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The Low Frequency Content Thread (films, games, music, etc)


maxmercy

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Star Trek Into Darkness (7.1 TrueHD)

 

Level         - 5 Stars (113.27dB composite!)

Extension  - 3 Stars (19Hz)

Dynamics  - 5 Stars (28.96dB!)

Execution  - 2 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall      - 3.75 Stars

 

Recommendation - Rent.

 

Notes:  The bass in this one is a huge letdown for fans of the series' 2009 reboot.  It's loud, but it's not low.  There's an obvious & steep HPF in place starting right around 30Hz.  We've come to see this as an unfortunate but common practice in the industry, as various studios engage in loudness wars, and it will rear its ugly head with other upcoming blockbusters before the year is out.  (Though, most of them come with lower fan expectations than this one.)

 

As for the movie, it's still entertaining, but not quite up to snuff compared to its 2009 predecessor.  Perhaps that stems from the lack of deep bass effects?  Who knows.  This one won't get my "buy" recommendation unless somebody is a huge fan of the franchise.

 

Edit:  maxmercy has confirmed that there is terrible clipping in STID.  I originally saw enormous clipping in every channel of STID's mix, but then discounted it for really no good reason.  Thanks to maxmercy for catching yet another reason to be disappointed in this movie.  Check out the clearly clipped waveforms in both the CC and the LFE in the shot below.

 

PvA:

 

post-17-0-12372500-1378827819_thumb.png

 

Clipping:

 

post-17-0-75870300-1379018750_thumb.png

 

Clipping more clearly noted across the entire track:

 

post-17-0-33701400-1379269860_thumb.png

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Thanks, of course i could do it myself, but i dont have idea how those levels are calculated etc. Btw check death race trilogy, excelent bass in part 2 and part 3 could be another 5 star movie. Pretty good action movies too. ;)

I don't recall being all that impressed with 2, but 3 is definitely something I wouldn't mind seeing measured.

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Just an update to the STID measurements.

 

maxmercy has confirmed that there is terrible clipping in STID.  I originally saw enormous clipping in every channel of STID's mix, but then discounted it for really no good reason.  Thanks to maxmercy for catching yet another reason to be disappointed in this movie.

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Just an update to the STID measurements.

 

maxmercy has confirmed that there is terrible clipping in STID.  I originally saw enormous clipping in every channel of STID's mix, but then discounted it for really no good reason.  Thanks to maxmercy for catching yet another reason to be disappointed in this movie.

 

It really is one of the worst soundtracks in its genre, if not THE worst I've heard.

 

I graph most STs at reference level with very few exceptions being toned back -5dBRL. I started this one at -15dBRL and the wife put her fingers in her ears, so I cut it back further. 

 

I kept SL scrolling through the whole flick, hoping against hope, to no avail.

 

After the ship out of water/volcano, I said "It's filtered", and she immediately said "I know... I see it".

 

My opinion is that we're just gonna have to live with this horseshit when it comes to blockbuster movies. The Loudness Wars are here to stay.

 

Guess I'll switch to romantic comedies and sell off the subs.

 

The BR should come with a Victrola and the ST on a 78 RPM hunk of slate in mono that you wind up and try to sync with the picture by pressing the spring release at just the right time.

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I have yet to see the film (maybe this weekend), but my hopes are not high.  The worst part about this track is that the shelf filter appears to be in place simply for more headroom to allow for louder effects above 28Hz......loudness war indeed.  Cross your fingers for PacRim....Guillermo did HellBoy2, which garnered 5 Stars....

 

JSS

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The Iceman (5.1 TrueHD)

 

Level         - 4 Stars (110.5dB composite)

Extension  - 5 Stars (9Hz)

Dynamics  - 5 Stars (33.01dB...insane!)

Execution  - Will Poll

 

Recommendation - Will Poll

 

PvA:

 

attachicon.gifTI-PvA.PNG

It shows promise...good film?  Looking at the PvA for Sin City you would not think it sounds as good as it does....great use of dynamics there too...

 

JSS

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It's an OK flick.  There's no real attachment to the main character.  This is primarily because, in trying to convey his "Iceman" image, the director really gave us no insight into his character other than that he was a cold-blooded murderer. 

 

The mix is pretty good - everything blends seamlessly, so much so that you almost miss the bass.  Plus, it's not an action movie.  I'm surprised it measured so high because it's really deceptive.  In some ways, I guess that's the mark of a good mix, eh? 

 

The Iceman is not a "buy" recommendation at all, because there are no demo-worthy scenes, but it's an OK film.

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The film and music industry are certainly different, however the loudness wars in the music industry have created a groundswell of opposition. Industry heavies recognize how they got there, and are examining loudness normalization in the near future. If the client wants it released a certain way, that's what they get. Sure, the mix and mastering engineers can point out the inherent issues. However we've all been in situations where the shot caller prevails, regardless of being right or wrong.

 

Bob Katz, one engineer leading the battle against such practices, often presents the case against the compressed sound of the loudness wars. Here's a fantastic video presentation briefly yet very detailed illustrating how things were in the heyday of low compression, how loudness wars moved so swiftly;

 

http://www.digido.com/articles-and-demos12/15-other-audio-articles/33-loudness-war.html  

 

It's a great explanation, I find his work very compelling. There's much out there wrt loudness, pushback etc, but Katz seems to offer the best, most concise information.

 

We can hope those in the film industry recognize the myopic choices being made, and educate their clients and shot callers.  

 

 

With regard to the film industry, there's still a lot of solid work being released to us, and that we can be thankful for.

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Quick question, but what exactly is being done with the Rebass'd graphs? I assume some sort of boosted custom type curve or EQ on the user end?

 

Answered by maxmercy a couple pages ago:

 

 

They are versions that can be modified if you have individual channel DSP capability, but it is wishful thinking, a kind of 'it could have been this good' type thing....

 

JSS

 

 

 

 

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Updated the STID post with a pic of the very obvious clipping at the 6:00 minute mark.  Almost every action sequence in the whole film looks like this in the LFE and the center channel.  It's noticeable as a very significant harshness or sharpness to CC effects, where they just sound bad, not clear and crisp like they should.

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Thanks, Abrams.....thanks. You took what was one of the best soundtracks ever and followed it up with complete garbage.

 

No, seriously.

 

Bra-vo.

 

The correct thing to do is what Metallica did with their horribly clipped offering (Death Magnetic): fix it.

 

Please don't do the same thing to Episode VII.

 

EDIT - The worst part about soundtracks like this is that it will sound WORSE on more accurate speakers....crap speakers will round off the sharp corners more than good ones.

 

 

JSS

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Updated the STID post with a pic of the very obvious clipping at the 6:00 minute mark.  Almost every action sequence in the whole film looks like this in the LFE and the center channel.  It's noticeable as a very significant harshness or sharpness to CC effects, where they just sound bad, not clear and crisp like they should.

 

Yeah thats what I heard alright. At the 1.52 mark fuses on my LR tweeters died. At a lowish -8db. Sounded like distorted highs to me. Painful to listen to.

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EDIT - The worst part about soundtracks like this is that it will sound WORSE on more accurate speakers....crap speakers will round off the sharp corners more than good ones.

 

 

JSS

So true.

 

I can't believe the 5 star rating reviewers are dishing out for audio on this movie. But most reviewers I've investigated has expensive whimpy speakers. And usually one expensive sub. They're better setup to evaluate video than audio.

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