How can I calculate audio dB level?

Question

I want to calculate room noise level with the computer\'s microphone. I record noise as an audio file, but how can I calculate the noise dB level?

I don\'t know how

Answer 1

You can't. dB is a relative unit, IOW it is a unit for comparing two measurements against each other. You can only say that measurement A is x dB louder than measurement B, but in your case you only have one measurement. Therefore, it simply isn't possible to calculate the dB level.