Decibel Calculator

Combine or subtract sound levels, find a level at a distance, or read off the ratio behind a dB figure.

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Input
Output

About decibel calculator

Decibel Calculator is one page doing one thing. No account, no settings to sync, no history building up somewhere.

No server sees this. That is a consequence of how the tool is built rather than a policy someone wrote down, which is the version worth trusting.

You will find it under Physics, alongside 6 other tools for the same sort of job.

Runs in this tab, so nothing you type is uploaded.

How to use it

01
Start it
Every control is on the tool itself. Keyboard shortcuts, where there are any, are listed beside it.
02
Watch it run
It updates in the page as you go. Nothing is sent anywhere, so it keeps working with the network off.
03
Close when done
Nothing is stored between visits. Reloading gives you a clean start rather than picking up where you left off.

Examples

Two 70dB machines running together
Adding two independent sources of equal level
Input
mode: Combine two levels
levelADb: 70
levelBDb: 70
combineOperation: add
Output
Combined level db: 73.0103
Level at target distance db: 0
Ratio value: 0
Mode used: Combine two levels
A 94dB source at 10 times the reference distance
Inverse square law, level drops 20dB per tenfold increase in distance
Input
mode: Level at a distance
referenceLevelDb: 94
referenceDistanceM: 1
targetDistanceM: 10
Output
Combined level db: 0
Level at target distance db: 74
Ratio value: 0
Mode used: Level at a distance

Questions

Does Decibel Calculator work offline?+

Yes. It is JavaScript running in this tab, so once the page has loaded it needs nothing further from the network. Put the machine in flight mode and it carries on. Nothing you do here is sent anywhere, because there is nowhere for it to go.

Does it remember anything between visits?+

No. Reload the page and it starts from nothing. There is no account, no saved state and no cookie holding your last session. That is a deliberate trade: it cannot lose your data because it never keeps any.

Is it accurate?+

Timing comes from performance.now(), the high resolution clock the browser provides, rather than from setInterval, which drifts by a few milliseconds every tick and compounds over minutes. What can still shift things is the browser throttling a tab in the background, so leave it visible if the timing matters.

Does it make a sound?+

Where a sound makes sense, it is generated with the Web Audio API rather than loaded as a file, so there is nothing to download and nothing to block. Browsers refuse to start audio until you have interacted with the page, which is why the first press is what switches it on.

Can I use Decibel Calculator on a phone?+

Yes. The controls are sized for touch and the layout collapses to one column on a narrow screen. Bear in mind that a phone locking its screen will suspend the page, and timing stops with it.