How Loud?, Measuring Loudness (Decibels) Options

[korektphool]

HI ALL!
This is what I want to do:
I have a sample (AIFF, mp3, whatever). I want to measure how loud the sound is, in decibels. Is there an application that can do this? Or is there a VST instrument that can do this once I load the sample in Cubase?
All help is appreciated.
PS In case you are wondering why I would want to do this, it is for a science project (I go to school).
Raghav Kaushik [KorektPhool]

[Jeff Pelletier]

Hey dude!

VU stands for volume unit.
*correction for last post:consumer operating level=-10dBV*

As I mentionned in my last post...the way to meter the level of a signal on a storage medium is by looking at those meters on your DAW. Unless the level of that signal never changes, you will have to "guesstimate" where that signal's level hangs out.

Just to clear up something for your last post...bitrate does not affect the minimum or maximum level at which you record signal (or range)...it only affects how many divisions there are between 0 level(-infinity) and 0dBfs(max number of 1s in the word).