Loudness

A Web Tutorial by Mark Huckvale

www.phon.ucl.ac.uk

 

 

Overview

 

In this tutorial you will learn about our sense of the loudness of sounds.

 

If you complete the tutorial, you will learn about

 

·         The subjectivity of loudness

·         Elements of the hearing mechanism important to loudness sensation

·         The limits and range of the sensation of loudness

·         The physical correlates of loudness

·         The Sound Pressure Level scale

·         Methods to estimate the loudness of pure tones and complex sounds

·         Spectral weighting measures used in sound meters

·         The meaning and cause of loudness recruitment

 

You will find the tutorial easier to understand if you have some knowledge of the basic acoustics of sound waves.

 

To hear the audio examples in the tutorial you will need to be running Internet Explorer or have a Plug-In that supports WAV files (e.g. Quick-Time). If you are having problems with audio, visit our browser audio plug-in help page.