Why don't gunshots, car crashes, and explosions on TV and Movies sound real?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Personally, even though the real noises aren’t as “explosive” sounding in real life, they’re much scarier to me. Maybe it’s because I know they’re real, but, still…

I just can’t believe that in EVERY movie and TV show I’ve ever seen…no matter how realistic or not, those sounds NEVER sound like they do in real life. Ever.

I’ve seen lots of “behind the scenes” types of shows over the years that explain how sound effects work. They usually emphasize that recording the real sound doesn’t sound “real.” So, they work to find a substitute. But it never seems to me that they find a realistic substitute.

Why is this?

2

That’s because the real sounds are boring and subtle. Real gunshots in a city sound like pops rather than bangs, at any distance. Doesn’t have the dramatic impact. Look at what they do to hand grenades. A real one will give you a small flash, a bang and some smoke, along with a ton of fragments. In the movies, they all go off with what looks like 5 gallons of napalm. Much more dramatic. Movie makers have gotten used to the idea that they must ramp up their effects if they are to have any impact on the audience.

3

Most sound systems don’t have the dynamic range to produce realistic sounds for gunshots and explosions. One problem is that a realistic sound level would also produce a serious risk of hearing damage.

I’ll second the comment about hand grenades. A real grenade just produces a loud bang and a small cloud of dust. Hollywood insists on using a black powder charge and a bag of gasoline.

One thing that I notice in sound effects for movies and television is the lack of reverberation. With a real gunshot or explosion, the sound produces audible echoes from nearby objects. It sounds a bit like the thunder from a bolt of lightning.

4

Notice also, every car you see that pulls away from the scene always screeches its tires. Even on wet pavement. Watch and see…

5

Even on dirt!

6

I don’t want to drag this thread in the Cafe, but this topic is one of the reasons I like the movie The Way of the Gun so much. It was the first, and only, movie I have ever seen that had realistic gun shot sounds. Very poppy, like a loud crack with all treble and no bass.

PS: BBS thanks the good Lord of SBMB for ‘preview post’. Originally written as: Very poopy, like a loud crack with all treble and no bass.

7

Only if you’ve had too much turkey, I’m thinking
:smiley:
Gotta agree about the car crashes. I’ve heard two and they were both kinda ‘thud’ like. Fortunately, I’ve not had the … um… privilege of being acquainted with the sound of real gunfire.

8

I agree on the visuals, but not the audio. A hand grenade is incredibly loud, remarkably loud even, for such a small package.

9

“Saving Private Ryan” had somewhat more realistic explosions than most movies - for one thing, they didn’t have the fiery, bag-of-gasoline look to them, but were mostly smoke and dirt being throw everywhere. The movie also did not have the classic Hollywood effect of having people who were shot thrown backwards as if they’d been hit by an invisible SUV; rather, they did what people who’re shot really do, which is fall down. They still ramped some of it up, but it was more real than the usual A-Team stuff.

I found it MORE frightening than the classic Hollywood look, for that very reason. It looked real.

Last night I saw a trailer for “Children of Men.” One scene has Clive Owen standing on a street and the building next to him is bombed. It’s a realistic-looking explosion; a flash, a loud crack, and a lot of dirt and debris - no silly fireball. It was a visceral impact on me. “Holy SHIT, that looked real!”

10

Chiming in on the grenade thing.

Hand grenades are Loud.

Most of the reason that you don’t get realistic sounding explosion sounds is that “real” audio would do damage to the audience’s hearing. Not at all boring. Rather too much the other end of exciting. Also, real explosive sounds are very short. No time to appreciate the drama. The most common thing said after a real explosion is, “What the hell was that?”

Now, auto crash sounds, those are boring. “Crunch.” Even a roll over isn’t all that dramatic sounding. (Well, never been in one, so I can’t be sure how they sound from inside.)

Tris

11

Some people beat me to it, so I’ll just concur. A grendage is freakin loud. Much louder than in movies. Same with guns up close.
But, yeah, they’re visually boring. See here:

12

Someone has already posted that most home sound systems lack the clarity and dynamic range to accurately reproduce those sounds, and that hollywood/TV Producers prer to rely on artificial but dramatic sound effects as a way of enhancing the viewing experience.

On that note, a sad but funny story that really happened to an aquantence of mine back in the early day’s of Digital sound (CDs).

My friend is totally blind. He had the stereotypical (pun intended) High powered, hifidelity $10,000 sound system, (400/channel Carver amp, OHM-F Speakers, a subwoofer, Dynamics Expander, etc) was an avid audiophile and bought in early to CD’s when they came out (His first CD player cost nearly $800 (CDN).

He lived in a basement suite (below mine, actually).

He had brought home a live recording of a famous classical recording, plopped it into the CD player and sat there, with the sound level pumped to realistic levels, enjoying a superbly clear and accurate reproduction of the piece.

As he sat in the chair, he was holding the CD Jewel box the recording had come in. His fingers ran over a small circular sticker on the the outside of the box. He assumed it was a price sticker.

The peice he was listening to was the 1812 Overture. The sticker said (not that He had anyway of reading it) “CAUTION! _ Digitally Reproduced Cannon - do not play at loud volumes!”.

Imagine him sitting there, in the optimal listening position, in a small room, windows sealed, with an expectant grin on his face.

The cresendo was, like the rest of the peice, fully accurate in its recording. It cracked a window, blew out both his spekers, destroyed his subwoofer,and left his ears ringing for 3 days. (To a totally blind person, having one’s ears ringing must be like walking around with gauze over your eyes).

It was sad when it happened, but the image of him sitting there with a grin on his face as the cresendo approached always leaves me smiling…

Sorry if this was too off topic… this thread made me think of it.

Regards
FML

13

Seriously? It’s great story, but it seems a little too ULish for me that a recording company would master a premium audiophile disc that could destroy your sound system if played at the typical loud volumes the piece is usually played at.

14

That’s awesome!

And…LOL…it sounds like a movie explosion :slight_smile:

15

In this case, though, it did actually happen. I was upstairs at the time, and went down to see what was up when the music (very easily heard at the volume it was playing) stopped just part way through the first speaker blast.

Upon retrospection, it DOES seem “ULish”, though… In this case, though it really did happen.

regards
FML

16

I got here too late, but second all the explainations so far. I’m going to grad school for explosives, and am taking a pyrotechnics class next semester. There hasn’t been a description yet, but I assume it’s going to be about fireworks, and hopefully we’ll get a little bit about movie explosions, too, as I’ve seen plenty of “real” explosions in my days.

17

It’s believable - speakers are “blown” most often from under-powered amplifiers. Instead of a nice, round waveform the amplifier starts to “clip”; it just roasts speaker voice coils. I had a copy of the 1812 on Telarc or some audiophile vinyl, my turntable cartridge wasn’t really capable of handling the very wide and visible grooves of cannon portion.

18

I agree that gunshots don’t sound right on TV and movies, but explosions sound close to the real thing to me. The difference is that with explosions is that you feel it as much as hear it and that’s not something they can capture, although I remembrer Sensoround™ when I was a kid.

19

Westerns always seem to have that whinging buzz sound during rifle fire sequences. *Gunsmoke * - Dillon’s revolver had a certain characteristic sound.

20

I’ve been rear-ended once. At maybe five miles an hour. It’s an loud crash, made worse by it’s total unexpectedness.