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


maxmercy

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I watched Rogue One tonight, so I can add subjective opinions to the numbers...

 

This is definitely a 30Hz humpfest, and most big low end effects have a distinctive 'tone' to them as a result.  It's so apparent that it becomes distracting at times.

 

For instance (and this is a spoiler if you're one of the holdouts that still haven't seen this one), when the Death Star destroys Jeddha City, there are a few big shots of the planet's surface lifting up and shattering due to the shock wave.  It's visually impressive.  Those shots also call for some incredibly deep, room shaking bass.  Now, the bass that is there is loud, and it does pressurize the room, but you can definitely feel that the lowest octave or so isn't quite there, and the 27-36Hz frequencies have been boosted so much that it almost sounds like a sine wave has been put into the effect.  It reminded me a bit of Interstellar in a way.

 

Whatever clipping is present is masked withing the louder effects, so for the most part it isn't noticeable (on my less than ideal system anyway).  Some explosions do have that 'crunch' to them that usually indicates that they are clipped, but it is brief and the soundtrack is well balanced in terms of volume spikes so at no point does it get fatiguing.

 

Overall this soundtrack is a bit of a disappointment.  The bass is much more one dimensional and generic than in The Force Awakens.  Even the brief Force rumbles are less interesting.  On it's own it might have been okay, but coming after Hacksaw Ridge it's a big letdown.

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I think I'd normally be inclined to watch a movie first without any BEQ, but with a review like this, maybe I should just skip straight to the BEQ for "Rogue One"?  At least it looks like there may be plenty of ULF content there, it just gets overwhelmed by the sound of the hump.

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OK. This may be a stupid question and if it is, please feel free to let me know.  In addition to my sub, I have a crowson.  It goes down to 5hz i think.  It looks like this has low bass, juts not at a high level. I have it setup so it only gets frequencies below 35hz.  If that's the case, even though my sub may not get all of the low bass because of that huge spike, my chair should still feel a good portion of it shouldn't it?  Or am I totally wrong.

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Thanks.  I double checked and the lowest the crossover goes is 40hz.  Despite the graph, I am still looking forward to watching this.  If it is "like" Interstellar I will be fine with that.  Interstellar sounds fine on my setup and the Crowson does it's job well with that one.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Your FFT setting are different, so your graphs do not pick up transient phenomena as well.  My FFT settings are:

 

Decimate : 48

 

FFT Length : 1024

 

Window: Nuttall

 

I do not use the anti-alias filter for decimation (box unchecked).

 

I use SpecLab v2.77 as it is the most user friendly for D-B uses.  

 

 

All FFT settings are a compromise.  Using longer windows gives you more freq resolution, but you lose some transient-sensing capability.  You can compensate with a longer window with a fixed gain value if you play with it, but I stay away from any offsets, and just use the numbers above, it's less complicated.  Offsets are how nube used to do it to get 0.5Hz resolution but to get the same amplitude on the PvA as the shorter window length FFT.    

 

JSS

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fwiw the vibration app I wrote does the same sort of analysis as speclab for the target curve function - http://www.avsforum.com/forum/155-diy-speakers-subs/2681865-rpi-based-diy-vibration-meter-3.html#post52214001- and the relevant bit of user guide is http://vibe.readthedocs.io/en/latest/uiguide.html#wav-upload

 

It is currently tuned to produce output with ~1Hz resolution though, it decimates to 1kHz sample rate and then performs an analysis based on a 1024 point fft. Bit easier to use than speclab as you just drag and drop wav's into it, no options exposed to configure it though.

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let me know if you hit any issues, don't think anyone else has used it yet :) I could easily add some options to make it easier to use for this case though, for example 

 

auto detecting files dropped into a certain directory

providing some config option for tweaking the fft length

providing a quicker way to see peak/average on one chart (rather than having to select peak then select average each time)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hacksaw Ridge is the real deal. Tremendous surround work with tremendous bass. The polar opposite to flat, one-dimensional LF. Surely amongst the very finest, most realistic soundtracks I've ever experienced in my home. 

And the movie was surprisingly good too. There was something very genuine about the storytelling that seems rare in modern large-scale filmmaking. It really moved me. And the crafting of the violent battle scenes is mind-blowingly (no pun intended...) good. 

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xXx return of xander cage

 

outstanding bass throughout...the ocean scenes.,,...woah...haven't had that level of bass in a film in a while...good stuff...extension to 12Hz or so...and not a 30hz monster (no huge peak at 30)

 

recommended if you take the film for what it is

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Me too.

 

Bullet to the Head:

 

Level - 4 Stars (110.09dB composite)

Extension - 4 Stars (14Hz)

Dynamics - 5 Stars (29.31dB)

Execution - 4 Stars by poll

 

Overall - 4.25 Stars

 

Recommendation - Rent by Poll.

 

 

JSS

 

 

Got a chance to see Bullet to the Head. Decent but not great film, the intro was surprising, and there was almost too much 18-24Hz LFE. Not that I minded (my couch has a resonance there, so it is very tactile), but when a gunshot and a punch move my couch just as much, it feels kind of 'off'.....I would give it 4 Stars when I vote.

 

Serenity is in a close race!

 

JSS

 

It's taken a while to get cheap :D but I finally watched Bullet to the Head.

 

As a film...  meh.  I thought the acting was pretty bad and the story was, er, 'thin'...  lol

 

Bass-wise, I'd agree with the learned gentleman above - almost too much bass, just OTT and somewhat samey.

 

It was like a cliché 80s action film with a poor example of a 21st century sound design.

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