The sound is often so fucked up. Music, explosions, guns, cars etc are so fucking loud, but conversations are very dim, as if people are almost whispering. It’s often very hard to hear what people are saying, especially when eating crisps.
I always use English subs, even when watching stuff in my own language (Dutch)
If you have a soundbar or sound system turn the night mode or quiet mode setting on. It compresses the dynamic range of the audiotrack basically lowers the sound levels of the loud sounds
So, the solution to completely fucked up sound is to use a device to mangle that sound back into something which isn’t complete shit?
And yes, I understand it’s about the director wanting the loud sounds to be loud. But, when your art direction means that a major (if not majority) of your audience is going to have to “fix” your artistic direction, your artistic direction is the problem.
p.s.: don’t mean to jump down your throat, this is just one of those things that grinds my gears. Along with the “let’s make everything too dark to possibly see” art direction which has become popular.
If you have a proper surround system than usually soft dialogue isn’t as big of a problem since the voices are on the center channel and don’t share the same speaker as the music and sound effects which are on the other speakers. The problem arises when you listen to a surround mix on a stereo system or a cheap soundbar. The center and surround channels then gets down mixed into the stereo channels. Which can drown out the voices by the loud sounds since now they share the same speaker.
The real solution is adding a proper stereo mix as an option. Which used to be normal in the DVD era.
Well that might be the problem, you are listening to a surround mix on a stereo system. The center and surround channels gets downmixed to the L-R channels which could drown out the voices since all the voices in the center channel are now on the same channel as the surround sound effects and music. Maybe add a mixer in between to boost the center channel before the down mix.
The sound is often so fucked up. Music, explosions, guns, cars etc are so fucking loud, but conversations are very dim, as if people are almost whispering. It’s often very hard to hear what people are saying, especially when eating crisps.
I always use English subs, even when watching stuff in my own language (Dutch)
If you have a soundbar or sound system turn the night mode or quiet mode setting on. It compresses the dynamic range of the audiotrack basically lowers the sound levels of the loud sounds
So, the solution to completely fucked up sound is to use a device to mangle that sound back into something which isn’t complete shit?
And yes, I understand it’s about the director wanting the loud sounds to be loud. But, when your art direction means that a major (if not majority) of your audience is going to have to “fix” your artistic direction, your artistic direction is the problem.
p.s.: don’t mean to jump down your throat, this is just one of those things that grinds my gears. Along with the “let’s make everything too dark to possibly see” art direction which has become popular.
If you have a proper surround system than usually soft dialogue isn’t as big of a problem since the voices are on the center channel and don’t share the same speaker as the music and sound effects which are on the other speakers. The problem arises when you listen to a surround mix on a stereo system or a cheap soundbar. The center and surround channels then gets down mixed into the stereo channels. Which can drown out the voices by the loud sounds since now they share the same speaker.
The real solution is adding a proper stereo mix as an option. Which used to be normal in the DVD era.
I don’t have that. I’m an audiophile, I have a proper tube amp stereo sound system. I don’t want to have my sound compressed and filtered.
Well that might be the problem, you are listening to a surround mix on a stereo system. The center and surround channels gets downmixed to the L-R channels which could drown out the voices since all the voices in the center channel are now on the same channel as the surround sound effects and music. Maybe add a mixer in between to boost the center channel before the down mix.
Well shit. I hate surround sound haha
But subtitles work 🤷