Why in movies do the voice to sound effects levels always suck so bad?

reply to post by GreenGiant


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I am thinking of ways to create a inline regulator that will even out all the volume comming through the line. It should even be that hard.

Then just simply attach the jacks to the device then the device to the audio inputs and done. I had a similar thing when I was a kid that my dad had built, to quiet the commercials down. I cnt seem to find it anymore though.

Originally posted by OneNationUnder
I think it's the type of audio preference you choose for your TV and/or your receiver.

I used to have the same problem as you actually, but experimented with the audio preferences and all
is fine now in every TV show / movie and even commercial I watch.

But the bad audio you speak of is when they do a crappy job on the mixing audio levels for dialogue and effects together. There is a preference in many of the TVs today where it'll enhance dialogue and tone down the effects.

Commercials are horrible with this because their budget tends to be very low so the dropouts are huge.

You are correct. You need some kind of equalizer that can turn down the mids and turn up the bass and highs. The majority of the problem is that the loud commercials, sound effects, etc all use really high mids. If you have an EQ you should turn down the mids and move the highs up a little. That should help. Sorry I am not good at explaining how to set the EQ.

- Turn up your center channel(s). Turn down your sub and rears.

- If you don't have a center channel(s), you're screw'd. Stereo doesn't cut it. Movies aren't mixed for 2.0 any more.

- For TV, commercials are generally 30% louder than the actual programming.

WOW I was just talking about this yesterday.

This drives me CRAZY!!

SInce I was a kid this has driven me nuts.

I don't have cable anymore but when I did it use to drive me nuts. I'd have to mute the commercials or turn them down but then I'd have to turn the program back up because it was too low.

I dont have to worry about this anymore. The only other noise issue I have is in movies and that is the music always being louder. I know they do it for a reason but it's annoying lol.

Well I share your frustration. I work in the film industry and am on set at the camera for every take. We shoot the scene, record the dialog and background sound all at the same time. Then, the sound mixer records a 'room tone' which is just the background environmental sounds. In post production, the sound designer mixes all of the sounds to the proper levels on separate channels and then they are mixed according to the proper sound profiles. There are more elements involved such as foley, which is replacement sounds that are impractical or impossible to capture on location. Then there are sound, effects and ADR as well. ADR is Additional Dialog Recording, stuff that is said off camera. And then looping. Looping is re-recording dialog that was tainted on location and such.
There are more aspects of it that I'm not familiar with. I really don't know much about it. But, it seems with all of those controls and the technology in place, I WOULD BE ABLE TO HEAR THE DAMNED DIALOG!!! LOL

Originally posted by GreenGiant


-GreenGiant

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