Answers.Body: <p>While with additional information, the three measurement can be related, there are three typical situations for these measures</p>
  <p>rms: long signal that are best characterized by their  energy or intensity
  (example: ambient noise)</p>
  <p>p2p: short transients, where waveforms are asymmetric and no further processing is done
  (example: explosions)</p>
  <p>peak: short transients, where processing is done to obtain the signal amplitude
  (example: amplitude function of cetacean echolocation clicks)</p>
  
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Answers.Body: <p>The three measurements are typically inter-convertible, though strictly speaking the inter-convertibility holds for sinusoidal sounds only (not always applicable to real-data). If we have a waveform <code>X</code>  then</p>
  <pre><code>rms(X) = peak(X)/sqrt(2)
  # 'rms' is the root-mean-square of all samples in X.
  # 'peak' is the absolute maximum sample value of X.
  </code></pre>
  <p>and</p>
  <pre><code>peak-to-peak(X) = 2 x peak(X)
  # peak-to-peak is the difference between the highest and lowest samples. 
  </code></pre>
  <p>However, the actual choice of measurement to report depends on both the properties of the sound, and the field convention. For very short sounds that occupy that span only a few samples, it may not make sense to report an rms reading for example - where a peak measurement may be more representative. On the other hand, if you have longer sounds with occasional blips due to unavoidable background noise, an rms reading may provide a more stable readout of sound level.</p>
  <p>Even if there is no broad convention, it may make sense to report the measurement/s of the papers that you'd like to compare your results with.</p>
  
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Answers.Text: Thanks Thejasvi! what is "peak()" exactly doing?
Answers.UserDisplayName: Marcelo Araya-Salas
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Answers.Text: Added short comments to explain peak, peak-to-peak, and rms!
Answers.UserDisplayName: Thejasvi
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Answers.Text: Are these definitions all assuming X is a perfect sinusoid? I think it might be helpful to more explicitly state "the following are only true for a perfect sinusoid X, for most real data we cannot convert between them easily"
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Body: <p>I've seen papers report source/received levels of animal vocalisation using three measures: rms, peak and peak-to-peak.
  Even within a field there doesn't always seem to be a single convention, and papers will report different measures for the same sound type (e.g. bat calls report with rms in one paper, and peak in another).</p>
  <p>Can I convert between the measures, and how valid are these conversions?</p>
  
Tags: <loudness><source-level><received-level><measurement>
Title: Which method to report source/received level (p2p, rms, peak) of recorded sounds?
ThreadText: # Which method to report source/received level (p2p, rms, peak) of recorded sounds?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2022-06-23)
  
  I've seen papers report source/received levels of animal vocalisation using three measures: rms, peak and peak-to-peak.
  Even within a field there doesn't always seem to be a single convention, and papers will report different measures for the same sound type (e.g. bat calls report with rms in one paper, and peak in another).
  
  Can I convert between the measures, and how valid are these conversions?
  
  **Tags:** loudness, source-level, received-level, measurement
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2022-06-25. Score: 5
  
  While with additional information, the three measurement can be related, there are three typical situations for these measures
  
  rms: long signal that are best characterized by their energy or intensity
  (example: ambient noise)
  
  p2p: short transients, where waveforms are asymmetric and no further processing is done
  (example: explosions)
  
  peak: short transients, where processing is done to obtain the signal amplitude
  (example: amplitude function of cetacean echolocation clicks)
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2022-06-23. Score: 4
  
  The three measurements are typically inter-convertible, though strictly speaking the inter-convertibility holds for sinusoidal sounds only (not always applicable to real-data). If we have a waveform X  then
  rms(X) = peak(X)/sqrt(2)
  # 'rms' is the root-mean-square of all samples in X.
  # 'peak' is the absolute maximum sample value of X.
  
  and
  peak-to-peak(X) = 2 x peak(X)
  # peak-to-peak is the difference between the highest and lowest samples. 
  
  However, the actual choice of measurement to report depends on both the properties of the sound, and the field convention. For very short sounds that occupy that span only a few samples, it may not make sense to report an rms reading for example - where a peak measurement may be more representative. On the other hand, if you have longer sounds with occasional blips due to unavoidable background noise, an rms reading may provide a more stable readout of sound level.
  Even if there is no broad convention, it may make sense to report the measurement/s of the papers that you'd like to compare your results with.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_2**: Thanks username_0! what is "peak()" exactly doing?  
  > **username_0**: Added short comments to explain peak, peak-to-peak, and rms!  
  > **username_3**: Are these definitions all assuming X is a perfect sinusoid? I think it might be helpful to more explicitly state "the following are only true for a perfect sinusoid X, for most real data we cannot convert between them easily"  
  
  ---
  
  