IS SOUND VOLUME A 'SOUND' CONCEPT IN ACOUSTICS, AUDIO AND MUSIC?

摘要

Sound volume is a very common term used both in everyday life and in some technical areas. However, it may have different meanings among the fields related to sound, and even within the same field. In this paper we discuss the meaning and the usage of sound volume using different tools and approaches. The sound output of two different sound playing systems, one inside a car and the other in the living room, was measured as a function of the volume units of those devices. The SPL steps provided by contiguous volume levels were almost precisely equivalent to 2dBA throughout most of the volume range, becoming 1dBA steps at the highest range. We searched for the term sound volume in acoustics and psychoacoustics books, and found very little occurrences. A group of Sonology specialists answered to a questionnaire on the meaning of sound volume, with little consensus among the results. In musical theory, the influential work of Charles Koechlin presumes huge differences between sound volume and sound intensity, but does not provide a clear objective distinction among them. We employed web-based tools to help locate the historical use of the term sound volume, with promising results. Our initial guess that sound volume could be originated from the use of the early sound systems was not corroborated in this study. Sound volume was found to be regarded quite differently among the fields of music practice, music theory, acoustics, psychoacoustics and audio technology. The establishment of more clear acoustical and psychoacoustical correlates of sound volume, still neglected by the main literature, may be a promising research topic.