are movies too loud ?
Sept 5, 2006 16:12:41 GMT
Post by rickcr42 on Sept 5, 2006 16:12:41 GMT
I say hell yes they are !!!!
...........so loud that I can not enjoy a movie until it comes out on DVD so I can set my own playback levels at home.I don't want or need "bigger than life" sound FX if it means going from whisper quiet to ear splitting loud which bears no resemblance to any natural event found in the real world.
For example.I have some time/experience with firearms and some military ordinance.Only a retard would intentionally let fly a few hundred rounds of 7.62 ball ammunition without using some type of hearing protection in a peace time situation yet here we are paying someone to blow our ear drums out not just reproducing but embellishing on the very same event in a "shootout" scene !
Only in a Movie does a Molotav Cocktail explode rather than just stick and burn (if you added the thickener of course )yet at the movies and with great theatrical volume peak expansion we get
KABLOOOOOOMIE
Every time !
A simple bottle with an accelerator (gasoline) now takes on explosive proportions so the audience can be entertained never realising just how dangerous these SPL levels really are.If it was the workplace and a worker were to be exposed to such levels for two hours without hearing protection in my country OSHA would be on their ass and someone is getting sued yet here we are paying for the same event that would cause a work stoppage and never giving it a second thought.
The reason this is on my mind is I came across this here
www.film-tech.com/warehouse/manuals/DOLBYLOUD.pdf
Now these guys are experts and I am as far from one as the Angelina Jolee is from my bedroom but there is also something called common sense at work in any human with an IQ over a box of pencils.My take is it is not just EQ as is suggested in the above (though no doubt a good part of it) but the dynamic range allowed on modern sound tracks.
This dynamic range is far and above anything you are likely to find in the real world because there is a natural ambient sound field in life that will BURY and low level sounds unless you too are in a very quiet area.If in a noisy place then whispering is off the list of ways to communicate for instance.In a load environment you YELL if you want to be heard (which getting back to a military reference is like the difference between using hand signals to your squad when being sneaky then shouting commands once it gets "busy" ).Common sense.
So what does the movie house do to prevent those on screen dialog whispers from getting lost in the natural ambient sound field of a movie house (One that while low is STILL one populatede by many humans so louder in reality than you think) ?
They UP the fkn volume is what !
Which causes what ? Loud events to be REALLY DAMN LOUD ! Far louder than is either comfortable or safe if the events at that level are many and over a long period of time !
So what is the answer ?Turn down the volume and make the audience strain to here the low level dialog with such an event likely getting someones ass kicked ? Use a peak limiter to contain the loudest portions ?To set the "Max Allowable SPL" ?
Likely that would also cause an uproar unless done with a soft hand and that would be imperfect at best since "slight" means not much of an improvement hence back to the original question.
My take is we need to lose some dynamic range,to "lose" some of the larger than life equalization and to get back to natuaral levels "plus a bit" in combination with monitor systems closer to the Golden Age of Cinema like the old WE systms and old VOT systems where it was the dynamic range of the loudspeaker that allowed the soft to loud to come through and not some knucklhead with an overly enthusiastic idea of what the world sounds like or should if it was his world,a world where we would all be fkn DEAF by the age of 20
rant over
...........so loud that I can not enjoy a movie until it comes out on DVD so I can set my own playback levels at home.I don't want or need "bigger than life" sound FX if it means going from whisper quiet to ear splitting loud which bears no resemblance to any natural event found in the real world.
For example.I have some time/experience with firearms and some military ordinance.Only a retard would intentionally let fly a few hundred rounds of 7.62 ball ammunition without using some type of hearing protection in a peace time situation yet here we are paying someone to blow our ear drums out not just reproducing but embellishing on the very same event in a "shootout" scene !
Only in a Movie does a Molotav Cocktail explode rather than just stick and burn (if you added the thickener of course )yet at the movies and with great theatrical volume peak expansion we get
KABLOOOOOOMIE
Every time !
A simple bottle with an accelerator (gasoline) now takes on explosive proportions so the audience can be entertained never realising just how dangerous these SPL levels really are.If it was the workplace and a worker were to be exposed to such levels for two hours without hearing protection in my country OSHA would be on their ass and someone is getting sued yet here we are paying for the same event that would cause a work stoppage and never giving it a second thought.
The reason this is on my mind is I came across this here
www.film-tech.com/warehouse/manuals/DOLBYLOUD.pdf
Now these guys are experts and I am as far from one as the Angelina Jolee is from my bedroom but there is also something called common sense at work in any human with an IQ over a box of pencils.My take is it is not just EQ as is suggested in the above (though no doubt a good part of it) but the dynamic range allowed on modern sound tracks.
This dynamic range is far and above anything you are likely to find in the real world because there is a natural ambient sound field in life that will BURY and low level sounds unless you too are in a very quiet area.If in a noisy place then whispering is off the list of ways to communicate for instance.In a load environment you YELL if you want to be heard (which getting back to a military reference is like the difference between using hand signals to your squad when being sneaky then shouting commands once it gets "busy" ).Common sense.
So what does the movie house do to prevent those on screen dialog whispers from getting lost in the natural ambient sound field of a movie house (One that while low is STILL one populatede by many humans so louder in reality than you think) ?
They UP the fkn volume is what !
Which causes what ? Loud events to be REALLY DAMN LOUD ! Far louder than is either comfortable or safe if the events at that level are many and over a long period of time !
So what is the answer ?Turn down the volume and make the audience strain to here the low level dialog with such an event likely getting someones ass kicked ? Use a peak limiter to contain the loudest portions ?To set the "Max Allowable SPL" ?
Likely that would also cause an uproar unless done with a soft hand and that would be imperfect at best since "slight" means not much of an improvement hence back to the original question.
My take is we need to lose some dynamic range,to "lose" some of the larger than life equalization and to get back to natuaral levels "plus a bit" in combination with monitor systems closer to the Golden Age of Cinema like the old WE systms and old VOT systems where it was the dynamic range of the loudspeaker that allowed the soft to loud to come through and not some knucklhead with an overly enthusiastic idea of what the world sounds like or should if it was his world,a world where we would all be fkn DEAF by the age of 20
rant over