup A may be the studio,
>> setup B the living room). how much do i have to increase the volume in
>> amarok's percent scale to get the same sound pressure level, if my
>> default playback volume is (a) 20% or (b) 50%?
> 
> Have you ever found yourself in the situation that you actually needed
> to ask those questions?
> What one cares about for Amarok is: Is this too loud? Yes. -> Make it
> less loud!" or "Is this not loud enough? Yes. -> Make it louder!"
> (Amarok is not a DJ application, mixer or the like.)

for question one, yes. i know, how it sounds, when i change the volume
by a certain amount of decibel.
when i want to make it a bit louder, i increase the volume by 2 or 3 db,
if i have a high volume and want to reduce it a lot, i reduce it by 20
db ... no matter, if i am currently listening at -6, -12 or -20 db ...

question two was more a rhetorical question to show, that amarok's
percent scale does not work well for a quantitative description of volume.

to summarize the discussion a bit ...

pro percent:
- people understand percentage easier and are not confused by negative
numbers
- jeff dislikes logarithmic sliders

pro decibel:
- commonly used to represent volume in audio hardware and software, both
 for controls and analysis, so people may be familiar with it
- well-defined scale (i.e. conversion db to amplitude factor)
- logarithmic scales matches the dynamic range of the human ear
- tim dislikes percent sliders

cheers, tim

-- 
tim at klingt.org
http://tim.klingt.org

After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say
"I want to see the manager."
  William S. Burroughs

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