Weird Ambiant Sound Mix

[taylormade]

Lately, movies we've rented on DISH network have had what seems to be a very weird sound mix. The voices are low, but when the actors are not speaking the background noise, effects and music seems to increase to ridiculous levels. It don't hear it on network shows or HBO/Showtime stuff, and it only seems present on recent movies. Has someone in LA decided this is the new, cool way to mix soundtracks, or do I have an equipment problem?

 

[Noiz2]

There isn't a "style" that comes in to vogue. But there there are sometimes trends. However it sounds a lot like a network Compressor/ limiter gone wild. TV shows are mixed by the numbers, at least to a certain extent. They have delivery specs and the shows will get rejected if they don't hit certain numbers for peak, average and lately for "Dialog Normal". Films don't have any of those constraints, they mix by ear in a calibrated space. A "TV" version is usually more compressed and traditionally was folded down to stereo (or Mono). But they are mixed for video distribution not for broadcast.

So it's possible that the DISH folks are not getting the distinction and setting up the sound chain differently OR since most video distribution is now on DVD and a lot of folks have surround that the surround video mix is not being crunched as much as it used to be. Or maybe DISH is playing the surround mix which isn't crushed much at all because that was never intended for broadcast?

The problem for you is that it is something DISH probably has to fix. Mixers are hired to mix for the BIG screen and don't pay much attention to the other formats. They are very unlikely to start making the DVD surround mix compressed enough for broadcast unless someone with a lot of clout decides that the broadcast market is more important than DVD sales... Don't hold your breath.

Analog TV had serious issues if they "over modulated" so to keep that from happening the mandated quite low levels for peaks and then just compressed the hell out of it so it was audible. To protect themselves they had monster brick wall limiters in the signal chain.

This is not necesary now since the nature of digital broadcasting make over modulating because of show content imposible. But that doesn't mean that the signal chain changed.

So the two things that might well be causing your problem are that DiSH is running the audio through a chain set up to deal with broadcast media and thus trashing the non broadcast mix. Or they are using a Dialog Normal box to regulate the signal strength and the films either have bad Dialog Normal metadata or none at all and DISH is trying to guess it on the fly.


That said there are some horribly mixed films out there so?