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


maxmercy

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Hello everyone, I've been visiting this Forum for a while now and thought I might contribute something, as I have the ability to do Speclab graphs pretty easily.

I set it up using Bossobass's tutorial, but my graphs seem to look a bit different (not exactly sure why). Input is my soundcard's "Stereomix".

I got some graphs for Robocop and Pompeii.

(Timestamps in Filename)

 

Robocop:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pompeii:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also would like to suggest Sunshine (2007) for measuring. This has a lot of deep bass and an overall great soundtrack.

Here's a graph of a scene near the end:

 

 

 

I also got a ton of other graphs (a couple of them from the game Battlefield 4 if anyone is interested), which I posted on another forum but only recently started to name them properly so it's a bit hard to tell which movie they belong to.

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gdffg...

 

The biggest issue I see is that your graphs are too hot.  In SpecLab, goto Options-->...part 2:Ampl-Range and change the offset to 5.  That will help a bit.  There's also a tutorial in the AVS Master Bass list thread (the most recent one) for getting and measuring the digital bits off the disc without any sound card involved.  The poster is "desertdome," and if you search that thread for posts by him you should find it.  That will also eliminate your need for proper calibration of any equipment.

 

Sunshine has been measured, and I'll post it now.

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Sunshine (5.1 DTS-HD MA)


Level        - 3 Stars (107.66dB composite)
Extension - 5 Stars (1Hz)
Dynamics - 3 Stars (24.01dB)

Execution - 3 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall     - 3.5 Stars

Recommendation - Buy (by poll)

 

Notes:  Only moderate levels, but completely full-bandwidth effects throughout.  Surprisingly terrible dynamics, though, and it's not like the movie has nonstop action or really high levels that would prevent better dynamics.

 

PvA:

 

post-17-0-74953900-1402079378_thumb.png

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Trollhunter (Norwegian 5.1 DTS-HD MA)


Level        - 3 Stars (109.25dB composite)
Extension - 5 Stars (2Hz)
Dynamics - 5 Stars (28.5dB)

Execution - 5 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall     - 4.5 Stars

Recommendation - Buy (by poll)

 

Notes:  I'm a big fan of this movie.  The film is good and the mix is legit.

 

PvA:

 

post-17-0-43689300-1402079707_thumb.png

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Thanks for the response, I always suspected that my graphs might be a bit hot, but didn't know what to to about it, as I set the input level exactly as high as possible without clipping.

I changed the settings in Speclab and it looks a bit more realistic now, although almost a bit too "cold".

Here's a graph of the Pompeii scene at 1.06.20 with the new settings:

 

post-1300-0-35160200-1402086517_thumb.jpg

 

 

Also, as you already measured Sunshine, could you propably do Trance and Slumdog Millionaire too (same director)? Watched them recently and especially Slumdog Millionaire had some surprising bass, even sub 20Hz stuff. Trance would propably measure similar to Sunshine.

 

EDIT: I thought I'd graph a more well known scene, so it's easier to see if my graphs are accurate. Here's the Washington Monument Scene from OHF:

 

post-1300-0-75430200-1402087258_thumb.jpg

 

Second EDIT: Experimented a bit more and compared to some already posted graphs and it seems that setting the offset to somewhere between 10 and 15 makes my graphs look exactly like yours, so I'll settle for 12.

Might be doing some graphs for Battlefield 4(video game) now if you're interested, it's got some serious (unfiltered) bass.

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I've slightly changed my SL settings... have to update my upload page, which I'll be doing in a complete rehaul of the entire site this summer.

 

JPC often breaks my balls about my settings, calling the "a smeared mess". There is a single tradeoff with SL spectrograms; either you opt for resolution in the time domain (which JPC seems to prefer) or resolution in the frequency domain. You can't have both on the spectrogram.

 

I have optimized my settings for frequency resolution because the resolution is spread out over the bandwidth allowed by your settings. That means that there will be the same number of bars of resolution from 60-120 Hz as there is from 3-6 Hz.

 

In the most recent challenge from JPC on this subject, he chose a scene from DRIVE in which there is a low-level, staccato synth music in the soundtrack. His spectrogram graph shows the beats whereas with my settings the beats are 'smeared' in time.

 

I bought the flick and ran the snippet and scaled and pasted it on a page with JPC's version. Note that his spectrogram does indeed show the separation of the staccato beats of the riff, but he has virtually zero frequency resolution, as each 'beat' looks as though it's a single "smeared mess" bar across the bandwidth of the music.

 

In my spectrogram, the 'beats' are indeed 'smeared' in time, but you can count the 50-something different frequencies that comprise the music content.

 

I obviously prefer to know what frequencies comprise the effects we enjoy. This example posed by JPC is, of course, and extreme example, but it does stress the difference in settings and why I prefer my settings.

 

Also note that the waveform graph in my settings shows the time domain information much more clearly than JPC's. Between the spectrogram and the waveform graph, I can get the best of both worlds.

 

post-28-0-12631000-1402155895_thumb.jpg

 

Another point regarding the offset option in SL; notice that the peak-to-average graphs posted for each soundtrack have a difference of 25-30dB. Most speclab scales are set far wider than that. My settings have the scale at -60 to +5dBFS. So, with that scale, if I set the offset to '0', half the colors in the scale will never be used.

 

There is no "hot" or "cold" with the color scale. The selection of colors, number of colors and range is infinite.

 

I can leave the offset at '0' and change the scale range to -30 to 0dBFS and get exactly the same result as I do leaving the scale range as-is and increasing the offset. In addition to those choices, I can compress the color scale or expand it.

 

The point of the spectrogram scale is to get as many different colors in the range as possible within the color scheme most members are used to. Why have 10 color bands if you're only going to use 4 of them? I adjust the offset so that it's above the noise floor and there is one color per 5dB, give-or-take. Again, if I set the offset to '0', that will change to around 1/2 the resolution.

 

That's the reasoning I have for my settings; the highest possible frequency resolution and color-to-amplitude resolution. Just had some time this morning and thought I'd post this since I've had it sitting on my desktop for too long.

 

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Non-Stop (5.1 DTS-HD MA)

 

Level        - 3 Stars (109.46dB composite)
Extension - 5 Stars (5Hz)
Dynamics - 5 Stars (30.38dB)

Execution - 4 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall     - 4.25 Stars

Recommendation - Rent (by poll)

 

Notes:  One scene with loud content <10Hz, right at the beginning.  The rest of the movie is constant bass, but not many loud effects, and only one other scene with hot content below 35Hz.

 

PvA:

 

post-17-0-12417700-1402410615_thumb.png

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Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (7.1 DTS-HD MA)

 

Level        - 4 Stars (111.71dB composite)
Extension - 4 Stars (11Hz)
Dynamics - 5 Stars (32.36dB)

Execution - 3 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall     - 4 Stars

Recommendation - Rent (by poll)

 

Notes:  Exactly one scene goes below 20Hz with any authority, and only one effect in that scene.  Not a whole lot of BIG effects in this one, and the movie is only so-so.

 

PvA:

 

post-17-0-07100900-1402410868_thumb.png

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Resident Evil (5.1 TrueHD)


Level        - 1 Star (104.57dB composite)
Extension - 4 Stars (11Hz)
Dynamics - 3 Stars (23.09dB)

Execution - 3 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall     - 2.75 Stars

Recommendation - Rent (by poll)

 

Notes:  One effect with loud content below 28Hz, otherwise rolled off starting at 32Hz.  Most content above 30Hz.

 

PvA:

 

post-17-0-78593800-1402676841_thumb.png

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Resident Evil: Apocalypse (5.1 LPCM)


Level        - 5 Stars (113.04dB composite)
Extension - 5 Stars (3Hz)
Dynamics - 5 Stars (28.75dB)

Execution - 4 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall     - 4.75 Stars

Recommendation - Rent (by poll)

 

Notes:  Right from the beginning, very hot content below 10Hz.  That deep stuff continues in some later scenes, but most of the rest of the movie is above 30Hz.

 

PvA:

 

post-17-0-54196400-1402677057_thumb.png

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Resident Evil: Extinction (5.1 TrueHD)


Level        - 4 Stars (111.02dB composite)
Extension - 1 Stars (28Hz)
Dynamics - 5 Stars (28.76dB)

Execution - 2 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall     - 3 Stars

Recommendation - Rent (by poll)

 

Notes:  After the 2nd one's great extension, this is a real disappointment with what appears to be a near brick-wall filter starting at 32Hz.

 

PvA:

 

post-17-0-31046300-1402677332_thumb.png

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Resident Evil: Afterlife (5.1 DTS-HD MA)


Level        - 4 Stars (112.19dB composite)
Extension - 5 Stars (1Hz)
Dynamics - 4 Stars (25.63dB)

Execution - 4 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall     - 4.25 Stars

Recommendation - Rent (by poll)

 

Notes:  Just like the 2nd one, there's deep content present in the beginning of this one, and it's used throughout for various effects.  Very hot content below 5Hz in one scene near the middle, and one 20min before the end.

 

PvA:

 

post-17-0-29441900-1402677554_thumb.png

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