Nat 4Nat 5HigherAdvanced Higher

Amplitude

Amplitude is the size of a sound wave and relates to how loud it appears.

Level relevance: introduced at Nat 4; tagged for every later level where the same concept remains useful.

Explanation

Amplitude describes the strength of a signal. In practical terms, greater amplitude is usually perceived as greater loudness. In a waveform display, louder sections often appear taller. Managing amplitude matters throughout recording and mixing because signals that are too low can be noisy, while signals that are too high can distort or clip.

Topics

Sound theoryRecordingLevels
Curriculum statussupporting vocabulary
Review statusdraft

Related terms

Waveform

A waveform is the visual shape of an audio signal over time.

View term

Gain

Gain controls signal level at the input or processing stage of the signal path.

View term

Clipping

Clipping happens when a signal is too loud and the peaks are cut off, causing distortion.

View term

Normalisation

Normalisation raises or lowers a file’s level so its highest peak reaches a chosen target.

View term