Audio Level In Hollywood Movie

[Gohanto]

Just thought this was interesting and really helped me put everything I hear about levels into perspective (I've always mixed way too loud). Nothing new to those using calibrated pro studios I'm sure, but for those of use that don't and mix on the same speakers we listen to music on (actually going to be upgrading soon though ) this might be interesting and helpful. This is a waveform from the first 30 minutes of Atonement. The levels are kinda hard to read, but it goes 0 (peak), -3, -6 ,-9, -12, -18, -infinity. Fairly low, lots of dynamic range.

Below that, you'll find two waveforms, the bottom looking like most pop music mastered in the past few years. Right at the peak, compressed to hell, not even close to the kind of levels you'd want in a movie mix. So my method of playing music and editing sound switching off between the two, was about one of the dumbest things I've ever done as far as thinking about levels clearly.

Then again, maybe I'm the only one who makes uninformed mistakes like this.

By the way, if you're at all curious why modern music is so compressed, Google "loudness wars".

 

[tigeba]

I think your point is a very good one, but you did probably select one, if not the most notorious example of mastering disaster in recent history. One of the channels actually clips substantially on that Chili Peppers CD.

Also, just because there is a lot of OVERALL dynamic range in the Atonement example does not mean that specific features of the recording exhibit really wide dynamic range. I think you would find, for example that if you soloed the dialog its dynamic range was very narrow and carefully controlled.

 

[Gohanto]

I think your point is a very good one, but you did probably select one, if not the most notorious example of mastering disaster in recent history. One of the channels actually clips substantially on that Chili Peppers CD.

Also, just because there is a lot of OVERALL dynamic range in the Atonement example does not mean that specific features of the recording exhibit really wide dynamic range. I think you would find, for example that if you soloed the dialog its dynamic range was very narrow and carefully controlled.

Good point as well. Yes I did look around for a good example on the loudness war compression, but just going through my own library and dragging them into Audition most pop songs are crammed into the top 5dB of dynamic range for CDs. Fall Out Boy, Oasis, Coldplay, and Evanescence where also all extreme cases.

The only point I wanted to make was about overall dynamic range in a mix, thanks for clarifying that.