“db” in physical Noise Levels, Analog Audio Equipment, Digital Sound Software. What are these and how they relate? Why are conversations at “60dB” and why is a Digital Software scaling it from negative to zero?

Question

If in Digital Sound Software there’s a meter from -60 to 0, what’s the best “range” (for the lack of knowledge) of sound someone can record at? Considering that people who will listen to that recording can adjust their speaker volumes up and down.

In: Engineering

Answer 1

A dB is a deci-bel meaning 1/10 of one Bel. It refers to a certain standard of measuring pressure or power.

If your recording software has meters that show -60 to 0 dB, it shows how much headroom you have left or available before distortion occurs- record so that average levels are somewhere between -24 and -14dB without ever hitting 0dB. That dB is referred to as dB(FS) meaning “tenths of a bell below full scale” and an average of between -24 and -14 will correspond with 0dB on a VU (Volume Units) scale, the oldschool kind with a needle that moves.