I'm amazed how these DAW users seem to ignore the volume of their voice overs.  Their opening theme is a 5 to 1 when it comes to voice overs.  How do people mess this up when they work with sound? It's worse than note pad dialogue.

kitekrazy1
It's worse than note pad dialogue.

If you heard my voice you would probably change this opinion.

It's not restricted to amatuers (whatever they are). I once watched a Berklee College of Music official tutorial on the art of audio mixing where you actually couldn't hear the guy speaking over the "beatz" backing track of the video.

My impression is that overly loud music (either alone or in the background) is becoming the standard of practice in films. The last few dozen crime or action films I have watched crank up the music to almost painful levels during periods when there is no actual dialogue. This seems to be an attempt at some kind of dramatic effect in an attempt to convert a boring car or foot chase (almost all of them are actually) into an edge of the seat scene. It is unsettling, and sometimes anxiety provoking to experience the soundtrack hammering at your ears in an attempt to produce/enhance a heart pounding sequence. I expect the intended visceral effect of this audio assault is rooted in eliciting the flight or flight response that evolved to make us take notice of a nearby lightning strike or landslide, but it probably also benefits from contemporary Pavlovian conditioning that causes us to experience a self-defensive grab for the remote to try to ward off the invading beast. The tensing of muscles, release of adrenaline and panicked pushing of the mute or volume control is a poor substitute for more legitimately evoked reactions from the context of the film itself.
 
As for the obliteration of the dialog by music, untamed street noise or enhanced or synthetic sounds of explosions... 

I've also seen "pro" tutorials on sites like Groove3 and Lynda.com which had a horrible audio/background level balance. 
 
Oh and I once watched a Dave Pensado tutorial which featured stereo effects but the whole video was in mono. 

slartabartfast
My impression is that overly loud music (either alone or in the background) is becoming the standard of practice in films. The last few dozen crime or action films I have watched crank up the music to almost painful levels during periods when there is no actual dialogue. This seems to be an attempt at some kind of dramatic effect in an attempt to convert a boring car or foot chase (almost all of them are actually) into an edge of the seat scene. It is unsettling, and sometimes anxiety provoking to experience the soundtrack hammering at your ears in an attempt to produce/enhance a heart pounding sequence. I expect the intended visceral effect of this audio assault is rooted in eliciting the flight or flight response that evolved to make us take notice of a nearby lightning strike or landslide, but it probably also benefits from contemporary Pavlovian conditioning that causes us to experience a self-defensive grab for the remote to try to ward off the invading beast. The tensing of muscles, release of adrenaline and panicked pushing of the mute or volume control is a poor substitute for more legitimately evoked reactions from the context of the film itself.
 
As for the obliteration of the dialog by music, untamed street noise or enhanced or synthetic sounds of explosions... 

Indeed.
 
And then on the other extreme of the spectrum, there's another trend I noticed in some movies and tv shows where in certain scenes, the characters speak so softly that they are barely audible - I don't know if it's an attempt to make some kind of artistic statement or some quest for realism but it stinks. Of course, between that and the other extreme, you spend your time "riding the volume".
 
I was watching footage from old TV shows and old TV commercials recently and I was shocked - it made me realize even more clearly how modern medias represent a constant aggression on the sense. Everything is "epic", everything is a chorus and a hook, and contrast doesn't seem to exist other than in its most exaggerated, violent form. Sad.
 
 

Rain
And then on the other extreme of the spectrum, there's another trend I noticed in some movies and tv shows where in certain scenes, the characters speak so softly that they are barely audible - I don't know if it's an attempt to make some kind of artistic statement or some quest for realism but it stinks. Of course, between that and the other extreme, you spend your time "riding the volume".
 
I was watching footage from old TV shows and old TV commercials recently and I was shocked - it made me realize even more clearly how modern medias represent a constant aggression on the sense. Everything is "epic", everything is a chorus and a hook, and contrast doesn't seem to exist other than in its most exaggerated, violent form. Sad.
 

I see articles in the British press every so often about BBC viewers complaining that the dialog in modern dramas is too quiet and that whispering seems to be the soup of the day. I don't really watch TV any more but I'm sure that would p*ss me off no end too. I used to like watching Dallas as a kid and it would annoy me how Sue Ellen would start a sentence normally, but by about the 3rd or 4th word her voice would break up into a whisper. 

Rain
 
And then on the other extreme of the spectrum, there's another trend I noticed in some movies and tv shows where in certain scenes, the characters speak so softly that they are barely audible 

My roshi used to do that all the time during dokusan. He was not a careless communicator and never did this during teisho, but it took me a while to realize that it was a deliberate (or perhaps unconscious?) exploitation of a natural human response to low amplitude speech. When this happens you can feel your body tense to lean in to the speaker's voice. The visceral response is that what is being said is significant if not portentous, and you find yourself working much harder to pay attention to the content. Done properly, it can give what is said more impact, and more effective access to your mind than a shout. Done carelessly it is just annoying. 

It is actually a bit of a technical challenge to get dialog together with whatever else you are including on your video if you are using basic consumer video equipment.  For example, my older Costco Panasonic video camera has a 3.5 mm stereo jack for an outboard microphone.  I have a Rode shotgun (battery) condenser mic that I use to get decent sound when recording family stuff (kids at school band concerts, etc.).  It is what I used to do this recording as a goof for another thread (this took me a total of about 15 minutes from recording to posting with no mixdown):
 

 
If want to use your video camera to record the audio in combination with a mixing board to get the levels correct you have to get the signal from line level to mic level so you need a Line-to-Mic Attenuator Cable (similar to this item):
 
http://www.markertek.com/...to-camera-mic-level-in
 
The alternative is to record your audio separately, mix it down in Sonar and then sync it back up with the video in your video editing software.  I have personally seen many people take this route with a moderate amount of success.  We recently had a reporter from a local newspaper putting together an online article at a special needs church service where I play the drums.  He came in with a mic’ on his camera and separate Zoom recorder.  When I asked him about it he said he does the audio mix in the video editing software.
 
I don’t actually own any prosumer level video gear so I am not talking from experience but I recently did a bit of research (and please correct me if I a wrong).  When you step up to a video camera that has a line level jack in addition to the mic level jack there is no onboard mixing.  My understanding is that when you record using both the line and mic level inputs you get line level on one side and mic level on the other side.  On occasion, I come across youtube videos where the dialog and music are panned hard left and right and I suspect that the panning on these videos is the result of the hardware.
 
My point is that even if you kinda’ know what you’re doing wrt audio recording and mixdown … once you throw the basic consumer camera in there the nuisance level jumps quite a lot.
 
 

quantumeffect
The alternative is to record your audio separately, mix it down in Sonar and then sync it back up with the video in your video editing software.  

When I was doing voiceovers for product animations prior to a tradeshow (back when I was in an alternative energy startup company), I would definitely have the audio separate from the video then sync them up (I believe in SoundForge - can't remember).  
 
Additionally, my audio had separate tracks for the background music and my voice.  Using my voice track as a source, I inverted it (so the speaking highs were now lows) then converted this to control volume.  Smoothed it out a bit and used the new track to control volume on the backing track effectively ducking the volume when I was speaking.