Decibel Shield
Decibel meter › Noise log
Noise log for a complaint
To document noise for a complaint, record the date, the start and end time, and how loud it got. Press Start below, leave it running through the disturbance, then save the report. Three dated sessions carry far more weight than one angry phone call, and most cities ask for exactly this.
Your browser will ask for microphone access. Nothing is recorded or uploaded — the analysis runs entirely on your device.
Defaults are tuned per device; nudge until it matches a reference meter you trust. Saved on this device.
Last updated:
Keep this log across nights and devices
The meter above saves one session, to this browser, on this device. It cannot remember last Saturday, it cannot follow you from your phone to your laptop, and it cannot put a month of readings next to your city's quiet-hours rule in one dated document.
We are building that: a saved log of every session, shared across the devices you use, and a report you can hand to a landlord, a housing officer or the city. If you would use it, say so and you will hear when it opens.
Email me when it opens or write to myappstackdev@gmail.com. No list, no marketing, one email when it exists.
What to record, and why each part matters
| Record | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Date and clock time | Quiet hours are defined by the clock. A reading at 23:50 and the same reading at 14:00 are different facts. |
| How long it lasted | Duration separates a one-off from a disturbance. Most ordinances treat persistent noise differently from a single event. |
| Average, not just the peak | A peak can be a door. The average over a session is what someone else can recognise as the problem you are describing. |
| Where you measured | Inside your own home is the measurement that matters. A reading taken at the shared wall overstates what you actually live with. |
Levels here come from an uncalibrated microphone and sit within roughly 10 dB of a sound level meter, so treat them as a record of the pattern rather than proof of a specific limit. See how accurate this is.
Then check it against your own city
Quiet hours and the way a city enforces them vary more than people expect: some set measured decibel limits, most enforce by whether the noise is plainly audible from another home, and several set no general limit at all. Find yours before you file, so you can cite the section rather than describe the problem.
- Noise ordinances by city — the code quoted verbatim, with the quiet hours and the enforcement test.
- How to file a noise complaint — where the report actually goes, and what happens after.
- Quiet hours in an apartment — when the building's rules and the city's rules differ.
- Covenant of quiet enjoyment — the tenancy term a landlord is answerable to.
Questions
Is a phone or laptop measurement good enough for a noise complaint?
It is good enough to document a pattern, not to prove a violation. An uncalibrated phone microphone reads within roughly 10 dB of a sound level meter, which is too wide a margin to argue a specific limit. What it does well is show when the noise happened, how long it lasted, and how much louder it was than the rest of the night. Cities that enforce by audibility rather than by decibels care about exactly that.
What should I write down alongside the reading?
The date, the time it started and stopped, what the sound was, and where you were standing when you measured. A reading with no context is hard to act on; the same reading with "Saturday 00:20, bass from the flat above, measured in my bedroom" is evidence. Keep the entries short and keep them consistent, because a run of similar entries is what shows a pattern.
Does this record the audio?
No. The page reads a level from the microphone about ten times a second and throws the audio away immediately. Nothing is written to a file, nothing is sent anywhere, and there is no account. That is also why the report it produces contains numbers and times rather than a recording.
What if my city has no decibel limit?
Most do not set a general one. They define quiet hours and then enforce by whether the noise is plainly audible at a boundary or inside another home. Your log still matters: it establishes the hours, the frequency and the duration, which are the facts an audibility rule turns on. The ordinance page for your city quotes the actual text so you can see which test applies.
How many nights should I log before I complain?
Enough to show it is a pattern rather than one bad night, and dated so the pattern is visible. Three separate incidents is the figure most city guidance and tenant advice converges on, but there is no legal threshold and a single severe event can be worth reporting on its own. Log it while it is happening; reconstructing times afterwards weakens the record.
Can I take this to a landlord or a court?
You can hand anyone a dated log, and landlords and housing officers generally accept one. Whether it carries weight in a legal proceeding depends on your jurisdiction and is not something this page can answer. Nothing here is legal advice. If the matter is heading that way, a formal measurement by the city or by a qualified acoustician is the evidence that is hard to argue with.