writes:

Andreas Håkansson writes:

im using the program Origin7 to read a wav-files. The result is given in a 3
coloumns worksheet, Time, Right and Left (stereo). The time is given in
seconds, so far everything is just fine. The question I have is in what unit
are the values for right and left. The values are approx. from -5000 to
5000.. but what!?

They represent the amplitude of the waveform. The units are irrelevant,
since what matters is the relative value (5000 is twice as loud as
2500).

At the risk of being a being a completely technical
ninny...and isolating a single word out of an otherwise fine and
informative post, something compells me to add the following:

"Loudness" and amplitude are two different thingees, and given the way
the ear works, loudness countour studies say you need approximately
10dB more SPL for something to seem truly "twice as loud." In terms
of signal amplitude (which is what these dimensionless numbers are
proportional to), 10dB = 20log(V2/V1), so the multiplier is ~3.16 for
a given signal to be "twice as loud" as another in this scale.

So, while 5000 is twice the _amplitude_ of 2500 on that scale, but
it's not twice as loud. 7905 would seem twice as loud as 2500.

Carry on. Return to your homes. Nothing to see here. An EE degree
is a terrible thing to waste. Move along. :-)

Best Regards,
--
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