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minnjd

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Everything posted by minnjd

  1. minnjd
    Star Wars: The Force Awakens-Disney/Lucasfilm DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 Level - 4 Stars (110.94dB composite) Extension - 4 Stars (13Hz) Dynamics - 5 Stars (28.39dB) Execution - TBD Overall - TBD Supervising Sound Editors: Matthew Wood, David Acord Sound Designers: Ben Burtt, Gary Rydstrom, Robert Stambler, Will Files Re-Recording Mixers: Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio, Juan Peralta, Nathan Nance So I'll start this off by saying there's good evidence this soundtrack is brick walled at -3dB, leading to a track that is paradoxically both lower in volume and riddled with clipped wave forms. I'll take a close look at the waveforms this evening. Also my PvA graph got messed up so it's almost illegible. I'll post a good one with the poll thread. TFA is an absolute monster in the midbass. It slams hard and it slams often. The overall level is noticeably lower than many releases, but once the volume is bumped to compensate (6 ticks up in my case) it doesn't pull any punches when something explodes or flies across the screen. The graph will show that the movie has better than expected ULF content, but it also shows that the dreaded 30Hz filter is still alive and well in mixing, albeit with a noticeably more shallow slope here. Unfortunately, you really don't notice the ULF as it gets buried by the much louder 30-40 Hz booms outside of a few exceptions, mainly Kylo Ren's 'Force Rumbles'. Whenever one of those appear the spectrum lights up with some serious energy at and even below 20Hz. The mixers take full advantage of the fact that these rumbles happen in quieter scenes, and therefore a lot of bandwidth is available for the bass to abuse. The resulting rumbles are loud and will reveal every little annoying rattle in your listening room. On the plus side, the rumbles are not annoying like the one dimensional 30Hz drones in 'Interstellar'. Here, the rumbles almost become a living entity. You can hear them breathe, focus, rise in anger and even sound wounded. It's impressive sound design work. Aside from those instances the bass is pretty much comprised of bang and slam stuff. There's enough variety to keep them from getting boring, but on occasion there are some effects that get pushed too far, resulting in a flat and bloated sound (the Starkiller base weapon firing is a prime example).
  2. minnjd
    Have watched the movie and run the numbers, but not enough time to fire up the poll tonight. Will do tomorrow. On a whole the sound is very well done though. Not the loudest or deepest but very impactful and dynamic. And no clipping!
  3. minnjd
    Will be picking it up after work and watching it first before running numbers. I'll make every effort to get them up tonight but if I don't they'll be up tomorrow sometime.
  4. minnjd
    My guess is there's going to be some clipping. I recall a few effects in the theater definitely has that 'crack' sound that usually only comes from a square wave.
  5. minnjd
    My system isn't anywhere near the capacity of some other users in this forum (I get into the mid-upper teens at best) but I still enjoy the conversation.
  6. minnjd
    That graph gives the impression that it's fairly dynamic. For how many action scenes the movie has the average bass levels are noticeably lower than the peaks.
  7. minnjd
    *Groan*
  8. minnjd
    If that graph is right then maybe there's hope. Yes there's a rolloff but it's a LOT shallower than normal. Numbers should be posted by Tuesday evening as I plan to get it on release day.
  9. minnjd
    Home is nice but if you can find a theater with a decent sound system (and they are around) there's still occasions where that experience can't be beat. It pays to do your homework though as I agree that most commercial theaters aren't all that great outside of being incredibly loud.
  10. minnjd
    Just keep in mind that this is a Zack Snyder film. Judging by this forum he has a pretty bad track record so I wouldn't get your hopes up. No doubt the bass was loud, but it likely isn't very deep
  11. minnjd
    Hard to say. The effect sounded deeper and more powerful than most of the others but I suppose that's not saying much.
  12. minnjd
    Try the scene where Starkiller base fires it's main weapon. I remember that really chattered my teeth in the theater.
  13. minnjd
    Cool. Should liven up the discussion around here. Seems kinda quiet lately.
  14. minnjd
    Meh, I wouldn't trust that torrent on the chance that it might be re compressed or otherwise altered. I'm planning on picking it up on day 1 and posting the numbers as quickly as possible.
  15. minnjd
    Spider-Man 3 (LPCM 5.1) Level: 109.12 dB composite Dynamics: 30.66 dB Extension: Debatable. If you take the PvA at face value then the movie only gets to about 29 Hz for extension, which is kinda poor. However, that 35 Hz spike is a one time effect during the Sandman's birth, so taking that out of the running gives a more reasonable 22 Hz extension, which is pretty typical for a mid 'aughts action film. Overall the soundtrack is very well done, with clean wave forms throughout and nice dynamics. The bass is hardly earthshaking though, and it never gets all that deep or hits all that hard, for the most part.
  16. minnjd
    MM:FR was a much showier soundtrack than the Martian so that might have had something to do with it. Personally I thought the soundtrack was a bit one dimensional but to each their own I guess.
  17. minnjd
    I have Spiderman 3 so if I have time I'll check that out.
  18. minnjd
    Oh, you will be disappointed. Words cannot describe the letdown of the first Hobbit movie. Not only is the soundtrack beyond lame, the movie is really frickin long considering not much happens in it.
  19. minnjd
    Judging by IMDB it isn't the ST:ID crew. Mixers are listed as Scott Milan and Gregg Rudloff, both of whom are seasoned veterans than have been around for a long time. Then again so is Gregg Landaker, the guy who clipped the crap out of TDKR and Interstellar. I guess experience doesn't count for anything when the director wants it up to '11'.
  20. minnjd
    Or your average commercial movie theater with no thought given to the (admittedly small) home theater crowd that can play back ULF content . And for the record I was really looking forward to The Hobbit, until I saw (and heard) what Peter Jackson did to it.........Man that was a rough drive home after seeing 'An Unexpected Waste of Three Hours'.
  21. minnjd
    Damn, that is eerie how close they are in frequency response.
  22. minnjd
    Max's numbers should clean that question up.
  23. minnjd
    *rimshot* Yeah, chalk up another one to the 'peak at 30Hz' loudness war. Although it does look like it has more in the ULF range than many filtered tracks.
  24. minnjd
    According to Hi Def Digest Spectre has some pretty good bass so we'll see what the numbers say......
  25. minnjd
    As threatened Super 8-Paramount Pictures Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Sound Design: Ben Burtt, Gary Rydstrom Supervising Sound Editors: Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood Re-Recording Mixers: Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, Christopher Scarabosio, Juan Peralta, Jim Bolt Level - 4 Stars (112.46 dB) Extension - 2 Stars (21 Hz) Dynamics - 5 Stars (33.77 dB) Execution - TBD Overall - TBD There's always been a lot of discussion and controversy over Super 8's low end and whether it was filtered, mainly due to some underwhelming effects during the train derailment scene. Well, the graphs don't lie, and Super 8 is indeed steeply filtered starting around 28 Hz. In fact, it is so steeply filtered that it's -10dB extension point is only 8 Hz below that. That's some heavy duty EQ'ing. To be fair there are some solid impact effects in the 25-30 Hz region that really light up the spectrum (see below), but they aren't backed up by any real ULF so they end up being a bit of a missed opportunity. To add insult to injury, the track clips heavily during any loud section: It pains me to say that this is a great.......ly depressing preview of the same clipped, ULF-less mess that graced ST:ID a few years later. It's even more depressing when you realize that most of the sound crew for Super 8 also worked on JJ's first Star Trek and it's five star MWB soundtrack. Why they decided to chuck out their solid technique from that movie and embrace the "Death Magnetic" style of mixing for this one is a mystery. Bonus observation: Those that hate bass ramp sound FX will have a seizure over this movie. They are all over the place and occur frequently.
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