Members techristian Posted July 16, 2014 Members Share Posted July 16, 2014 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nat whilk II Posted July 16, 2014 Members Share Posted July 16, 2014 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators davie Posted July 16, 2014 Moderators Share Posted July 16, 2014 You're not the only one. I feel the same way as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members techristian Posted July 16, 2014 Author Members Share Posted July 16, 2014 I think that when I'm at NAMM ,in a few days, I'll be asking about a cheap IN LINE limiter. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted July 16, 2014 Members Share Posted July 16, 2014 Yes, the soundtracks are mixed this way. If you're listening on a multi-channel system a pretty easy fix is to turn up the center channel as that is most often used exclusively for dialogue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 16, 2014 Members Share Posted July 16, 2014 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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Notes_Norton Posted July 16, 2014 Members Share Posted July 16, 2014 I don't watch many modern "Hollywood Blockbuster" movies, but the few I do more often than not have the music and sound effects up way louder than the dialog. Notes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted July 16, 2014 Members Share Posted July 16, 2014 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted July 16, 2014 Members Share Posted July 16, 2014 Also----if you're just listening through the TV speakers, make sure you don't have the audio set for "wide" or one of the other signal-processed settings. Those can sometimes result in the dialogue getting buried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted July 16, 2014 Members Share Posted July 16, 2014 I think that when I'm at NAMM ,in a few days, I'll be asking about a cheap IN LINE limiter. Dan I've met a few people who use an FMR RNC before the audio hits their speakers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beck Posted July 16, 2014 Members Share Posted July 16, 2014 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted July 16, 2014 Members Share Posted July 16, 2014 I like good movies, and dislike bad movies. Unless they're really really *really* bad, in which case I may enjoy them nonetheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 16, 2014 Members Share Posted July 16, 2014 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. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members techristian Posted July 17, 2014 Author Members Share Posted July 17, 2014 Not to mention that they are doing this with commercials also,but I have a MUTE button or SKIP button for those !!!! HAHAHAHA!!! DAN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted July 17, 2014 Members Share Posted July 17, 2014 If they were really serious actors, they wouldn't need a music bed telling us how to react. 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 18, 2014 Members Share Posted July 18, 2014 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 18, 2014 Members Share Posted July 18, 2014 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Yeah, the mix levels of more recent movies definitely show a tendency towards lower dialog levels and higher music and effects levels. I'm not a fan of that trend either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted July 18, 2014 Members Share Posted July 18, 2014 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gregory Frus Posted July 20, 2014 Members Share Posted July 20, 2014 I think that when I'm at NAMM ,in a few days, I'll be asking about a cheap IN LINE limiter. Dan Great idea!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted July 20, 2014 Members Share Posted July 20, 2014 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.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted July 20, 2014 Members Share Posted July 20, 2014 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted July 20, 2014 Members Share Posted July 20, 2014 "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" was rather enjoyable. I saw it at another theater from a parallel universe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators MrKnobs Posted July 20, 2014 Moderators Share Posted July 20, 2014 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. Terry D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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