Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

As I understand, the sound level meter will measure the loudness of separate sounds in music. What can I do to measure the loudness of the whole song?

Hi,

A sound meter typically measures the level of the sound (read up on the meaning of decibels) averaged over a very short period. It sounds like you would like to know something like the average level over the whole song or the maximum level.

Meters come with different response rates and abilities to tell you the maximum level over some period of time. How flexible the readings can be depends on how much you can pay for the meter. Also, there is software that will let you analyze digital sound data if you read it into a computer.

Hope this helps.

Dear Alex

I came across some interesting material which you might find useful in learning about the measument of sound levels.

Here's a very good brochure that describes how sound levels are measured.

http://www.bksv.com/pdf/Measuring_Sound.pdf

Also, you can check out this company's web site for the products they manufacture. There are brochures (in pdf) which explain how the instruments work and how they are used to mesure different types of sounds.

Bruel & Kjaer - http://www.bksv.com

Here's another interesting post on the web:

http://www.audiophilia.com/hardware/spl.htm

It refers to using a Radio Shack sound level meter. Perhaps you can ask at your school in the Audio/Visual department if someone has such an instrument for you to borrow.

Good Luck,
Janelle

I just wanted to thank you fo your help.
These links were a great help for me!