[PD] dbtorms + friends and negative dB values

Matthias Blau blau_m at web.de
Tue Nov 9 22:12:21 CET 2010


Dear list,

is there any specific reason why dbtorms and friends do not take dB 
values <=0 as input?

 From my point of view (and that of most people I know), an object 
called dbtorms should do a dB to RMS conversion, e.g. convert -20 to 
0.000001 in pd and not silently output zero as it does right now.
Both pd internally and high-quality audio cards can do sensible things 
with numbers this low.

Kind of reminds one of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) bug
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/RemoteSensingAtmospher/remote_sensing5.php
which is frequently ranked among the top 10 historical software bugs 
with extreme consequences: It made NASA unaware of the antarctic hole in 
the ozone layer for years simply because the analysis software ignored 
ozone values below a certain threshold...

So please pd developers, change this or give a good reason for not 
taking lessons from history.

Best whishes,
Matthias



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