cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/nonpolitical_comics/p/1657114/mr-lovenstein-volume

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      • pivot_root@lemmy.world
        91·
        1 month ago

        FYI, I am not the person you replied to.

        The part where the comm it’s from is trying to not be political is, apparently, political. Some people here seem to think that spending every waking moment inside a landscape of political doom is a necessary purity test.

    • [deleted]@piefed.worldEnglish
      32·
      1 month ago

      Older movies tended to have audio mixes where the dialogue was clear even when loud things were happening, people shouldn’t need to use a compressor.

      • Chronographs@lemmy.zipEnglish
        91·
        1 month ago

        They also didn’t have much dynamic range, it’s much easier to compress the range than expand it

        • [deleted]@piefed.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 month ago

          I have not had a great experience with compression.

          A couple TVs would have the audio delayed slightly, enough that the last syllable spoken was after they closed their mouths. Most of them also did a terrible job playing from TV speakers if the audio was in the center channel and I could not set it to stereo.

          Also I find the leveling or night settings make it harder to hear because while the speaking volume is raised that doesn’t make it clearer. So if there is background music the same volume it is just muddled at a higher volume.

          Compression is better than nothing but in no way comparable to a mix that is actually intentionally made to reduce the dynamic range. Having one mix and letting the compressor software fudge the balance is lazy and has mediocre results.

          • Chronographs@lemmy.zipEnglish
            4·
            1 month ago

            I still feel like it probably works better than trying to expand a flat mix. Center channel dialogue is a different issue imo, there should definitely be 2.0 mixes available for streaming content auto-downmixing will always be bad.

            • [deleted]@piefed.worldEnglish
              2·
              1 month ago

              Center channel dialogue is part of the overall issue of only having one 5.1 high dynamic range mix available to play on a wide range of devices with vastly different setups.

  • Strider@lemmy.world
    14·
    1 month ago

    FYI this is one of the main differences between the Hollywood and German soundtracks.

    Here it’s mixed far better to listen in stereo while in surround cinematic you need to turn the front speaker up, if you have that system. And it doesn’t translate well to stereo.

    • Chais@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      1 month ago

      Wouldn’t that be a question of studio sound versus scene sound? The original sound is usually recorded with a boom mic, resulting in a wider dynamic range, whereas the German voiceover can be recorded in a studio, without interference and the speakers much closer to the mic.
      The alternative would be to give each actor a lapel mic which would then have to be edited out of the video and would also be infeasible in some situations.

    • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
      11·
      1 month ago

      Hollywood mixes are just awful, have been for decades now. You can go to the theater and have quiet voices and blown-out eardrums from a race scene.

      I have a middle-to-upper-end 5.1 setup and have to fiddle with it like hell to keep the voices audible without ruining the action scenes.

          • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
            3·
            1 month ago

            I haven’t watched it yet. Kinda want to, I have a low bar for video enjoyment. Maybe I’ll throw it on my phone and wait for a no-network time, but i’ll make sure i have subs for it :)

          • tetris11@feddit.ukEnglish
            1·
            1 month ago

            Scene:

            • Important person walks into a room
            • “Needless exposition about how rich and influential that person is”
            • Another important person walks into a room
            • “More needless exposition about how rich and influential that person is”
            • “That person is rich and influential?”
            • *wry smile*

            Next scene, more of the same

      • Strider@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 month ago

        Yes basically what I said, but some say it’s good for reasons that elude me. So I try to stay on the technical base to avoid discussion.

  • Eternal192@anarchist.nexusEnglish
    53·
    1 month ago

    One of the main reasons i watch everything with subtitles, people used to be amused when i would watch an english movie with english subtitles, then they got apartments with poor sound proofed walls and floors, they weren’t so amused anymore.

  • fennesz12@feddit.dk
    20·
    1 month ago

    This wasn’t a thing a couple of decades ago. To this day I can still watch movies from the eighties just fine, but need subtitles for anything made within the last 10 years.

    • LwL@lemmy.world
      2·
      1 month ago

      Old movies feel much worse for me, voices barely audible but sfx blow my ears out. But I also have sound from headphones, maybe that just works better with the newer mixes.

    • Jyek@sh.itjust.works
      7·
      1 month ago

      I’m sorry but, the 80s were more than a couple of decades ago. 1986 was 40 years ago.

      Also 20 years ago this was still an issue. Plasma screen TVs were becoming accessible to consumers and surround sound was taking off in the home video space. TV was mixed for surround cinematic but not everyone had a surround setup yet. They had to write laws that said the tv commercials couldn’t be louder than the main content of the channel (though these laws were largely unenforced).

      • fennesz12@feddit.dk
        2·
        1 month ago

        Yeah, maybe a lot of movies are mixed for the theater experience. I have a JBL soundbar with detachable back speakers, and I do struggle a lot with modern movies.

  • Honytawk@feddit.nl
    4·
    1 month ago

    By default I enable Loudness Equalization, which makes soft sounds louder and loud sounds softer.

    I don’t care about the dynamic range if you can’t understand what they are saying.

  • SoloCritical@lemmy.world
    11·
    1 month ago

    And this is why I, a genius, watch my content with subtitles. So I can keep the volume at a perpetually low level whilst still understanding what is being said even when it isn’t in a language I speak.

  • Nangijala@feddit.dk
    4·
    1 month ago

    Subtitles can save you a lot of headaches.

    Our TV has a shit sound distribution so it is literally like in the meme and our solution became to always have subtitles on even now that we live in a place with soundproof walls and no longer have to mind neighbors.

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
    1412·
    1 month ago

    Pay for better audio people. TV companies make big shiny displays but out smartphone sized speakers in them. Gone are the days where you can get good audio from your TV. Even the cheapest sound bars will make a difference.

    It’s not your ears. It’s your sound equipment.

    • D_C@sh.itjust.works
      103·
      1 month ago

      Nope. Not always.

      I have a none cheap but not super expensive soundbar. We were watching the film Phantoms the other night and the sound was just terrible.
      The women’s voices were very clear but the men’s voices were inaudible whispers.
      Turn it up …FUCK YOU, ACTION SCENE
      Turn it down
      Peter O’Toole introduced. We can hear him clearly because he was classically trained.
      Go back to usual men talking and just whispers again.
      Turn it up. FUCK YOU I SAID, ACTION SCENE
      Oh FFS, turn it down.

      It was like that all the way through.

      I have all the clear voice options working. I have tinkered on the sound profile on my TV to help try to lose the bass and give a bit more clarity on the voices but sometimes it’s just the shit way the audio on the film is mixed.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    7·
    1 month ago

    I had such a situation years ago. I was listening to Mike Oldfields “Tubular Bells II” on headphones. For the first time. There is a sequence where the music stops, and a child is telling something. I turned up the volume to hear it, and got the last words “and nothing was ever heard of him again, except for the sound of tu-bu-lar bells”, and then came BANG the promised bell…

    • jimmy90@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 month ago

      if you’re using linux slap a couple of boosting compressors on the sound using easyeffects to turn up the quiet parts

      works remarkably well

    • Fmstrat@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 month ago

      Only of it was made for TV. This is often a problem with theatrical releases because the audio is not retuned for home viewing.

    • otacon239@lemmy.world
      52·
      1 month ago

      Part of it could either be that they’re not spending the time for a home release audio mix, don’t want to for purity’s sake or I’ve seen issues with trying to condense surround soundscapes down to stereo.

      It all comes down to dynamic range and they should be using all of it for theatrical release and then remastering for home release.

      TV shows do not get a pass. Cinephile audio engineers that think the vast majority of their listeners will have home theater setups are just plain delusional.

      • turdas@suppo.fi
        34·
        1 month ago

        The way they do dynamic range in movie theaters sucks too. I have to wear earplugs because it’s so loud.

        • ohulancutash@feddit.ukEnglish
          11·
          1 month ago

          Turns out when they went digital and got the popcorn kid to press play instead of a skilled projectionist, sound calibration also went away. Now they deliberately turn it up beyond the sound mixer’s specs.

          • turdas@suppo.fi
            4·
            1 month ago

            Around here they do calibrate the theaters but the spec says they can still be insanely loud, as long as they’re not loud all the time. The peaks are well over 100 dB.

        • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
          9·
          1 month ago

          Yes!

          I may get a shit sound experience at home, but at least I have an opportunity for an even worse sound experience at my local theater, first.

      • _‌_反いじめ戦隊@ani.socialEnglish
        6·
        1 month ago

        while I agree with:

        Cinephile audio engineers that think the vast majority of their listeners will have home theater setups are just plain delusional.

        I disagree:

        they’re not spending the time for a home release audio mix

        From my recollection, mixing audio for different scenarios is just a function you can let the speakers decide how it will mix. Not adding this basic accessibility function in the 21c is just callousness.

      • ryannathans@aussie.zone
        32·
        1 month ago

        Depend, people with proper high dynamic range surround sound systems shouldn’t be penalised when watching content

            • otacon239@lemmy.world
              2·
              1 month ago

              Looking into it, there’s a range of standards for Blu-Ray in terms of video quality. I doubt there are a ton of discs that can’t afford a few of those 25-50GB. Just spitballing ways to make it approachable rather than say only one way is correct. There’s all sorts of fancy stuff going on with DTS. Maybe they could work compression into part of the standard and just include alternate mixes.

            • SapientLasagna@lemmy.ca
              31·
              1 month ago

              The high dynamic range 7.1 audio is already on the disc. What we’re wanting is a decent stereo mixdown. Could be 128kb mp3 for all I care. Not like I’ll be able to discern a higher bitrate on my tv speakers. That should require 86MB per 90 minutes.

    • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
      392·
      1 month ago

      No, blame the streaming companies. Dynamic range is a known standard. All they need is:

      • a “louder dialogue” toggle switch to amplify the center channel in the downmixing settings (Kodi, many TVs, and all dedicated receivers can already do this FYI for this exact reason)
      • a “night mode” toggle switch that turns on an audio compressor (my 20 year-old receiver has that feature – it’s hardly rocket science; I believe YouTube calls it “stabilized audio”).

      Upsides:

      • preserves high dynamic range mix for audiophiles
      • works with already released movies (!!!)
      • improves the life of people with tinny speakers, strict loudness requirements, or hearing impairments

      Downsides:

      • Can’t feel superior to audio engineers who are doing their jobs, I guess?
      • Streaming companies need to reinvest a few thousand dollars out of the billions they are making to add those two buttons