Viewing File Statistics

Tools Menu

The Statistics dialog displays information about the selected sound file region. To display the dialog, choose Statistics from the Tools menu.

Item

Description

Cursor Position

The cursor position (in samples) from the start of the sound file.

Sample Value at Cursor

The number stored by a single sample:

  • In 32-bit (IEEE float) audio, these values range from -1.0000000 to 1.0000000.

  • In 24-bit audio, they range from -8388608 to 8388607.

  • In 16-bit audio, they range from -32768 to 32767.

  • In 8-bit audio, they range from -128 to 127.

The maximum allowed sample value is often referred to as 100% or 0 dB.

Maximum/Minimum Sample Position and Sample Value

The maximum and minimum sample values and the locations (in samples) where they occur.

These values can help you determine if any clipping occurs in the sound file. It can also be used to determine the noise level of a signal for use with the Noise Gate effect. For example, to find the noise amplitude, run the Statistics function on a region of noisy silence.

RMS Power

The Root Mean Square of the sample values relative to the RMS value of a maximum-amplitude square wave (the loudest possible recording).

When used on short intervals, this value relates to the volume level of the sound file. However, if used on a large selection with large volume variation, this value becomes less meaningful. For another way to measure loudness, use the Scan Levels button in the Normalize dialog.

Average Value (DC Offset)

The sum of all sample values in the selected region divided by the number of samples. If this value is not zero, this usually indicates that there is a DC offset in the recording process.

Zero Crossings

The number of times per second that the waveform changes from a negative value to a positive value.

This value can be used as a rough estimate of the frequency of the sound data for very simple waveforms.