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


maxmercy

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Spectre might still be all right.

You can't expect every movie to have WCS peak levels with rising bass down to 1Hz. I'm more worried about things like whether the soundtrack is clipped, how dynamic it is and how varied the bass sounds are. Also whether the movie is good. It certainly might be a loud, clipped all to hell, 30Hz recycled rumble for every explosion type of movie. I'm hoping not though. We've got plenty of those already.

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The film is not like the other bond reboots. I really liked Casino Royale and Quantum, and Skyfall was good too. Spectre tries to make Daniel Craig into the 'old Bond', with more one-liners and suavete' (sp?) to the point of withstanding even more impossible beat downs without any significant injury.

 

As a Bond film, its ok. As a Daniel Craig Bond film, it tanked. I'm glad Sam Mendes will not return to direct.

 

A pet peeve: While the bond theme is great, I also liked the theme used for Craig in CR and Quantum as well, and we don't get to hear it at all in this film.

 

JSS

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Spectre might still be all right.

You can't expect every movie to have WCS peak levels with rising bass down to 1Hz. I'm more worried about things like whether the soundtrack is clipped, how dynamic it is and how varied the bass sounds are. Also whether the movie is good. It certainly might be a loud, clipped all to hell, 30Hz recycled rumble for every explosion type of movie. I'm hoping not though. We've got plenty of those already.

It's been over a decade since the release of WotW, why wouldn't I expect every large budget action flick to have 5 star extension in the year 2016?

 

Here is Spectre on top of the 1st Avengers movie which as max accurately stated was: "the biggest LF disappointment of all time". 

42c9282ea07ab6333152c06ea5247d71.png

Pretty obvious what they're going for with this one.

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It's been over a decade since the release of WotW, why wouldn't I expect every large budget action flick to have 5 star extension in the year 2016?

 

Here is Spectre on top of the 1st Avengers movie which as max accurately stated was: "the biggest LF disappointment of all time". 

42c9282ea07ab6333152c06ea5247d71.png

Pretty obvious what they're going for with this one.

Damn, that is eerie how close they are in frequency response.

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It's been over a decade since the release of WotW, why wouldn't I expect every large budget action flick to have 5 star extension in the year 2016?

 

Here is Spectre on top of the 1st Avengers movie which as max accurately stated was: "the biggest LF disappointment of all time". 

 

Pretty obvious what they're going for with this one.

 

I'm just saying that I don't predicate whether a movie has a worthwhile soundtrack solely on the bass extension. For example I thought the soundtrack to Whiplash was excellent but there isn't anything crazy going on below 20Hz.

 

Pretty close match which doesn't bode well. It probably is a generic 30Hz rumble film. Hopefully it isn't clipped at least. I wouldn't call Avengers the biggest bass disappointment ever either. A letdown for sure but my vote for worst would be for 2012 or the Hobbit or even HTTYD2.

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I'm just saying that I don't predicate whether a movie has a worthwhile soundtrack solely on the bass extension. For example I thought the soundtrack to Whiplash was excellent but there isn't anything crazy going on below 20Hz.

 

Pretty close match which doesn't bode well. It probably is a generic 30Hz rumble film. Hopefully it isn't clipped at least. I wouldn't call Avengers the biggest bass disappointment ever either. A letdown for sure but my vote for worst would be for 2012 or the Hobbit or even HTTYD2.

 

 

+1. The Hobbit trilogy is an LFE joke. 

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The Hobbit is a movie no one cared or cares about that may have become of interest if the low end was exceptional.

 

By contrast, the first Avengers movie from marvel was a much anticipated, multi-B$ blockbuster that should have had low end equal to HULK.

 

I'm sure Shreds' point was focused on the bandwidth of the LFE content and not subjective perceptions thereof. Unless someone posts FR and SL mic'd vs digits data of his system at his seat, subjective opinion is pretty much useless information in the context of this form.

 

As the weight of evidence tells many of us, a PVA that shows a huge peak at 30 Hz and a steep roll off below that is a soundtrack mixed for Max's soundbar.

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The Hobbit is a movie no one cared or cares about that may have become of interest if the low end was exceptional.

 

 

As the weight of evidence tells many of us, a PVA that shows a huge peak at 30 Hz and a steep roll off below that is a soundtrack mixed for Max's soundbar.

 

Or your average commercial movie theater with no thought given to the (admittedly small) home theater crowd that can play back ULF content  :D.

 

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'.

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 Unless someone posts FR and SL mic'd vs digits data of his system at his seat, subjective opinion is pretty much useless information in the context of this form.

 

Good idea...I'm going to do this one day...I'm curious to see the diff.

I will do a whole movie and post them here :)

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The Hobbit is a movie no one cared or cares about that may have become of interest if the low end was exceptional.

 

By contrast, the first Avengers movie from marvel was a much anticipated, multi-B$ blockbuster that should have had low end equal to HULK.

 

 

 Guess I'm no one. I was interested in the Hobbit movies. I dug the LOTR trilogy movies and thought the sound work was good. Read all the books as a kid.  I'd say a gigantic fire breathing dragon should have had a bit of low end as well. It's not like that wasn't a very big movie as well. It had plenty of backing. There was like no bass at all...Or damn near. Not even a loud 40Hz rumble rehashed 50x in a row. Avengers at least had some bass. Generic action movie bass to be sure but at least it wasn't MIA completely.

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I'm just saying that I don't predicate whether a movie has a worthwhile soundtrack solely on the bass extension. For example I thought the soundtrack to Whiplash was excellent but there isn't anything crazy going on below 20Hz.

 

Pretty close match which doesn't bode well. It probably is a generic 30Hz rumble film. Hopefully it isn't clipped at least. I wouldn't call Avengers the biggest bass disappointment ever either. A letdown for sure but my vote for worst would be for 2012 or the Hobbit or even HTTYD2.

Agreed. I can think of three films/bass tracks that were more disappointing than Avengers. Hobbit 1, Revenge of the Sith and 2012. Not trying to defend Avengers since it was obviously disappointing, but the three I mentioned IMO are considerably more disappointing.

 

To say nobody cared or cares about the Hobbit films is also silly since there are obviously a lot of fans. Considering LOTR are 3 of my all time favorite films, I had high hopes for the Hobbit movies and even though they fell short to some degree (and certainly not on the level of LOTR), I still enjoyed them (especially parts 2 and 3). No doubt the low end WAS a letdown in all three of these movies, especially part 1 which would get my vote for most disappointing LFE movie ever.

 

 

 

On a different note, does anyone here who can measure have access to both the original Casino Royale PCM track and the collectors edition True HD mix? There has been some debate on AVS on whether or not these two mixes are the same and one is just mastered at a louder volume, or if they are in fact different mixes. Would be great to put this debate to rest!

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The Mrs & I screened Everest tonight. Lots of rumble throughout, but next to nothing <30 Hz. When the largest rock formation on planet earth lets loose a few mega tons of glacial ice and rock, I guess there's no ULF to experience.

 

I just hope I never get to find out. Climb this, you complete maniacs who pay a small fortune to climb Everest "because it's there". :o

 

Great story and film. Frenetic and emotional. ULF would have cemented it's place in history. Bummer.

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That's too bad.  I forget where I read about it (and can't seem to find it on Google), but anyway.  There's supposedly a camp in the Himalayas where climbers have been known to die mysteriously when storms passed through.  Storms that should have been survivable for experience crews wiped them out.  Investigation and interviews with survivors led to the understanding that something about the conditions in the environment caused many among the crews to literally panic and disregard precautions (like staying sheltered during the worst of weather).  In the end, the best explanation offered was that nearby rock formations formed a resonant cavity through which the wind flowed through to produce intense infrasonic sounds, and that the mountaineers, lacking familiarity with high intensity ULF suffered from immense confusion, became consumed with panic, and then froze (or fell) trying to escape their predicament.

 

I guess it sounds like a bit of an urban legend, but I think it's noteworthy nonetheless.

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It's been over a decade since the release of WotW, why wouldn't I expect every large budget action flick to have 5 star extension in the year 2016?

 

Because they still have not installed proper sound monitoring in the studios.

That is the only reasonable explanation for this.

The sound designers and mixers work with what they hear, and if they can not hear or otherwise experience it, it will only be noise appearing on the spectrum analyzer (if the spectrum analyzer even shows what goes on below 20-30hz.. in a studio I have visited it does not..).

If they had ever experienced the difference, every movie would have some serious ulf effects, because they would never pass on this opportunity to create something that gives such a powerful and immense effect, they would disregard the fact that most home systems would not be able to reproduce it.

 

A system that can do this does not need 5 or 6hz extension, but it needs to be set up properly to give the right physical impact of the ulf, and you need extension well below 20hz, with full spl capacity.

Compared to what they have in the studios today, even 20hz REAL extension would be a huuuuuge improvement, and we would see a lot more decent soundtracks.

To the producers/sound mixers/studio owners out there: No, your sound system is not state of the art for sound reproduction.

 

Ignorance, bad sound reproduction systems and incompetence among the producers are the reasons why we see this today.

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Because they still have not installed proper sound monitoring in the studios.

That is the only reasonable explanation for this.

The sound designers and mixers work with what they hear, and if they can not hear or otherwise experience it, it will only be noise appearing on the spectrum analyzer (if the spectrum analyzer even shows what goes on below 20-30hz.. in a studio I have visited it does not..).

 

This is EXACTLY why.

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There's supposedly a camp in the Himalayas where climbers have been known to die mysteriously when storms passed through.  Storms that should have been survivable for experience crews wiped them out.  Investigation and interviews with survivors led to the understanding that something about the conditions in the environment caused many among the crews to literally panic and disregard precautions (like staying sheltered during the worst of weather).  In the end, the best explanation offered was that nearby rock formations formed a resonant cavity through which the wind flowed through to produce intense infrasonic sounds, and that the mountaineers, lacking familiarity with high intensity ULF suffered from immense confusion, became consumed with panic, and then froze (or fell) trying to escape their predicament.

What a bunch of ULF pansies.  :)  Might be right though, this video kind of blew my mind (it has to do with ULF in a very similar way as the above story)

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Spectre - DTS-HDMA 7.1

 

Level - 5 Stars (113.68dB composite)

Extension - 3 Stars (19Hz)

Dynamics - 5 Stars (28.61dB)

Execution - TBD

Overall - TBD

 

Recommendation - TBD

 

post-20-0-22819600-1456030324.jpg

 

Comments - While OK, just not up to par with the previous 3 Daniel Craig Bond films.  Its as if they want to morph the tougher, grittier Bond with Roger Moore's Bond, and IMO, it fell flat on its face trying to do so.  I'm glad Sam Mendes will not be back to direct.  Typical 'louder is better' sound design/mixing on this one, with the flat-tops on every channel to match.

 

JSS 

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