db volume scaling

[Tim Blechmann]

>> hifi amplifiers are not geared towards professionals, either ... still
>> they use a logarithmic scaling and decibel units
> 
> No, but they're geared towards the more discerning customer, who wants
> to feel like they have professional equipment, even if they don't.

please differentiate between _scale_ and _unit_.

> But the majority of people are not used to controlling volume on a log
> scale.  Cars don't use it.  Portable media players don't use it.  Most
> computer software doesn't use it.  Etc.

please differentiate between _scale_ and _unit_.

> The leap I've been hoping you'd make -- but I'll just give you a more
> purposeful shove in that direction  :-) -- is that while changing the
> text of Amarok to show the user decibel values is not going to be a good
> change for the vast majority of our users, changing the underlying
> mapping of audio loudness that the percent scale uses is something that
> is absolutely doable.  Especially if changing that mapping means that
> the the percent scale actually scales better.

yes, it may be easier to keep the user stupid and provide a mapping,
with a good resolution for high volumes, ignoring the dynamic range of
the human ear.

> To put it another way -- most people grok a percent scale better than a
> decibel scale, but since the loudness of a percent scale isn't defined
> (other than an implicit, but not explicit guess that it's linear), it
> can be whatever we want it to be.  And if you create a patch that
> modifies it such that tweaking the percent scale seems to actually give
> a smoother ramping up and down of volume, which a decibel scale
> underneath it all would theoretically do, yahtzee.

so you want me to write a patch with a percentage scale and a
logarithmic mapping?

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

Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it
disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.
  John Cage

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