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


maxmercy

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You can see here that TDK only clips in one channel, at only two points in the movie:

TDKEntireMovie.thumb.png.e858d657f1f767c0e0991ac7c089f1af.png

This is the entire movie, all channels, L/R/C/LFE/SL/SR in order 1-6.  Just after the one hour mark, the center channel clips in one place (marked in red), and once at the end.

TDKR, however, is a different story:

TDKREntireMovie.thumb.png.0efff80fdaaf8dc72746cbdb802cfeb9.png

As you can see, the screen channels clip nearly throughout the film, followed by the surrounds, then the LFE.  It is an utter disaster, and the soundtrack is very loud because of it (one of the loudest I have measured).

JSS

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So TDKR was kind of a mess, fidelity-wise.  Lots of clipped tops make for a harsh soundtrack.  Watching the movies back-to-back and with a surround system (down-mixing to 2.1 unless your AVR is doing it from an LPCM source will introduce dynamic compression by your AVR) is enlightening.  I think TDK is one of the best soundtracks around, and TDKR could have been, if someone didn't just turn the gain up until every loud effect clipped.

Another reason TDKR got such bad reviews here is this: 

TDKR.thumb.jpg.b58f3e349e07e1954d395c7f899de026.jpg

This is the entire PvA for TDKR.  But if you isolate the first 10 minutes:

TDKRbeginning.thumb.jpg.ff831667a47344462b2429c75da4b891.jpg

You can see it is a full bandwidth presentation with effects into the single digits.  The rest of the film, however, is different:

TDKRRest.thumb.jpg.d3c3da447ad31a2d49a6889006caf171.jpg

With a significant rolloff under 30Hz.  The difference was easily heard and felt in a system that can reproduce under 20Hz.  It is as if the ultra low bass knob was simply turned down.

If you remember when TDKR was initially in theaters, a special 'Prologue' was released in IMAX theaters 6 months before the movie was released.  It is my theory that this prologue was mixed independently and that mix was kept for the final film, and the rest of the film got highpassed when mixed.  Unfortunately ALL of it is clipped.  One of the worst cases of clipping in a movie I have seen, and heard.  The first time I became aware of clipping was in Tron:Legacy, when I saw the BluRay and it was definitely different compared to the theater presentation.  The effects dug deeper, but the sound was clipped in many places, confirmed by looking at the waveforms.

JSS

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  • 1 month later...

I'm really out of the loop on the latest bass movies. Have there been many solid 4 to 5 star films in the last couple of years? Most everything seems to be lacking in the really deep stuff lately.

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Hey Ricci!  I have not really been watching films as often as I used to the last few years, partly in fact because I have yet to rebuild the HT since I moved.  I have a decently capable temporary HT outfitted with crowson transducers so I can monitor the Infrasonics, and the plan is to be reviewing a few films every month.  If anyone has any suggestions for movies of the last few years that you would like evaluated, post the requests in this thread, I'll try to get everything updated so the thread works as it used to.  Also now that Mandalorian is out on BluRay, I may get around to measuring it, as some of the episodes sounded like they may have had some great sound design.

JSS 

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I'm much in the same boat MM. Behind on movies.  I've been watching mostly docu series and sports lately. 

I did watch Godzilla Kong and Minus One, both in the theater. There was plenty of bass for sure but whether either truly dug deep or not I can't tell at the local Plex. 

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On 3/8/2015 at 3:19 PM, nube said:

Ragnarok (Norwegian 5.1 DTS-HD MA)

 

Level        - 5 Stars (112.56dB composite)
Extension - 5 Stars (1Hz)
Dynamics - 5 Stars (28.34dB)

Execution - 5 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall     - 5 Stars!!!

Recommendation - Buy (by poll)

 

Notes:  I'll be honest - after reading reviews of the bass in various places, I streamed this via Netflix and was not at all impressed.  It didn't even wake my girlfriend on a weeknight at my normal listening levels, and I thought the movie was mediocre.

 

However, after all the positive reviews continued to roll in, I grabbed the BR and measured it.  I haven't rewatched the disc, but it has fantastic scores.  While the mixers left a bunch of really high level DC noise in the mix, that's not the story.  The real story here is the TRUCKLOAD of VERY HOT content from 9-25Hz.  Almost every scene has something deep in it.

 

I'll wait to cast my vote until I've watched the disc, but this is tentatively vying for the coveted true 5 star rating!

 

PvA:

 

post-17-0-79848700-1425845851.png

Picked up this Bluray for cheap and really enjoyed this film! Same writer as The Quake and The Wave. You aren't kidding, massive bass in this one. Definitely worth a buy on disc, especially while it's so cheap.

 

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I may have to check this one out.  BTW - I got most of the links fixed from the first post.  Still need to fix the 3-3.75 star films' links, will hopefully get to it soon.  If anyone notices a missing graph on a post, let me know.  We lost all of bosso's scenecaps at some point, unfortunately.

If anyone has any film requests for measurement, let me know.

JSS

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dune (2021) - Dolby ATMOS (measured 7.1 bed)

Level - 5 Stars (112.99dB composite)

Extension - 4 Stars (12Hz)

Dynamics - 4 Stars (25.64dB)

Execution - 4 Stars

Overall - 4.25 Stars

Comments - NO clipping on this track, it appears to be very well executed.  Not the best track I have ever heard, but very good.

Dune.thumb.jpg.654a6c7d1e100d410d8d13853fc9ea7a.jpg

JSS

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I have a question that is very important and i am so very curious. first id like to say, this online forum is spectacular and i geeked out for hours reading everything.  with so much knowledge here.  If everyone had to take a hard answer guess.  what would you say 99% of movies HZ frequency range will be within? 

is it OPTION #1      20-100 HZ

(or)

is it OPTION #2     20-200hz?

if you had to pick one of those ranges for the best most consistent HZ frequency range, what would you pick and why?

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Hi, welcome to the forum.  I don't quite understand the question you are asking.  Every movie has content from at least 40Hz on up to 20kHz.  Some have content down into single digit frequencies.  We measure from near DC up to 160Hz, one octave above the usual subwoofer crossover frequency of 80Hz.

JSS

 

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that is very interesting and thank you for the reply.  Sorry for the confusion but i would love to know your opinion on this question, I am working hard on understanding what HZ frequency range is used most often in movies.  Out of the whole scale of HZ frequencys that movies do use, from that scale what range would you say is most prevalently consistently used? like does most vibration and action happen within 20hz-100hz? 

I love vibration, and i have been trying to understand as much about it as i possibly can.  For those low rumbles in movies, where does that frequency range come within? 

my last question.... and again i thank you for your time, i really appreciate it.  For sound tracks in movies.... is there a certain Frequency HZ range they output within consistently?   

thank you very much

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The rumble you are thinking of is usually centered around 30Hz.  Look at the graphs for the movies, (like Dune above).  The red AVG graph has a peak between 30&40Hz, where most of the effects have the most SPL.  By reading the thread from its beginning (and some of the other threads), you can see how we came about creating the system of measurement we use to determine the amount and quality of bass in movies and other content.

JSS

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Hi. It's been a while since I've been to this forum. I see it's slowed down, but at least it's still alive.

Max, is it me or sound mixes, on average, are getting louder these days? I took a long break from watching movies at home, and now that I'm revisiting my collection, it seems the more recent the movie, the louder the sound mix is. While it's not my intention to defend the Disney Atmoused approach, their mixes seems to be, at the very least, more listenable. Big blockbusters movies  have probably always been a lot more "overcooked" than the rest, but I just recently tried to rewatch Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and I had to eject the disc, this time I couldn't endure it. I think a big problem is the music is mixed too hot in the mix. Had a similar experience with the recent Top Gun: Maverick ATMOS track, which was too painfully loud to my ears. Had to resort to the French DD5.1 dub, that is at least 10db lower, and gave me more room to play with the loudest section in the movie.  Even the Dune (2021) that you just measured sound too loud at times to me, but at least it wasn't for the whole movie, and it was more manageable.

Am I into something, or I'm just getting softer as I get older? 🙂

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