{"id":857,"date":"2020-05-04T07:54:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T12:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/?p=857"},"modified":"2020-05-04T19:14:02","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T00:14:02","slug":"are-bigger-drums-actually-louder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/are-bigger-drums-actually-louder\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Bigger Drums Actually Louder? Find Out Once and For All"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve thought about this question several times and I’ve never gotten a clear answer–are bigger drums actually louder than smaller drums? You would think the answer would be simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Larger drums are not necessarily louder than smaller drums, although the capacity for higher amplitudes are possible with more surface area, several factors contribute to perceived loudness including resonance, tuning, impact strength, drum dampening, shell thickness and arguably even shell material.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So is that a yes or a no? Well, like most things in life, the answer is it depends.<\/strong> It turns out it’s a very difficult question to answer. Ultimately, if two drums that are exactly identical except for diameter, then the bigger drum has more potential to be louder<\/strong>–but practically, it may not be as straightforward. Have more questions? Let’s think about this some more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are Bigger Drums Louder?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It turns out the answer is pretty controversial–many drummers swear that bigger drums are louder, and others swear the exact opposite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some appeal to physics, and some do not–I decided to take a dive in to try and understand all the parts to see if we can make sense of the answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although bigger drums move more air than smaller drums, they are not necessarily louder due to several factors including drum pitch and drum resonance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, a larger drum has the potential for a higher amplitude.<\/strong> Whether it actually sounds<\/strong> louder is much more complicated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Loud?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When I first started learning about sound design, I thought loudness just meant more power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loudness Isn’t Amplitude<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Figure 1<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In other words, in my brain, I thought that sound A should always sound louder than Sound B (see figure 1). In other words, I thought: amplitude equals volume.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that I didn’t know that things were way more complicated.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off, our human ears are logarithmic in the way we perceive how loud something is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do I mean by logarithmic? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, first I can explain the mathy way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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curvy red line is logarithmic, straight blue line is linear<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Logarithmic in this context simply means as the inputs gets larger, the output doesn’t grow as fast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A more understandable example is that a thunderbolt at a close distance is going to sound just as loud to us as the inside of a volcanic explosion. Our brains can’t distinguish at all between the actual amplitude of a sound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This same is true for quiet sounds. If a sound is only a single decibel different (let’s say dBFS), than the same sound a decibel louder, then chances are our brains won’t notice the difference. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out our hearing is actually logarithmic–similar to all of our senses, actually. And sometimes it takes a tripling of actual amplification (power) before a sound volume “doubles”. But it’s even more complicated than that! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To summarize this section–amplitude does not mean volume.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human Hearing And the Bell Curve<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that frequency<\/strong> plays into how loud something sounds to us. No matter how big a bass drum is will not make it seem as loud as someone playing the triangle right next to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I think of that… that sounds like the worst experience in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depending on how high or low something is plays into how well we can hear it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 2: Human Hearing Curve By Lindosland – http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Image:Lindos1.svg, Public Domain, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=2565926<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The  Fletcher\u2013Munson <\/strong>curve, depicted above shows what the dB SPL would have to be for frequencies from 10 HZ to 10K HZ for a human to perceive as constant volume <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To simplify and interpret this curve:<\/p>\n\n\n\n