[PD] dbtorms + friends and negative dB values

[Lorenzo Sutton]

Matthias Blau wrote:
> 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...
Isn't this putting it a bit too dramatically?
At least here the help file clearly states "zero dB, which should 
correspond to 0.0001 in "RMS", is instead rounded down to zero" so 
nothing you are unaware of really

dB isn't really a "physical" unit anyway, so I guess some approximation 
with it shouldn't crash any rocket [1]... :)

That said your request also makes sense.. maybe a [dbtorms2] to keep 
retro-compatibility and laziness.

Lorenzo
>
> So please pd developers, change this or give a good reason for not 
> taking lessons from history.
>
> Best whishes,
> Matthias
>
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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_5_Flight_501