Here's a random thought about how music is over compressed yet other media....

I know what you mean about the ads on TV - way louder than the programmes and I always have to reach for the volume control when they come on. I often wonder why the advertisers/broadcasters don't realise that their ploy to try and make you sit up and pay attention to the ads actually backfires on them because of this. It's like a form of shouting, and who ever listens to random people shouting at them ? HEY YOU ! YES YOU, THE PERSON I'M REALLY ANNOYING BY TALKING WAY LOUDER THAN NECESSARY, BUY THIS THING FROM ME..............let me just think about that........ erm, no. Once I'm forced to reach for the remote I actually turn the volume down way lower than it would have been had they just been broadcast at the same level as the progs. When the ads are over I turn the volume back up to normal level.

Hi,
Film, and theater, in the past 50 years has been huge about the other parts of it, that also add to the atmosphere and general ambience of the whole thing.
 
Because of it, for example, everyone has seen the incredible sets that Beyruth used to have with their amazing lighting designs that every rock band throws on the musicians haphazardly. Or you have seen how music can be used to jump off your seat, and all you had to do a few years back is go see "2001, A Space Odyssey" at the Cinerama Dome, or equivalent, and then later a pair of movies were unreal and incredible when it came to sound and effects in terms of getting your attention. Both "Apocalypse Now" and "The Deerhunter" had you totally shook up by the way some of these effects and sounds were used, and it wasn't only the helicopter going from left to right, that even Pink Floyd used more than once!
 
In my early days with thie stuff, we did have a friend that was blind and he was nutz and then some. He would hear something on the radio on Sunday night, and Monday morning stick his cane out on 101 and hitchhike to Van Nuys and go to the record shop to get one of those new things, and then hitchhike back ... no biggie for him. Or we would be at his place, and he loved joking about us always needing some lights and blow up his electrical bill. But his listening attention was, indeed, deadly, not to mention his tactile sensations.
 
Is it that we're lazy and do not pay attention to what's around us?
 
Or is it simply "too much" that we can not "register" it all?
 
My thoughts have always been along the side of the middle of this equation. Meditation has a way to help focus your hearing as well, with the side effect that you endup having to deal with the over-abundance of "information" that you all of a sudden get, but can not make sense of ------ HAHAHA ----- there is the problem right there.
We always think that we have to "know" and "understand" everything, including why we sleep and why the water goes down the faucet and why babies cry, and why you need to get off once in a while ... and we're not simply capable of "letting go" that mental state that has to define everything, until it kills it, and has no idea what it is anymore.
 
It is the same with most music and artists. To me, an artist, continues t evolve and get more into these areas, whereas the Rolling Stones will just look for another riff for a song, and that's that. Some folks think there is just as much "art" in the nothingness of it all as there is in the fullness of it all.
 
It is what it is. This is what life and living is all about. Questioning it becomes an exercise in futility, and in fact, an old wise man used to say something like ... the day you do not have a question, is the day you "Know"!

paulo

 
Can I borrow that for the Songs forum Paulo? Thanks..

jamesg1213

paulo

 
Can I borrow that for the Songs forum Paulo? Thanks..

Borrow away, wasn't mine in the first place.;)
 
The SF hasn't been what it was for some time now. Shame really.

Most TVs and recievers can be set so the dynamics are tamed a little bit.
As to the late-night watching of action movies, I bought a cheap (GE, $50 at Walmart*) set of wireless headphones.

Paulo-  haha sorry I didn't mean to ignore you!  I agree with you and all of the other statements above.  Maybe if people voiced their displeasure more then someone might listen?  yeah... probably not but still.   As for the Calm act...  It hasn't seemed to make much difference to me here in Florida.

paulo
The SF hasn't been what it was for some time now. Shame really.

Ever since that wanker Bapu joined up.
 
2014 will be different.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I'll flood the SF front page all day every day.

Ever since I found we qualified for a free upgrade to the "Genie" DVR system (that can record up to five shows at once and can hold a TON of stuff), I've set it to record just about anything I'm interested in watching.  Then I simply forward through all the commercials.  An added benefit is that I can now watch an hour-long show in 40 minutes.

Beepster
Lately I've been watching a lot of frogs and salamanders doing the nasty.

Aha I new you were lurking the FSF.

They use to have normal sound and hi-fi sound on VCRs. They need that on everything nowdays. I hate crowd cheering on a game show (because probably it is just sound effects sometimes the audience), and movies, I do not want it to sound real as in real life almost, because it is a movie, not my life. I am very tired of all that crap and Commercials are not softer but still louder way louder, and it is all just crap to me.
 
Well, I guess that is it for now.
 

If huge dynamic range is an issue then I'd suggest a TV with a built in compressor. My sony has one and it's labelled "steady sound" in the menu. It helps but doesn't kill the problem.

One of my biggest sources of tension with clients is the loudness thing.  They sometimes get mad if their ad is not as loud as competitors.  They accuse me of making their ad "too quiet" and when itry to explain that their ad is actually at the upper end of the guidelines, they tune it out as jargon.

I have a Toshiba 52" something or other TV and I am pretty sure it has something built in to its sound that you can enable that will keep the volume steady on everything. I don't remember exactly because I run the sound through something else. I know what you mean though. I get aggravated during the holidays when the daughters are over and they never sit close and talk, it is always across the room and they are "all mouth and no ears". So I ease the volume up. Pretty soon... I am asked to turn it down because of some commercial or loud part in a show or movie. I should check out the TV settings for times like these. I too have tinnitus and can hear up to 8khz. I'm not sure how much actual hearing loss I have but my wife can also hear much better than me... She is always saying do you hear that and I respond with, "what, I don't hear anything". I do have a highly developed sense of smell however.
edit> The Toshiba Regza line, at least mine and the one I looked online just now have a built in soundbar with something called "Stablesound" Sound Limiter.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/uk.tech.digital-tv/288g-e-sUfY
 
http://gizmodo.com/385566/dolby-volume-solving-the-problem-of-annoyingly-loud-tv-content
 
I would also NEVER buy a car from someone who yells at me on the TV then ends with, "Get 'er done". I guess it must appeal to someone.
 
Don't worry though. It is 2014 now, it is the future and everything will be better.
 
J