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Sunday, May 6, 2012

Sound Down Shout OFF!


Every time I go to the movies, turn on the TV, or listen to the radio I find myself wondering, “Are these sound engineers deaf or just making money on sideline businesses such as hearing aids, and replacement headphones and subwoofers?”.  The Human eardrum can register certain ranges and frequencies of sounds.  It can pull one noise out of many, like someone calling your name to you from across a crowded room.  But too many noises, too many frequencies and it becomes a cacophony, mush.  We also recognize certain frequencies easier than others.  Some pitches provoke pleasing feelings. Some tones transmit terror.  The feeling that has recently been evoked in me is anger.  When watching anything with an audio track this anger is evoked.  On a consistent basis, the vocal track (speaking parts in TV and movies/mid and high range in songs) is put at a lower volume then the rest of the score. The background track/special effects track for movies and the commercial/special effect/background/ promotion music track for TV and the Road-Rocking-Wake-me-up-from-the-second-floor- how-can-you-even-stand-to-sit-in-the-car-with- that-music-playing bass line for the radio is utterly too loud and disrupts the rest of your Movie/program/music.  In a Movie Theatre, you must simply cope with the volume as is.  When watching a movie or TV show at home, you must sit with your hand poised precariously on the volume button constantly hovering between low and high to compensate for some editor’s inability to delicately balance high and low frequencies.   Don’t they understand that music is not a line or a wave but complicated mathematical figure involving time space and relative dimension?  Frankly, half the industry should go bad to kindergarten and relearn how to add and subtract. 

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