Film dialogue audio -_-

Omaeka

Omaeka

Omaeka

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10 Apr 2012
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Am I the only one who notices something with films these days? It's almost every film I watch, it's literally a case of

"psshhh psshhh pppsshhh, psh psh, pssshhh."

Hmm, I can't really hear what they are saying at all... *rewinds film a little, turns up volume*

"blah blah blah blah, blah blah"

Ah that's better, can just about hear them nicely now...

Then all of a sudden:

BOOOO00000000M!

Holy mother of god! *wakes up entire neighbourhood*

tl;dr: why the **** are films so ****ing quiet with the dialogue but with ridiculously loud action? I'm literally on the edge of my seat with the remote to avoid making the neighbors think that the country is being invaded again.

Does my ****ing head right in. Surely I'm not the only one who's noticed this bull****?
 
My dad really struggles to hear dialogue, it doesn't help with the thin almost non existant speakers in the TV I guess, but at least most films have CC. It's always a ping pong match with the volume controls as well.
 
Actors these days tend to rely on the high sensitivity of modern microphones rather than learning to throw their voices.
Add in the deliberate use of this to do exactly what you state (build the tension with quiet dialogue and then throw in a supermassive explosion).
Next up throw in the fact that modern A/V equipment have a very good dynamic range and you have one hell of an audio experience.

Try looking for a DRC (Dynamic Range Compression) or NIGHT MODE option in your system, they should squish the range down so that dialogue and explosions are somewhat closer to each other in volume than they would be normally.
Just remember to set it all back to full when you are finished! :)
 
VaderDSL said:
My dad really struggles to hear dialogue, it doesn't help with the thin almost non existant speakers in the TV I guess, but at least most films have CC. It's always a ping pong match with the volume controls as well.
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By CC do you mean subtitles? I had to turn the subtitles on in Thor and have the volume low because it was a joke trying to watch it properly at 9PM last night, a lot of people around my neighborhood work nights so I naturally keep it nice and quiet around that time, it's annoying though because night time is by far the best time to watch movies, especially with family/friends.

BloodyL said:
Actors these days tend to rely on the high sensitivity of modern microphones rather than learning to throw their voices.
Add in the deliberate use of this to do exactly what you state (build the tension with quiet dialogue and then throw in a supermassive explosion).
Next up throw in the fact that modern A/V equipment have a very good dynamic range and you have one hell of an audio experience.

Try looking for a DRC (Dynamic Range Compression) or NIGHT MODE option in your system, they should squish the range down so that dialogue and explosions are somewhat closer to each other in volume than they would be normally.
Just remember to set it all back to full when you are finished! :)
Click to expand...

I'm surprised though because most films I watch have brilliant actors, I picked up Avengers from Tesco earlier today and the actors in that film are fantastic, couldn't ask for a better line up in this day and age yet they all did what you said about relying on microphones etc. Chris Hemsworth and Samuel L. Snakesonaplane were about the only two actors I could actually hear, Robert Downy was like a mute expecting you to lip read. :p

What is the DRC? I play movies from my laptop after hooking it up to the big telly using VLC, don't have a DVD player because I'm so hipster, they are way too mainstream (joke). So I'm not too sure about what you suggested because I'm naff with software.
 
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There is a DRC option in VLC, In the TOOLS menu choose EFFECTS AND FILTERS (Or just press CTRL and E) A new window should popup, in the AUDIO EFFECTS tab there is a COMPRESSOR subtab, tick ENABLE DYNAMIC RANGE COMPRESSOR.

I'm not sure how the graphic equaliser affects things as I'm more of a MPC-HC kinda guy, VLC is not my forte.
Try it with the EQ as it is, if it is not what you need then tweak.

As for the current crop of "actors", hmmm... I'm reluctant to say they are brilliant but then some part of me says that they must be at least half way proficient to be able to visualise a scene in an entirely matte green soundstage and manage to get away with it. ;)
 
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amps, tvs etc have dynamic range control. use it if it's that bad, or fiddle with the EQ boosting specifically frequencies around 1-5kHz (where most vocal pronunciation happens).

it's not rocket science

e: some kit (my tv for example) has essentially a volume limiter built in. pretty handy, that.
 
I think it is because most movies are made with six channels and generally tvs only have two channels. Some TVs do a bad job of down mixing 6 channels to two channels. I have a 5 channel speakers and have no problem hearing audio as it usually comes out the center speaker. But i tend to listen to most things on head phones anyway.
 
BloodyL said:
There is a DRC option in VLC, In the TOOLS menu choose EFFECTS AND FILTERS (Or just press CTRL and E) A new window should popup, in the AUDIO EFFECTS tab there is a COMPRESSOR subtab, tick ENABLE DYNAMIC RANGE COMPRESSOR.

I'm not sure how the graphic equaliser affects things as I'm more of a MPC-HC kinda guy, VLC is not my forte.
Try it with the EQ as it is, if it is not what you need then tweak.

As for the current crop of "actors", hmmm... I'm reluctant to say they are brilliant but then some part of me says that they must be at least half way proficient to be able to visualise a scene in an entirely matte green soundstage and manage to get away with it. ;)
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Excellent! Will give that a go when I rewatch Avengers sometime this week. :D

Chris Hemsworth IMO is the best actor of his generation and best actor since Bale. I wasn't really all that impressed with Renner though which is quite disappointing, he's usually a fantastic actor, really didn't like all that serious uptight nonsense as Hawkeye, who I'm pretty sure is a pretty laid back guy in the comics (could be wrong though).

twist3d0n3 said:
amps, tvs etc have dynamic range control. use it if it's that bad, or fiddle with the EQ boosting specifically frequencies around 1-5kHz (where most vocal pronunciation happens).

it's not rocket science

e: some kit (my tv for example) has essentially a volume limiter built in. pretty handy, that.
Click to expand...

I'll have a look into that, I honestly didn't except anyone to be able to help, I thought I'd either get flamed to death or it'd be a big mutual rant on how bad it is, thankfully I only ever use my T.V for movies so I can literally try and tweak it to a perfect range and forget it. It's an old 23" 720p LCD, probably about 3 or 4 years old, no idea what features it has on it.

groen said:
I think it is because most movies are made with six channels and generally tvs only have two channels. Some TVs do a bad job of down mixing 6 channels to two channels. I have a 5 channel speakers and have no problem hearing audio as it usually comes out the center speaker. But i tend to listen to most things on head phones anyway.
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The screen is always about 6 feet away while I chill with a few bevvies, don't think I could use headphones. I wouldn't want to either as I have incredibly weird shaped lugholes and can only use earplug headphones which are uncomfortable as hell. :p

Cheers for the suggestions, will try them out pretty sharpish. ;)
 
twist3d0n3 said:
amps, tvs etc have dynamic range control. use it if it's that bad, or fiddle with the EQ boosting specifically frequencies around 1-5kHz (where most vocal pronunciation happens).

it's not rocket science

e: some kit (my tv for example) has essentially a volume limiter built in. pretty handy, that.
Click to expand...



The question being asked is not: "how do I fix this", but: "why do they do it?" Short answer: because it's a fashion. Longer answer: because it's a fashion which sheep producers (I'll guess that in most cases it is them, not the director, driving this) think is clever.
 
Fault lies with whoever does prep for BR/DVD distribution. They should do their own sound downmix, and correct cinema levels to home cinema/TV, but barely anyone does. Technically everything distributed in Europe should slowly begin to comply to -23LUFS dynamic range, but because EBU rules don't specifically name home cinema products in R128 documents, no one bothers.
 
Meridian said:
The question being asked is not: "how do I fix this", but: "why do they do it?" Short answer: because it's a fashion. Longer answer: because it's a fashion which sheep producers (I'll guess that in most cases it is them, not the director, driving this) think is clever.
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they do it because that's how films are done for cinema, where it doesn't matter how loud it is, then people with home cinema want the ability to have it close to a cinema experience, so they're not going to generate the 'usual' version with high dynamics, and a 'low dynamic range' mixdown for people who don't get the opportunity. they *could* include an audio track on dvd/bluray which has been run through a compressor, but it would sound ****,and it's extra effort that would cost.

i wouldn't call it a fashion, it's just the way its done...
 
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most films are fine with a decent 5.1 system. so it must be the TV?

if you love movies you should get a 5.1 system. and not one of those crappy logitech 5.1 systems either ;)

at least with a proper 5.1 you can up the levels on the centre channel (mainly speech) to your liking.
 
realBabelfish said:
:)

this is with a 5.1 system i take it?

after i bought my B&W system i had to add foam around all the doors downstairs as they would rattle with all the LFE :)

if too loud it makes you feel like your organs will get crushed :)
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It's funny, when I first bought my BK sub, I was expecting it to be that kind of in your face "woop woop" bass you get in crappy car speakers, but it's actually more like thunder, it just fills the whole room and makes it sound like the building is falling apart :D (like on TDK blu ray when the truck flips).
 
RationalGaze said:
It's funny, when I first bought my BK sub, I was expecting it to be that kind of in your face "woop woop" bass you get in crappy car speakers, but it's actually more like thunder, it just fills the whole room and makes it sound like the building is falling apart :D (like on TDK blu ray when the truck flips).
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yeah. i didnt realise how much better bass gets with a decent sub. thunder is a very good word for it.

we were on holiday the other week with a basic LCD TV in the room. got back and watched some TV and its so much better with decent 5.1 (or 7.1 FW in my case)
 
realBabelfish said:
yeah. i didnt realise how much better bass gets with a decent sub. thunder is a very good word for it.

we were on holiday the other week with a basic LCD TV in the room. got back and watched some TV and its so much better with decent 5.1 (or 7.1 FW in my case)
Click to expand...

Yeah even normal TV is so much better through my amp (I use Neural THX on it to upmix stereo sources to 5.1). I can't stand TV speakers anymore - they sound so tinny and from a small source. Through the speakers it's more like a wall of sound. I can't wait until we buy a house, then I can really put them to good use. At the moment I am very conscious of the sound when I watch movies, since we're in a 1st floor flat.
 
realBabelfish said:
most films are fine with a decent 5.1 system. so it must be the TV?

if you love movies you should get a 5.1 system. and not one of those crappy logitech 5.1 systems either ;)

at least with a proper 5.1 you can up the levels on the centre channel (mainly speech) to your liking.
Click to expand...

Even a cheap 5.1 system will be significantly better than the crappy speakers in modern tv's.
 
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