Aleks
Hey there. I am a guitarist and aspiring sound engineer.
I was in the studio a few weeks ago and the sound engineer was working with all these equalisers and he referred to "loudness". When I asked him if that's the same thing as volume, he said no, they're different graphs.
Can somebody please put this in context for me and explain the differences and similarities between volume and loudness. Also, please point out if there are any other similar graphs that might be confused with these?
Thanks!
AlanRatcliffe
As with many things in audio, it depends on what you are talking about.
Generally we try and avoid the word "volume" because it's a bit nebulous and a term misunderstood and misused by everyone and their dog. So we rather talk about "levels" in decibels and qualify them by saying what type of decibels we are discussing (dBu, dBm, dbV, dB SPL, dBFS, etc.) The only real "volume" is the level of the soundwaves in air, measured in dB SPL (Sound Pressure Level) - and even then we prefer to call it sound (or acoustic) level.
What I think your engineer was referring to is the difference between the signal level (volume), and the average level of the program material (loudness - not to be confused with a "loudness" switch on a hi-fi, which is a specialised preset EQ curve). "Loudness" is often used when talking about compression as more compressed material sounds "louder".
