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Am I the only one who notices this? It seems that all of the recent movies and programs on Netflix and many other new shows, have the MUSIC SOUNDTRACKS VOLUME WAY UP , and the dialogue way down. To hear every word the actors are saying , you must turn the volume way up, but when the music starts your ears almost bleed !!

 

Dan

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Oh, no, you're not the only one at all on that. It's not just the music that's pumped up, the explosions and blasts and roars and general demolition are also cranked.

 

We have this "can you please turn it up???!!" thing that goes on when the family watches movies. Mom hates loudness in general, so we all accommodate her until we miss some mumble or other in the dialog...so we turn it up to catch the words only so the next explosion can take the hair off the cat.

 

It's all funsmiley-happy

 

nat whilk ii

 

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You're not the only one. I feel the same way as well.

Ditto that.

 

I just don't watch contemporary entertainment movies. Problem solved.

 

And, you know, they're so blinkin' stupid anyhow. The mainstream culture is at an intellectual nadir. Stuff like GTA and the whole idiot gamer culture (two words: Flappy Birds), the inane crap on TV, the rejection of science or any complexity at all...

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There also seems to be a tendency in modern dramas to have the actors speak quietly. This gives the impression (I presume) that they are more "serious", but the truth is that if it were reality, you'd have to have your ear pressed right up to their face to understand anything they are saying. I also presume that modern micing techniques no longer require actors need to be able to project their voices across the soundstage as they once did. This also contributes to the dialogue often being buried under the music and sound effects.

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Am I the only one who notices this? It seems that all of the recent movies and programs on Netflix and many other new shows, have the MUSIC SOUNDTRACKS VOLUME WAY UP , and the dialogue way down...

 

I've been noticing for a long time. It's pretty bad. I don't watch many new movies because of this, unless I catch them at the theater. Since I've never gotten into computer video games I'm not acclimated to the way movies are made these days. It's all about effects and it looks so fake. I wonder if people who've been into gaming for a long time even realize how fake movies look and how bad they sound. It's distracting, but they're not making movies for people like me anymore.

 

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There also seems to be a tendency in modern dramas to have the actors speak quietly. This gives the impression (I presume) that they are more "serious", but the truth is that if it were reality, you'd have to have your ear pressed right up to their face to understand anything they are saying. I also presume that modern micing techniques no longer require actors need to be able to project their voices across the soundstage as they once did. This also contributes to the dialogue often being buried under the music and sound effects.

If they were really serious actors, they wouldn't need a music bed telling us how to react. wink_zpsa9897a65.gif

 

 

And good point on the TV's sound settings. Many modern/not-so-modern TVs have various pseudo-surround, etc, settings and they can really mess things up.

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If they were really serious actors, they wouldn't need a music bed telling us how to react. wink_zpsa9897a65.gif

 

Good point! But I meant to say serious CHARACTERS, not actors. I first noticed this years ago on the show "24". It's like they are all whispering secrets to each other all the time. The "Low Talkers" my wife and I started calling them.

 

And good point on the TV's sound settings. Many modern/not-so-modern TVs have various pseudo-surround, etc, settings and they can really mess things up.

 

Yes, I remember this when I bought a TV set years ago---my last CRT set. It had a "wide" setting (I think it was called.) It was cool the way it made the stereo separation sound wider, but it lost a lot of the dialogue in the process! No midrange!

 

I've run TV sound through sound systems for years now, but I presume modern sets still have similar features. Although I hope maybe they work better these days!

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Oh, heck yeah. My introduction to electronics was helping my old man install a simple switch to disconnect the speaker from the TV from across the room (wired, sadly). He got the idea from my grandfather -- who had his little home made entertainment center set up so that it switched from TV sound to whatever was on the stereo -- which was usually a commercial-less feed from the FM tuner he'd bought to 'intercept' the Muzak-style background music pumped out at the time by a number of radio stations (they'd usually just cut out the commercials leaving dead air... so when you'd go to a restaurant getting its background music from one of these systems (which the stations initially were able to charge for) there'd be long pauses between the Mantovani and the 101 Strings.

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There's a style of speaking that I've heard others remark on where the speaker begins at at relatively normal level and then slowly works down to a whispery (supposed) 'intensity' -- this is intended, we are told, to 'draw the audience in' -- and, without doubt, done right, in small doses, I think it (like other 'dramatic' effects) can work in the right circumstances.

 

But what I've read a few people comment (and complain) about are those who do it habitually, whether they're addressing a room full of people over a PA or someone in a noisy restaurant.

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I'm not so sure its the movies as it is the net congestion. Yes there are movies that probably use expanders on the sound tracks or had digital tracks that had huge amounts of headroom. Your older classic movies have very consistent sound levels because they used all analog gear when making those tracks so they had a much smaller SN ratio.

 

On my current set, I am constantly adjusting the volume from practically off to nearly maximum levels just to hear the sound. I thought it might be the Compressor/AGC setting the set comes with. Its got a very long release. If there's any digital pops, it sends the volume levels down really low.

I wasn't having that issue with my old set, at least not that bad, so both the set manufacturer and the cable provider need to get their acts together.

 

On top of that, if I hit a station that's got allot either allot of users or poor bandwidth, the high frequency starts flaking out. It sounds like a random flanger running and all the high frequency comes and goes. Sound like its going from 8 bit up to 12 bit audio which is most annoying. You'd think there would be some way of buffering the digital signal better on the user end so all the data gets there before its seen and heard. It doesn't affect the picture, just the audio streaming.

 

Satellite radio is the same way. The audio on the talk stations if horrible in comparison to FM radio. I even prefer AM radio over Satellite. I suppose its because I grew up with AM and even with the static and fading I'm accustomed those flaws. The flanged tones of Satellite and TV both remind me of like a bad tape head alignment or bad magnetic tape. Both of those things I battled for decades recording and when I hear it on a Digital setup its as irritating as Fingernails on a chalkboard.

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There's a really good multiplex theater a few miles from where I live. I think it's from a parallel universe. People don't text or talk during the movie, the volume level for the sound system is just right (also the sound quality is really clean), and people throw their food trash into trash cans instead of on the floor. So it's an extremely pleasant experience.

 

There's only one problem. This weekend I wanted to see a movie, and there was nothing I wanted to see. I'm willing to set the bar pretty low when I want to see a movie (i.e., things need to move around in color on a screen), but I couldn't set the bar low enough. I have been told the new Transformers movie is one of the worst movies ever, so I thought it might be useful to be able to say I've experienced one of the worst movies of all time. But I was advised I'd probably run out of the theater screaming after 30 minutes...which would defeat the point of seeing a movie anyway..

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But back on topic. I have Netflix and watch on my old Vista laptop (see, Vista is still good for something). Windows has all these options for the media player and sound system. In general these are Tools of Satan that make your music sound dreadful, but I've found a few settings that seem to help out with movies. I forget which ones they are offhand but if you poke around in Windows sound-land long enough you'll find something. Or not.

 

Just remember to disable when done.

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Am I the only one who notices this? It seems that all of the recent movies and programs on Netflix and many other new shows, have the MUSIC SOUNDTRACKS VOLUME WAY UP , and the dialogue way down. To hear every word the actors are saying , you must turn the volume way up, but when the music starts your ears almost bleed !!

 

Dan

 

Welcome to old age and hearing loss. :idk:

 

Terry D.

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I don't think it's just old age and hearing loss, nor do I think it's net congestion. I've noticed it on TV too, as well as online. And I am not noticing it with older movies so much as on the newer ones.

 

Besides, I get my ears checked regularly, and for an old dude, I'm doing pretty darned well - especially in light of the SPLs my various occupations have occasionally subjected me to over the years...

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