An Odd Sound Meter
About Features How to use
Colors Limitations Share
About
An Odd Sound Meter turns the microphone in your phone, tablet or computer into a sound level meter. It reads in dBA like a handheld meter, and also shows what the sound is made of: its spectrum, its ⅓-octave bands and how it changes over time.
Everything is measured on your device. The sound is never recorded, stored or sent anywhere; only the numbers stay, and only until you close the page.
Made by Jason Buchheim, founder of Odyssey Expeditions .
Features
A, C, Z weighting using the exact IEC 61672 curves. A matches how ears hear everyday sound and is used for hearing risk and noise rules. C is nearly flat and catches bass. Z is unfiltered.Fast and Slow time weighting (125 ms and 1 s), like a real meter's needle.Leq , the energy average over the session, plus Lmax and Lmin .L10 (the level exceeded 10% of the time, the loud moments) and L90 (exceeded 90% of the time, the background).NIOSH dose : how much of a day's safe noise allowance you have used, at 85 dBA for 8 hours with a 3 dB exchange rate.A live spectrum, ⅓-octave bands from 31.5 Hz to 16 kHz, and a 2-minute history of 1-second levels.
A clipping warning when the microphone overloads, and an input-chain report showing whether your browser really turned off its voice processing.
A calibration offset that your device remembers, a CSV session log for spreadsheets, and a share card drawn from your own measurement.
How to use
Press Start measuring and allow the microphone.
Hold the phone at arm's length, microphone pointed at the sound, away from your body and out of the wind. Keep your hand off the microphone holes.
Leave A and Fast selected for everyday readings. Switch to C to see how much bass there is: a big gap between dBC and dBA means low rumble.
Use Slow for steady noise like fans or traffic; it settles the number.
Press Reset stats when you move to a new place, so Leq and the percentiles describe just that spot.
If you can borrow a real sound level meter, measure the same steady noise with both, and enter the difference as the Calibration offset .
Use Copy session log to paste the summary and every second's level into a spreadsheet, or the share button to post a picture of your reading.
The screen is kept awake while measuring. On phones, measuring stops if you switch apps or lock the screen.
What the colors mean
Quiet: library, bedroom at night
Moderate: conversation, office
Caution: busy traffic, vacuum cleaner
Harmful over hours: lawn mower, outboard engine, power tools
Danger within minutes: concerts, chainsaws, sirens
Limitations
This is a screening tool, not a certified Class 1 or Class 2 meter. Don't use it for legal, workplace-compliance or noise-ordinance measurements.
Phone and laptop microphones aren't calibrated. Without a calibration offset, expect readings within roughly ±5–10 dB of the true level, and different devices to disagree.
Most built-in microphones overload around 110–120 dB, so very loud sounds read low. The clipping warning shows when this happens.
Small microphones hear little deep bass, so readings below about 100 Hz, and C and Z readings of rumble, are understated.
Some phones, especially iPhones, may keep their automatic gain control on even when asked not to. The input chain panel shows this as AGC "on"; levels will then drift, though comparisons stay useful.
Wind, handling and a phone case over the microphone all change the reading.
The NIOSH dose only counts the time this page was measuring, at the phone's position, not at your ears for the whole day.
Share
The share button makes a picture of your session: your average level, peaks, the level history and the average ⅓-octave spectrum. Before you measure, it shares the site's own preview picture.
Discover more Oddities Generative art, games and science toys at https://odd.place An Odd Sound Meter is made by Jason Buchheim, produced by Odyssey Expeditions .