maxmercy

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

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

All links updated, let me know if there are any missing graphs.

JSS

Only links in first post yet to be updated are 3-3.5 star movies.  Will hopefully finish updating everything soon.  Hope to measure Dune 2 next month.  Let me know if anyone has any requests.

JSS

Let us know what you think of the LF in Dune (2021).

JSS

I had a similar problem with a 2.1 setup, I had to purchase an old BD player that would decode DTS-HDMA and Dolby TrueHD as LPCM to get the LFE channel content.

JSS

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

Level - 5 Stars (112.99dB composite)

Extension - 4 Stars (12Hz)

Dynamics - 4 Stars (25.64dB)

Execution - TBD, vote in the poll.

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

JSS

Agreed.  We essentially just got a flash and low boom/rumble.  Not the ST warp-boom blastwave I was expecting.  One of the best movies I have seen.

JSS

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

I should have Dune pt1 measured next week.

JSS

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 

4 Star films now have correct links, and Transformers - Rise of the Beasts is up for voting.

JSS

Let us know what you think of the bass in Transformers - Rise of the Beasts

Thanks!  I have updated all of the 4.25 star rated films links in the first post.

JSS

4.5 Star Film links are now correct in first post.  Vote on Oppenheimer if you get the chance.

JSS

Let us know what you think about the bass in Oppenheimer

The 4.75 Star Films now have proper links, some images got lost on the PvAs of the 4.5 Star films that I am working on correcting.

JSS

Slowly I will start fixing the links in the first post.  All the 5-Star films have correct links now.

JSS

Pictures of the constructed sub?

JSS

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: 

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

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

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

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

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:

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

I'll post up the clipping analysis on TDK and the change in TDKR sound next week.

JSS

"(notable the scene involving the underground/tunnel money transport chase)"

Are you talking about TDK or TDKR?

I can graph the opening vs rest of film soon, I'll post it up.  I thought I had in the past, but didn't.

JSS

Christopher Nolan definitely has the 'wall of bass' sound design pretty well worked out.  Ever since The Dark Knight Rises, he has used the technique a lot, especially for Interstellar and Oppenheimer, but he does clip the sound at times, sometimes as an effect. 

The only thing that was strange about The Dark Knight Rises was the fact that the opening has a completely different and unclipped sound signature compared to the rest of the film.

With your LF setup, Nolan and Ridley Scott films will be very impressive.   That is a lot of SPL capability there.

JSS

MK,

I have had very different experiences with streaming.  Sometimes it just sounds 'off'.  I have never measured them, though.  BluRay (2k or 4k) is still the best presentation available, IMO.

JSS