hoping to figure out the meaning behind dB

[lysis]

ok, i see people say -40dB - +5dB and then on my software everything's always at 0dB and this and that and i was just hoping somebody could explain how dB actually works. i have abasic understanding that a decibel is a measurement of noise or volume, but i don't understand what measurement is agood one. or something. lol

your thoughts?

[Harvey Gerst]

It's a convenient way of using smaller numbers to deal with things that are subject to very large changes. We could say that we need to amplify this small signal 1,000,000 times to git it up to a reasonable level, but instead, we just say 60dB of amplification is needed.

Using linear numbers to express logrithmic concepts can be very confusing, especially when the ear hears logrithmically to begin with.

[grinder]

There is a very detailed article on db, by Lionel Dumond at prorec.com. The site appears to be down at the moment, so I can't get the exact link for you.