# Does Anybody Else Hate The Way Modern Films Are Edited For Sound? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-else-hate-the-way-modern-films-are-edited-for-sound/688373 "2014-05-13T20:03:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![akrako1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@akrako1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akrako1)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-else-hate-the-way-modern-films-are-edited-for-sound/688373/21 "2014-05-14T22:34:21Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > I keep the remote beside me and spend the entire film raising and lowering the volume. Yup, me too. Especially with the baby sleeping just on the other side of the living room wall. Unfortunately, my receiver doesn’t offer ‘Night Mode’ for DTS audio streams. It does for AC3 (dolby digital), but it doesn’t seem to do enough to level things out. So why don’t the studio’s give us what we want??? DVDs, and especially BluRay discs have TONS of space for auxiliary audio tracks. Why can’t they offer a track that’s for the ‘slightly’ hard of hearing? Or for night viewing? However they want to brand it is fine, just DO IT! I have fairly good hearing, but my elderly father has to crank up the volume pretty high to hear the quiet dialog. That next explosion - or music swell - rattles his freekin windows! ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-else-hate-the-way-modern-films-are-edited-for-sound/688373/22 "2014-05-15T08:51:37Z")
> [@Vashbul](#): > > For those watching at home, I believe the feature called “night mode” (mentioned by unwashed brain above) is an audio compressor, meaning it smooths out the dynamics so that loud and soft parts play at a more equal level. That would be helpful for the guy watching late at night who wants to be able to hear without constantly fussing with the volume. > > It won’t necessarily make a soundtrack that buries the dialogue become more lucid, but at least you won’t wake the baby. True. Thanks for the reminder. I should look into that. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-else-hate-the-way-modern-films-are-edited-for-sound/688373/23 "2014-05-15T10:28:28Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > A well-designed night mode circuit will simultaneously (a) boost the ratio of signal dedicated to the center channel (normally all dialogue) versus signal sent to the fronts and surrounds (normally sound effects), (b) cut drastically the signal sent to the subwoofer, and (c) level the dynamics, preventing SUDDENLY SHOUTING SYNDROME. > > No, it won’t cure a truly badly mixed film, but it will help. Actually what I’d like is simpler: a separate volume control and max cutoff. So volume sets how much it amplifies everything, but the actual output from the speaker can never go beyond the max. I’m not sure if what I just said makes physical sense, but it makes intuitive sense as the various bangs are not so frequent that I want all the sound to be rebalanced just to accommodate them. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-else-hate-the-way-modern-films-are-edited-for-sound/688373/24 "2014-05-15T10:36:40Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > You know, I don’t think the equalization would be such an issue if it weren’t for the excess of gratuitous non-diegetic sound–this is really the issue here. Sound editors are just piling on mounds of shit-sound (into actions movies in particular)–in order to cause a visceral response in the absence of anything artful. Yes that sound plausible. I too hate the “dialogue too soft, action too loud” trend. It’s not in every movie but it’s in enough to make it a phenomenon. But I have one question. “piling on more sounds” shouldn’t really mean a higher volume, should it? It would just be a muddying of sounds. What the OP, and others, are complaining about is the actual change in volume and I think that’s a different thing, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-else-hate-the-way-modern-films-are-edited-for-sound/688373/25 "2014-05-15T10:52:56Z")
English subtitles are your friend. My wife and I turn them in for ALL films (Netflix DVDs or Netflix streaming), and sometimes for TV shows as well. Then you can set the volume so stupidly loud effects don’t destroy your mind and ears, but you can still understand the dialogue. Plus, you have the benefit of enjoying someone’s descriptions of sounds and music for the hearing impaired…"[rueful piano jazz]" and the like. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2014, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-else-hate-the-way-modern-films-are-edited-for-sound/688373/26 "2014-05-17T11:15:39Z")
[quote=“Mijin, post:23, topic:688373”] Actually what I’d like is simpler: a separate volume control and max cutoff. So volume sets how much it amplifies everything, but the actual output from the speaker can never go beyond the max. QUOTE] We called that “compression”. Technically, compression means bringing the soft bits up and the load bits down, but actually we just turned the volume up far enough and then limited the peaks. You have to do the limiting a bit gently, or else it becomes obviously distorted, so we just ran it through an audio cassette (tape) system. Audio tapes had hard peak limits, so the amplifier has gentle peak limits to stop you running into that. We also fitted peak-limiting semiconductors inside some of our speaker systems, so that it the volume was turned up to load it wouldn’t destroy the speakers. Those were the old analog days. Now it would all be digital ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2014, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-else-hate-the-way-modern-films-are-edited-for-sound/688373/27 "2014-05-17T16:36:34Z")
More specifically, it’s “audio dynamic range compression” to distinguish it from lots of other kinds of compression. I have a few CDs I mastered with compression so they’d sound good in the car, rather than being too loud in the loud bits, or buried in road noise on the soft bits. It would be nice if it was a standard feature on TVs and DVRs. Part of the problem is they don’t give a crap about us old men with reduced hearing. I do a lot of “gain riding” (as it’s called in audio engineering) with the remote. I have to turn up to make out the dialog, and turn down to avoid annoying others with the crashes and bangs. I wouldn’t have to turn up if they wouldn’t bury the dialog in the music and sound effect. But the real source of the problem is me. My son can hear the dialog perfectly, at much lower volumes. Incidentally, even when my hearing was fine (I could hear up to 18kHz at age 21), I had a hard time pulling dialog, especially for movies shown in reverby college classrooms or poor theaters. But as my hearing has declined, it’s gotten a lot worse, and meanwhile, sound editors have made things worse, preferring impact to understanding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-else-hate-the-way-modern-films-are-edited-for-sound/688373.md?page=1)