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


maxmercy

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I saw Star Trek: Beyond at the cinema the other day. 

 

I'm not sure if it's been graphed yet as I've not been online much, but the bass in the cinema I was in was virtually non-existent.  (Not to mention there seemed to be a distinct lack of 'sparkle' at the top end, like they'd lopped off everything over about 12kHz :mellow: )

 

I'm hopeful that the lack of bass was just down to the cinema, and/or that the actual track is full bandwidth so didn't have the pronounced 30Hz hump that sounds 'good' <_< in cinemas.

 

 

*awaits someone to come along and prove it's a terrible 40Hz filtered track*   lol

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Who knows.  The theater I saw "Deadpool" at had pretty lame bass, and we all know how that worked out.

 

That said, I expect to see "Star Trek: Beyond" at the Regal RPX tomorrow.  Their subs play to 25ish Hz.  Unfortunately, the presentations there have seemed inconsistent between visits.  I only see a movie there maybe twice a year anyway, but it seems that their calibration and/or playback levels change.  We'll see.

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I have seen it twice.  Once in a real IMAX theater and one in Liemax.  I like the non-Imax a bit more only because the Imax really is freaking loud.  I mean, I like it as loud as the next guy, but they just turn it way up.  Both times though, I think there was some nice bass. I have hope that this will be a clean BR, not distorted like crazy and that it contains some decent bass.  I will just add that I saw Jupiter Ascending in a theater and I thought it had zero bass. Well, I think this site proved me wrong on that one so I am willing to wait before I hang my head.

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Ehh, unfortunately my verdict for bass in Star Trek after viewing in the local Regal RPX Atmos is inconclusive yet again.

 

Before I even entered the theater, I noticed the bass seemed quite excessive and one-notish, centered at maybe 40-60 Hz.  Indeed, every bass hit of every trailer sounded and felt the same.  It sounded like a lot of mediocre car systems.  I know trailers tend to be all about loud bass vs. quality, but I doubt every one was mixed this way.  Certainly, it doesn't sound like that to me at home, so I'm inclined to believe that their sub channel response was poorly calibrated.  Lame.

 

But then the main feature started, and the excess bass went away.  In fact, almost all the sub bass seemed to go away.  What little was there seemed to be 40 Hz and up.  I'm not sure what happened here.  One possibility is that their system used a different audio configuration for trailers vs. feature and the configuration for the feature just had the sub turned way down.  Another possibility is that the bass levels in the feature were quite a bit lower than the trailers, and the 40-60 Hz emphasis was strong enough to mask the rest of the sub content.  Either way, the sub bass for the main feature seemed weak and the deep bass was almost non-existent.

 

All the same, I thought the bass was kind of weak when I saw SW:TFA there, so there could still be plenty of bass on the soundtrack itself.  With SW:TFA, I did notice a bit more deep bass in the 30-40 Hz range with hints of < 30 Hz stuff, so this track may be weaker than "Star Wars".  But, it's also possible that the Star Trek track just spreads the bass out over a wider bandwidth including all the way down to the bottom.  I'm actually very hopeful for our sakes that this is the case and that the RPX just has a poorly optimized sub channel.  If so, that's a real shame.  This is supposed to be a high-end theater, and even though they have some decent sub capability, it does no one any good if it's not calibrated right.

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Most trailers have obnoxiously loud and one dimensional bass so it's not unusual for even crappy theaters to show some amount of low end during them.

 

Right, but it usually varies by trailer right?  I sat through about 10 trailers, and every time there was any kind of bass slam effect, it sounded and felt exactly the same, like a lot of 45-55 Hz.

 

The main feature had a few > 80 Hz hits strong enough for me to feel, and there was a little bit of 40-80 Hz rub, but as I said, the deep bass was basically a non-event.  I'm thinking their sub system was misbehaving.  Maybe it wasn't even turned on for the main feature.  Wow, that actually appears to be the simplest explanation.  Most cinema mains speakers are pretty good to 40 Hz I think.  The next question then is whether the subs were on for the trailers or if the mains were to blame for all that boom in the trailers.  Either way, this is supposed to be a high end movie theater and that's reflected in the price.

 

In the past, they definitely had subs playing to 25 Hz.  I guess this is typical in commercial cinema.  For example, a new high-end movie theater opens up with decent, brand new equipment and a good quality calibration.  Then someone messes with the knobs and it never sounds right again.  Some high-school employee gets into the projector room and pushes the sub up for fun.  Then forgets to put it back.  The subs eventually get cooked.  Once they finally get replaced, the manager turns the subs down on purpose to avoid future expenses.  Etc.

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Usually trailers all sound the same to me: big dramatic 40Hz bass booms and sine ramps.

 

But I've had that happen before where the trailers sounded decent on bass and then the main feature started and the bass vanished.  Most commercial theater chains probably have roving groups of calibration techs that only visit a particular theater every few months.  If something goes wrong in the meantime, you're SOL.

 

If you want to be positive you can just say Star Trek had a lot of really deep, clean bass that the theater couldn't reproduce  :D.

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If you want to be positive you can just say Star Trek had a lot of really deep, clean bass that the theater couldn't reproduce  :D.

 

I hate to say it, but that's pretty close to my reasoning about "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" after I saw it in another theater.

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Sounds right to me, going by the "hum test".  (My own voice extends to about 85 Hz and serves as a reliable pitch reference.)  And the 28 Hz isn't that loud, at least on the You Tube version.  It sounds like they forgot to boost the lowest frequencies of the bass line to compensate for subjective drop in loudness.  If there are subharmonics, they are very weak and/or below 15 Hz.  Maybe a steep house curve could bring them out?

 

The weird thing about this stuff (on YouTube at least) is that the loudness is very low, at least 12 dB quieter than typical loudness war stuff, which is comparable to very high dynamic range (DR) recordings.  But the extra headroom doesn't appear to get used at all.  At MV "0", my peak/average-level indicators are essentially stuck at or slightly above "-48 dB" (bottom of the scale), which is what I usually see with very low DR content played back at a similar loudness.  In contrast, stuff with good DR will really get those indicators bouncing.  And no, the subs aren't getting it either.  In fact, I'd say the bass is totally weak sauce even at "0".  What's up with the hype?  Is the YouTube version somehow crippled?

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28HZ is the lowest loud note

 

Hmmm...That cannot be right on the version I listened to. Lowest note seemed to be lower in volume but is way below 28Hz or I'm losing my judgment. I'll see if I can run the version off of Spotify that I heard.

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Hmmm...That cannot be right on the version I listened to. Lowest note seemed to be lower in volume but is way below 28Hz or I'm losing my judgment. I'll see if I can run the version off of Spotify that I heard.

Then I must have the wrong song...sorry

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Then I must have the wrong song...sorry

 

Or there are different versions out there, maybe?  I'm pretty sure what I heard didn't go lower than 28 Hz, and it was pretty weak at that.  I'm still at a loss for why the track had so much wasted headroom.  Maybe all the bass was EQed way down for the YouTube version?

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Hmmm...That cannot be right on the version I listened to. Lowest note seemed to be lower in volume but is way below 28Hz or I'm losing my judgment. I'll see if I can run the version off of Spotify that I heard.

 

 

Or there are different versions out there, maybe?  I'm pretty sure what I heard didn't go lower than 28 Hz, and it was pretty weak at that.  I'm still at a loss for why the track had so much wasted headroom.  Maybe all the bass was EQed way down for the YouTube version?

 

 

I can't help but think this is the case Sergio. I have the song locally on my library at home, and have compared it to the Spotify version and they are basically spot-on. This is one of my main bass go-to demo tracks for folks who don't mind the vulgarity at least. The lowest note that IIRC from it being spec'd showed 17hz-19hz I am pretty sure. 

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I can't help but think this is the case Sergio. I have the song locally on my library at home, and have compared it to the Spotify version and they are basically spot-on. This is one of my main bass go-to demo tracks for folks who don't mind the vulgarity at least. The lowest note that IIRC from it being spec'd showed 17hz-19hz I am pretty sure. 

what is the exact name of the song?

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  • 1 month later...

Captain America: Civil War (DTS-HDMA 7.1)

 

Level - 3 Stars (108.8dB Composite)

Extension - 3 Stars (17Hz)

Dynamics - 5 Stars (29.75dB)

Execution - TBD

 

Overall - TBD

 

Comments: Signal is clipped, mainly in Center channel, but there appears to have been a compression/limiting scheme in place to avoid very sharp edges on the waveforms as the waveforms hit 0dBFS.  New theater is not fully set up, and I only watched the film at -25dB with DRC engaged so as not to wake anyone in the house up, So I cannot comment on execution.  The PvA is very reminiscent of the original Iron Man.  This is the first film that basically requires an investment in the prior films to grasp what is happening and why, otherwise this film cannot stand on its own with the audience comprehending why the characters are doing things.  While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has enough audience buy-in to pull this off, and make a film more like a comic book, I think this formula could reach a breaking point eventually, whereby attracting new audience members will get tougher as the MCU rolls on and the older films start to show their age, and the urge to reboot everything will grow.  We already have 3 different recent cinema Spider-Men, 3 cinema SuperMen (counting Reeve), 3 Batmen, 3 Bruce Banners.  But if the box office totals are any indication, we may be in for reboots of the same characters for the rest of our entire lives.  /rant

 

JSS

 

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post-20-0-80479400-1474029333_thumb.jpg

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 - ATMOS information not measured)

 

Level - 4 Stars (111.28dB composite)

Extension - 5 Stars (1Hz)

Dynamics - 4 Stars (27.01dB)

Execution - TBD

 

Overall - TBD

 

Comments - No clipping on this film.  I still need to watch it at a proper level when the theater gets squared away.  FULL bandwidth LF on this one.  This one, like TDKR, pales in comparison with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but it is a visual effects spectacular.  It's as if they took the Leatherback Kaiju's EMP weapon and just ran with it....

 

JSS

 

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post-20-0-43658900-1474048040_thumb.jpg

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