Measure The Intensity Of Ambient Sounds: Decibel Meter
Decibel Meter is a free Windows 8 modern style app to measure the intensity of ambient sounds. Extremely simple yet highly effective, this app measures the real-time intensity of the sounds emanating from different sources around you (or more specifically, your computer), and displays it as a digital read-out. For capturing the sounds, the app makes use of the computer’s microphone. The sound intensity is measured in decibels (dB), which is also the namesake of the app. Decibel Meter features three different digital read-outs, each for displaying the minimum, maximum, and average strength of the ambient sounds, and based on the aural input received via the microphone, these values keep on changing in real-time (However, the maximum reading supported is limited to 96 dB).
In addition to that, Decibel meter also provides handy information regarding the sound intensities of some common sources (e.g. rainfall, train). Bet you can’t wait to find out more, right? Let’s see how you can measure the intensity of ambient sounds, with Decibel Meter.
How To Use Decibel Meter To Measure The Intensity Of Ambient Sounds?
Getting Decibel Meter installed and running is a fairly standard procedure. All you have to do is open up the Windows App Store, search the ridiculously featherweight (just about 165 KB) app, and install it. When Decibel Meter is run for the first time, it requests access to your computer’s microphone. Do that, and the app is ready to use. Here’s how the user interface of Decibel Meter looks like:
Pretty awesome, don’t you think? As illustrated by the above screenshot, Decibel Meter features a simple but intuitive user interface, that’s also quite a looker. The UI is roughly divided into two columns. The left column features the three digital read-out displays (for measuring minimum, maximum and average sound intensity values), whereas the right column lists the standard sound intensities of some common sources of (moderate traffic, factory thunder). Apart from that, there isn’t much in terms of features and options.
When it comes to using Decibel Meter, things get even easier. In fact, once you’ve granted the app permission to use your computer’s microphone, everything is pretty much automated. All you have to do is open up Decibel Meter, and it will instantly start capturing the ambient sounds via the microphone, and output the measured sound intensity values with near perfect accuracy, all in real-time. You can even try speaking loudly (or slowly) into the microphone to find out how good you are at screaming (or whispering). Loads of fun if you ask me!
Conclusion
Decibel Meter is an incredibly useful and fun app to measure the intensity of ambient sounds. It’s simple, easy to use, and surprisingly accurate. Give it a try and let me know your thoughts in the comments section.