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3.1.3 Loudness of Sound vs Volume of Sound
Annie and Frank on the tone property loudness:
Anything you can say, I can say softer. I can say anything softer than you (Soft) No you can’t. (Softer) Yes I can (Softer) No you can’t. (Softer) Yes I can (etc.).
Like most people, you probably refer to loudness as volume. As in the “volume” control on your radio or remote. You experience loudness subjectively as sound intensity. The louder the sound, the more intense it seems.
You may have a sound system with both a “volume” control and a “loudness” control. That loudness control does something quite different from the volume control. The loudness control compensates for a natural pitch bias that everyone has. As a human, your hearing system evolved to hear mid-pitched sounds—the pitches of human speech—as relatively louder than bass and treble pitches. In short, you’re born with a hearing mechanism that’s more sensitive to mid-pitched sounds. Especially at a relatively soft volume level, you don’t hear extremes of bass and treble nearly as well as you hear mid-pitched sounds. So, when you listen to music at soft volumes, the music seems to lack adequate bass and treble.