2 SOUND AND VIBRATION/MAY 2000

Measurement of L
eq
Using an Integrating SLM
Dave Formenti, Sage Technologies, Morgan Hill, California
S&V Quest ions and Answers
Question: What is an L
eq
measurement
when usi ng an Integrati ng Sound Level
Meter to measure sound l evel ?
Answer: The L
eq
i s t he l evel of a con-
st ant sound over a speci fi c t i me i nt erval
that has the same sound energy as the ac-
t ual varyi ng sound over t he same i nt er-
val . To bet t er underst and t he meani ng of
L
eq
l et s st ar t from t he begi nni ng and di s-
cu ss h ow sou n d an d sou n d l evel s ar e
meas u r ed u s i n g an In t egr at i n g Sou n d
Level Met er.
Sound i s made up of rapi d osci l l at ory
comp r es s i on al ch an ges i n a med i u m,
su ch as ai r, t h at p r op agat e over a d i s-
t an ce. Th ese ch an ges can be ch aract er-
i zed by changes i n t he densi t y, pressure
and mot i on of ai r mol ecul es. The pres-
sure fl uct uat i ons are det ect ed by t he hu-
man ear and t ransformed t o si gnal s t hat
t h e brai n i n t erp ret s. Ou r p ercep t i on of
sound depends largely on a sounds level,
frequency content and time varying char-
act eri st i cs.
The t ransducer used i n a Sound Level
Met er (SLM) i s a mi crophone. Thi s i s a
sen sor t h at con ver t s d yn ami c p r essu r e
var i at i on s i n t o el ect r i cal vol t ages. Th e
Sound Level Met er t hen processes t hese
an al og si gn al s an d comp u t es an d d i s-
pl ays a vari et y of descri pt i ve paramet ers
about t he measured sound. There are l i t -
eral l y dozens of descri pt i ve paramet ers
t hat can be used t o quant i fy cert ai n char-
acteristics of the measured sound. Which
one you use wi l l depend on t he purpose
of the measurement. For instance, are you
measuri ng sound l evel s for a communi t y
noise standard, occupational noise expo-
sure, product noi se eval uat i on, et c? Thi s
ar t i cl e wi l l on l y focu s on a few of t h e
man y measu r emen t s t h at Sou n d Level
Met ers can provi de.
An SLM i s desi gned t o gi ve object i ve,
r ep r od u ci bl e meas u r emen t s of s ou n d
p ressu re l evel or sou n d l evel . Fi gu re 1
shows a 4-second t i me hi st ory of sound
p r essu r e fl u ct u at i on s measu r ed wi t h a
SLM p os i t i on ed 1 met er i n fr on t of a
l ou d s p eaker. Th e s ou n d s ou r ce or i gi -
n at ed fr om on e of my favor i t e mu s i c
t r acks, Th e Ri gh t Th i n g (at t h e Wron g
Time), fr om t he Rong CD by Qui l t edfi sh
Record s. Th e record ed measu remen t i s
cal i brat ed i n p ressu re u n i t s of Pascal s.
One Pascal [Pa] i s equal t o one Newt on
per met er squared or 1.45 10
2
pounds
per square i nch [psi ]. From Fi gure 1 we
see t h at t h e p r essu r e fl u ct u at i on s var y
around zero. Actually, however, the pres-
su r e fl u ct u at i on s var y abou t t h e st at i c
at mos p h er i c p r es s u r e (~101, 320 Pa).
Since we generally use microphones that
are vent ed (resul t i ng i n a l ow frequency
cut off of 5-20 Hz) we onl y measure t he
dynamic component of the pressure fluc-
t uat i ons. From Fi gure 1 we see t hat i t i s
difficult to describe the magnitude of the
sou n d becau se t h e i n st an t an eou s p res-
sure level is constantly changing over the
4-second t i me frame t hat was recorded.
SLMs can al so wei gh t t h e measu r ed
si gnal as a funct i on of frequency before
comp u t i n g an y d escr i p t i ve p ar amet er s
for t he measured sound. The purpose of
t h i s wei gh t i n g n et wor k i s t o si mu l at e
how the sensitivity of the human ear var-
i es wi t h t h e fr equ en cy of s ou n d . Th e
st andard t ypes of net works avai l abl e for
most SLMs are A and C weighting. The
A net work wei ght s a si gnal i n a manner
t h a t a p p r oxi ma t e s a n i n ve r t e d e qu a l
loudness contour of human sensitivity to
pure t ones at l ow sound pressure l evel s.
Th e C n et wor k wei gh t s a si gn al i n a
man n er t h at ap p r oxi mat es an i n ver t ed
equal l oudness cont our for human sensi -
t i vi t y t o pure t ones at hi gh sound pres-
sure levels. In addition to these frequency
weightings most SLMs have an L (linear
or overal l ) set t i ng t hat does not wei ght
t h e measu r ed si gn al . Al l t h e measu r e-
men t s i n t h i s ar t i cl e h ave been mad e
wi t hout any wei ght i ng t hus t hey are al l
l i near or unwei ght ed.
Once the signal has been weighted, the
resul t ant si gnal i s passed t hrough a ci r-
cui t or cal cul at i on t o det ermi ne i t s Root
Mean Squ ar e (RMS) val u e. Th e RMS
val u e i s very i mp ort an t i n sou n d mea-
surements because it is directly related to
t he energy of t he sound bei ng measured.
In t h e p ast , SLMs wer e an al og i n st r u -
ments and used RMS detection circuits to
measure t he RMS l evel . Measured RMS
values were then displayed using an ana-
log meter. Since analog meters were typi-
cal l y el ect r omech an i cal d evi ces, t h ey
were l i mi t ed t o how fast t hey coul d keep
up wi t h rapi dl y fl uct uat i ng sounds mak-
i ng i t di ffi cul t t o accurat el y measure t he
l evel . Becau se of t h i s p r obl em, met er s
wer e st an d ar d i zed on t wo d et ect or r e-
sponse characteristics: F for Fast and S
for Sl ow. The Fast t i me const ant i s 125
milliseconds whereas the Slow time con-
st ant i s 1 second. Thus, t he Fast det ect or
woul d provi de for a fast react i ng di spl ay
al l owi n g t h e met er t o d i sp l ay a sou n d
l evel t hat was not changi ng t oo rapi dl y.
Th e Sl ow d et ect or wou l d gi ve an even
sl ower response t hereby l et t i ng t he ana-
l og met er di spl ay l evel s t hat ot herwi se
woul d be di ffi cul t t o read usi ng t he Fast
t i me const ant .
Tod a ys SLMs u s e d i gi t a l d i s p l a ys
whi ch no l onger have t he response l i mi -
t at i on s of t h e an al og met er. However,
t hey woul d st i l l be di ffi cul t t o read i f t he
RMS val u es bei n g d i sp l ayed wer e u p -
dat ed t oo rapi dl y. Because of t hi s, most
SLMs di spl ay t he maxi mum RMS val ue
wi t hi n t he precedi ng second. The det ec-
t or response set t i ng of Fast or Sl ow now
real l y just depends upon t he st andard t o
be fol l owed.
The RMS det ect ors i n most SLMs use
an exp on en t i al , movi n g aver age t ech -
ni que t hat i s cont i nual l y accept i ng new
dat a. The equat i on bel ow i l l ust rat es t he
met hod:
In t he above equat i on t he sound pres-
su r e p (t ) (see Fi gu r e 1) i s squ ar ed an d
mul t i pl i ed by an exponent i al decay fac-
tor. When the time of integration is near
t he current t i me t t he val ue of t he pres-
s u r e s qu ar ed i s es s en t i al l y u n d i mi n -
i sh ed . For t i mes l ess t h an t h e cu r r en t
t i me, t he val ue i s di mi ni shed exponen-
t i al l y so i t becomes l ess i mport ant . The
constant T expresses the rate at which the
ol der dat a become l ess i nfl uent i al . The
larger the value of T the slower the decay
fact or r ed u ces an d t h e s l ower t h e r e-
sp on se of t h e syst em t o rap i d ch an ges.
The val ues of T are t he st andardi zed val -
ues of Fast (125 ms) and Sl ow (1000 ms)
as di scussed above. Fi gure 2 shows t he
comput ed RMS sound pressure overl ai d
on t he measured sound pressure. Not i ce
t hat t he RMS sound pressure i s al ways a
p osi t i ve val u e an d l ower i n amp l i t u d e
t han t he peaks of t he i nst ant aneous mea-
sured sound pressure.
When deal i ng wi t h sound pressure we
rarel y use uni t s of Pascal s because of t he
ext remel y l arge dynami c range of pres-
sures that the human ear is capable of de-
t ect i n g. Th e mi n i mu m sou n d p r essu r e
t h at t h e ear can d et ect i s 20 Pa. Th e
t h r es h ol d of p ai n i s 200 Pa, wh i ch i s
10,000,000 t i mes l arger t han t he t hresh-
ol d of h ear i n g. So, wh en d eal i n g wi t h
sou n d p r essu r es, we gen er al l y exp r ess
t hem as t he l ogari t hmi c rat i o of a mea-
su r ed p r essu r e t o a r efer en ce p r essu r e
usi ng deci bel (dB) not at i on. The deci bel
scal e al l ows a range of sound pressures
fr om say 0. 000002 t o 200 Pa t o be ex-
pressed on a l i nearl y graduat ed scal e of
20 to 140 dB relative to a reference pres-
sure:
From t he above equat i on we see t hat t he
decibel scale for sound pressures is based
on t he rat i o of a measured val ue above,
equal t o or bel ow a reference val ue p
0
. In
ai rborne acoust i c measurement s, we use
t he t hreshol d of heari ng as t he reference
val ue; t hat i s p
0
= 20 Pa. The equat i on
for Sound Pressure Level (SPL) i n dB re
20 Pa becomes:
p
T
p e d
t
T
s
t
t
RMS

1
2
( )
( )

L
p
p
p

1
]
1
20
10
0
log
RMS
L
p
p

1
]
1
20
10
log
RMS
-6
20 10 Pa
SPL, dB
3 SOUND AND VIBRATION/MAY 2000
The t hreshol d of heari ng i s 0 dB SPL and
t h e t h resh ol d of p ai n i s 140 d B SPL, a
much more manageabl e range of val ues.
If t he sound pressure l evel s had been A
wei ght ed, t he measured val ues woul d be
sp eci fi ed i n t er ms of Sou n d Level s i n
dBA. The A-wei ght ed sound l evel scal e
provi des a much bet t er est i mat e of hear-
ing damage risk in industry and anoyance
t o noi se compared t o an overal l or l i near
measu r emen t of sou n d p r essu r e l evel .
Fi gure 3 shows t he RMS pressure val ues
from Fi gure 2 i n t erms of SPL i n dB.
If I were t o ask you t o quant i fy t he SPL
over t he 4-second peri od of t he measure-
ment shown i n Fi gure 3, you woul d have
di ffi cul t l y because t he SPL i s const ant l y
ch an gi n g. An d i n d eed most of t h e SPL
meas u r emen t s you make wou l d s h ow
this type of variability and perhaps more.
Because of the variability in sound lev-
el s for one or more sources, a descri pt i ve
measurement paramet er was devel oped
t o reduce t he sound l evel over an i nt er-
val i n t i me t o a si ngl e equi val ent val ue.
Thi s val ue i s t he L
eq
or equi val ent con-
t i nuous sound l evel . Thi s can be rel at ed
t o a const ant sound over a speci fi c t i me
interval that has the same acoustic energy
as the actual varying sound over the same
i nt erval . If t he sound source bei ng mea-
sured emi t t ed a const ant fi xed t one, t he
L
eq
val ue woul d si mpl y be t he same as
t he sound l evel . But what happens when
t he sound l evel vari es l i ke t hat i n Fi gure
3? The L
eq
i s cal cul at ed usi ng t he fol l ow-
i ng equat i on:
where:
p(t) = measured sound pressure, Pa
p
0
= reference pressure, 20 Pa
T = sp eci fi ed measu remen t d u rat i on
t i me, sec
The L
eq
i s a l ogari t hmi c average of t he
SL over a speci fi ed t i me i nt erval T. Fi g-
u r e 4 sh ows t h e or i gi n al SL measu r e-
men t s wi t h t h e equ i val en t con t i n u ou s
sound l evel L
eq
(83.5 dB) superi mposed.
Two ot her descri pt i ve paramet ers are
also shown in Figure 4, the L
max
and L
min
.
The L
max
paramet er i s t he maxi mum SL
t hat occurred i n t he measurement i nt er-
val T. The L
mi n
i s t he mi ni mum SL t hat
occurred i n t he measurement i nt erval T.
The t hree paramet ers L
eq
, L
max
, and L
mi n
t oget h er effect i vel y d escri be t h e sou n d
l evel ch aract eri st i cs over t h e measu re-
men t i n t erval T. An In t egr at i n g Sou n d
Level Meter is required to calculate an L
eq
value. Some SLMs give the user complete
flexibility in setting up the measurement
interval T whi l e ot hers onl y have a pre-
defi ned set of choi ces for t he measure-
ment i nt erval . Not al l Int egrat i ng Sound
Level Met ers are t he same as far as t he
d escr i p t i ve p ar amet er s t h ey cal cu l at e.
For exampl e one t ype of met er may onl y
di spl ay t he L
eq
val ue where anot her one
may di spl ay t he L
eq
, L
max
, and L
mi n
along
wi t h a host of ot hers. Many of t he st an-
d ar d s an d or d i n an ces u s ed for s ou n d
l evel measurement s are based upon t he
L
eq
val ue measured over some speci fi ed
t i me i nt erval .
Anot her descri pt i ve paramet er t hat i s
somet i mes used as an al t ernat i ve t o t he
L
eq
val ue for short durat i on, hi gh l evel
sou n d sou r ces i s t h e Sou n d Exp osu r e
Level (SEL). This parameter is defined as
a con st an t sou n d l evel l ast i n g for on e
s e c on d t h a t h a s t h e s a me a mou n t of
acou st i c en er gy as t h e or i gi n al sou n d .
Thi s paramet er i s useful for compari ng
di fferent t ypes of i mpul si ve or short du-
r at i on n oi s e even t s . For t h e 4-s econ d
measurements shown in Figure 3 the L
SEL
= 89.5 dB. The equat i on t hat defi nes t he
L
SEL
i s shown bel ow and i s si mi l ar t o t he
equat i on for L
eq
except t hat i t i s normal -
i zed t o 1 second i nst ead of t he measure-
ment i nt erval T.
Wh e n you r me a s u r e me n t s r e qu i r e
more det ai l ed i nformat i on regardi ng t he
sound l evel over a speci fi ed t i me i nt er-
val t han what t he L
eq
, L
max
and L
mi n
pa-
ramet ers provi de, t here i s anot her set of
descri pt i ve st at i st i cal paramet ers avai l -
abl e wi t h some SLMs. These paramet ers
are cal l ed L
n
or Percent i l e Level s and are
based upon t he cumul at i ve di st ri but i on
of sound l evel s over a speci fi ed t i me i n-
t erval . For exampl e, t he L
10
val ue i s t he
SL that is exceeded only 10% of the time.
Figure 5 illustrates the cumulative distri-
bution of the SL of the 4-second measure-
ment shown i n Fi gure 3 and hi ghl i ght s
the L
10
and L
95
val ues.
In this Q&A column we have described
some of t he fundament al sound pressure
level and sound level parameters that are
measured and cal cul at ed usi ng Int egrat -
i ng Sound Level Met ers. In some sense
we have onl y scrat ched t he surface si nce
t here are many ot her descri pt i ve param-
et ers t hat can be used t o hel p quant i fy a
sounds level, frequency content and time
varyi ng nat ure. Det ermi ne whi ch param-
et ers are requi red for your speci fi c mea-
surement ci rcumst ances and what mea-
surements are available in a specific SLM
befor e sel ect i n g an In t egr at i n g Sou n d
Level Met er.
Nex t Mont hs Quest ion: Which Signal
Processing Window should I be using t o
analyz e my dat a?
L
T
p t
p
dt
T
eq

_
,

1
]
1
1

10
1
10
0
2
0
log
( )
L
p t
p
dt
T
SEL

_
,

1
]
1
1

10
10
0
2
0
log
( )
Figure 1. Inst ant aneous sound pressure.
Figure 2. RMS sound pressure.
Figure 3. Sound pressure level, dB re 20 Pa.
Figure 4. L
eq
and sound levels, dB re 20 Pa.
Figure 5. Cumulative distribution of sound lev-
els ex ceeded n% of t he t ime, dB re 20 Pa.