Sound volume issue (normalized?)

Online experiments
1

Hi all,

I am using sound component to set up my audio files for my experiment. My audio files are recordings of utterances produced by speakers.

For the “volume $”, I see that I can enter a number between 0 and 1. It’s a normalized value between 0 (minimum) and 1 (maximum). Does this mean that it will automatically bring the amplitude to a target level no matter how loud or quiet the original sound is?

In my study, it is important to keep the volume of the original sound so that listeners will hear the difference between loud and soft voice. I tried leaving that entry for “volume $” blank, and it makes syntax error.

Is there any way for me to keep the volume as it is in the original recordings?

2

Hello,

I thought it would be best if I direct this question to @jon
As I mentioned in the post, does sound component in psychopy always normalize the volume of the audio files? Is there any way that I can keep the original volume?

Thank you!

3

No, with volumes that’s essentially just a scale factor. A value of 1 will indeed be whatever volume the sound file contains (subject to any other scaling from the operating system, sound card, speakers etc)

4

Thank you @jon for your reply!
I got it! Then what does 0 mean for that volume category??

5

It’s also a scale factor. Multiply your sound by zero and it will be zero! If 0.5 then your sound will play at 0.5 its volume.

6

Thanks so much @jon

This was very helpful!! I appreciate it!