Statistics

The Statistics tool displays information about the selected sound file region.

Click the Update button after moving the cursor or creating a selection to refresh the display, or you can select the Automatic updates check box to refresh the display when you move the cursor or selection.

If the Statistics tool is not visible, you can select the Show or hide the bottom pane button or choose View > Statistics. For more information, see "Arranging editing views."


Option

Description

Level Format

Choose a setting from the drop-down list to choose the format that will be used to display the Sample value at cursor, Minimum sample value, Maximum sample value, RMS level, and Average value values.

Cursor position

The cursor position from the start of the sound file.

Sample value at cursor

The number stored by a single sample at the cursor position.

Minimum/Maximum sample position and sample value

The maximum and minimum sample values and the locations 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 example, to find the noise amplitude, run the Statistics function on a region of noisy silence.

RMS level

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

The sum of all sample values in the selected region divided by the number of samples.

An average value that does not equal zero (-inf dB) can indicate a DC offset.

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.