Sound

[flapalms239]

I live in a condo, so obviously I can't have my walls rattling with the movie sound etc...it seems like in all the movies I've bought and rented, the dialogue is very low and the music, gun noises action sequences are all LOUD...I find myself turning up and down the volume constantly...how can I fix this or is there anyway to do that?

[flapalms239]

I can't be the only one with this issue/question. Band of Brothers for instance, if I have the volume up loud enough to hear the talking, when the shooting starts it is extremely loud. I get it that that's obviously more real to life...but I'd rather not have to turn up the volume and turn it right back down over and over again during movies....

[Steve]

Originally Posted by flapalms239

I live in a condo, so obviously I can't have my walls rattling with the movie sound etc...it seems like in all the movies I've bought and rented, the dialogue is very low and the music, gun noises action sequences are all LOUD...I find myself turning up and down the volume constantly...how can I fix this or is there anyway to do that?

Originally Posted by flapalms239

I can't be the only one with this issue/question. Band of Brothers for instance, if I have the volume up loud enough to hear the talking, when the shooting starts it is extremely loud. I get it that that's obviously more real to life...but I'd rather not have to turn up the volume and turn it right back down over and over again during movies....

What's your setup like? Are you using a surround sound system or just the TV speakers?

[flapalms239]

Just tv speakers. I would love surround sound but I don't want my neighbors to be bothered :-)...

Bluray player hooked up with HDMI cable and I just use the tv speakers for sound.

[steve_dave]

Check your television for a "steady sound" option. Some newer televisions offer this and attempt to volume match all the audio so there are no sudden fluctuations.

[Steve]

Also check to see which audio formats are on your blu-rays when you play them. Any time there's a 2.0 channel option (as opposed to 5.1 or 7.1) select that one. It's mixed for the best results using only 2 speakers and may help with dialogue. When you have dialogue mixed in an audio track that's meant for a center channel speaker, but you don't have a center channel speaker the results aren't exactly spectacular.

You should still look into a surround sound setup. Many, many people here on this site are running 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound systems in apartments and condos and manage not to drive their neighbors crazy. Just because you have sound coming from all around you doesn't mean you have to suddenly listen at 5 times the volume.

[johaen]

If you're using a receiver, it might have a night mode. I've used night mode once on my receiver when I had some company over, and it did a good job of leveling out the volume so I could hear the talking, but the loud parts weren't going to wake up the company.

[JBL4645]

Just use the (audio compressor) (only works on Dolby dts it doesn’t) it’s the simple and turn up the level a tiny bit db that will work for effects and music at moderate level and still make dialogue easy to understand.

Also the benefits help soft effects that would otherwise be hard to hear in too loud background noise, so use it you should get any stick from your unsociable neighbours.

Originally Posted by flapalms239

I can't be the only one with this issue/question. Band of Brothers for instance, if I have the volume up loud enough to hear the talking, when the shooting starts it is extremely loud. I get it that that's obviously more real to life...but I'd rather not have to turn up the volume and turn it right back down over and over again during movies....

If there is one word I don’t like to hear. That’s the word impossible. In this case its…

Impossible! Because a real explosion is impossible! Otherwise the point would be to destroy you, bust out the windows, bust in the door, put large cracks in the walls!

You can try but you’re mostly likely, be stone deaf afterwards in trying.

There are some few effects that you can make real but only as real as the mixers made it to be and they know its impossible.

I prefer an acoustically proximity of the real event, and even an Earthquake is sheer impossible without letting the whole street know about and piss them off at the same time.

If you like gunfire try Heat in an untreated room with no carpet nothing and that hollow like gunfire will sound so shrilly like it was (on the production set) with all the gunfire bouncing off all the buildings and echoing for several seconds afterwards.

It will not be too soon that your develop "tinnitus" and slight desire to top yourself off because it can produce mild depression in most cases.

85db is more acceptable level for an 8 hour period.

Get and SPL db meter and take walk in the real world forget about Bluray, Bluray is fabricated sound. Monitor the level of street level sound on busy day!