Loudness

Author: Jessy

Description

Unity's AudioSource.volume and AudioListener.volume use what is known as a linear taper. Although that is ideal for performance, it means that the 0-1 values that those properties utilize do not match up well with human perception, with loud values taking up a disproportionate amount of the range. This script is designed to make working with loudness more intuitive.

Loudness is a complex phenomenon, and this simple script does not, for instance, take equal-loudness contours into account, but it should yield better results than a linear taper in every real-world case. I've found the result described here, that "a 10 dB increase in sound level corresponds approximately to a perceived doubling of loudness", leads the way to a highly usable loudness control.