150 Decibels Delivered One At A Time
At 150dB, our eardrums would rupture. But what if they were inflicted on us one by one? No, this isn’t an article about sound.
Decibels are a fascinating measurement unit: 80 decibels are not just 10 decibels more than 70 decibels: the sound they measure is actually twice as loud. This makes for an interesting metaphor of the world we live in.
I am a quiet person who grew up in a rather loud society — literally quiet, literally loud. As a result, I often found that people spoke too loudly, listened to music at too high a volume, not to mention my realisation that the walls in my mum’s flat weren’t strong enough to keep the neighbours at bay.
In addition, my voice changed when I was pretty young, and it quickly became a rather low bass. This was annoying at first, because it carried so much that teachers picked up on my softest of comments from the back of the class, but later it also meant I never had to make much of an effort to be heard in loud environments.
Years later, when I trained to become a music producer, I shared the prejudice that producing, mixing and mastering music had to be done at high volumes. Fortunately, I counted with excellent teachers and mentors that debunked the myth and told me that the opposite…