maad.spl.wav2dBSPL

maad.spl.wav2dBSPL(wave, gain, Vadc=2, sensitivity=-35, dBref=94, pRef=2e-05)[source]

Convert wave amplitude to instantaneous sound pressure level (L [dB SPL]).

Warning

Important: Previous versions of this function incorrectly calculated the: pressure conversion by omitting the division by 2 for the Vadc parameter. In dB SPL, this would lead to a 6 dB increase in the calculated sound pressure level. If you want to correct the SPL values obtained with the previous version, you can simply subtract 6 dB from the old results. This has been corrected in the version 1.5.1. Ensure you are using the latest version (>=1.5.1) to obtain accurate dB SPL values.

Parameters:

wavendarray-like or scalar: wave should already be normalized between -1 to 1 (depending on the number of bits) take the output of the function sound.load of maad module ndarray-like or scalar containing the raw sound waveform
gaininteger: Total gain applied to the sound (preamplifer + amplifier)
Vadcscalar, optional, default is 2Vpp (=>+/-1V): Maximal voltage (peak to peak) converted by the analog to digital convertor ADC
sensitivityfloat, optional, default is -35 (dB/V): Sensitivity of the microphone
dBrefinteger, optional, default is 94 (dBSPL): Pressure sound level used for the calibration of the microphone (usually 94dB, sometimes 114dB)
pRefSound pressure reference in the medium (air:20e-6 Pa, water:1e-6 Pa)

Returns:

Lndarray-like or scalar: ndarray-like or scalar containing the sound waveform in dB SPL (Sound Pressure level in dB)

Examples

>>> w, fs = maad.sound.load('../data/cold_forest_daylight.wav') 
>>> L = maad.spl.wav2dBSPL(wave=w, gain=42)

Get an approximate of the equivalent sound pressure level (Leq)

>>> maad.util.mean_dB(L)
    48.51429086346294

Get equivalent sound pressure level (Leq) from the dedicated function

>>> Leq = maad.spl.wav2leq(w, fs, gain=42, dt=1)
>>> Leq_mean = maad.util.mean_dB(Leq)
>>> Leq_mean
    48.55488267086038