Is there a way to assign dB value to a specific audio files for reproduction in speakers?

Question

Most speakers would have a volume knob, but is there a way to modify it for each audio file? My biggest concern is the speaker integrity as to not send too loud of a sound. I can't find a way to get the speakers data so it can be decided if it's safe to play it or not, as I intend to make it work in every speaker. It's a broad question but I dont even know if it's possible so I dont know where to start.

Answer 1

Audio files should ideally be at the maximum level that does not distort. I could see engaging in preprocessing all your recordings so that they're at a consistent sound level. That might be sufficient to account for the concern you are raising about client speaker integrity.

If you want to have the database store a number that reflects how "hot" a particular audio file is, then it seems to me that the amount of effort required to get that number might be comparable or even greater than the effort to preprocess the sounds to a consistent max-with-no-overflow level.

Once you have that number, how to make use of it? The HTML <audio> tag does not have an amplitude property. So, you would have to make use of some library in your client, such as the Web Audio API, or one of the many libraries that are built on top of it. With Web Audio API , the relevant point to change the volume is the gain node .