Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Rich H (R) on October 20, 2001 at 20:43:55

In Reply to: "the loudness of the soundtrack ..." posted by clarkjohnsen on October 18, 2001 at 14:30:43:

"I respectfully suggest that it's not the loudness, but the digitalness."
--clark

Clark,

I partially agree. Partially because sound levels at movie theaters have unquestionably increased. The decibel levels are absurd these days (and I say this as someone who edits film sound fx for a living).

However, when the jump was made to digital playback in movie theaters (circa Jurassic Park), I'll never forget how taken aback I was by the harshness of the sound. The sound became colder, harder, more mechanical, and the top end took on a razor blade edge. It just plain hurt (or at least offended) my ears as no movie sound had ever before.

It was so bad that for quite a while I could barely relate the steely sounding, "hissing" voices coming from the sound system with the human looking people on screen (I'm not kidding, it sometimes to effort to integrate the sound with picture for me).

I've since experienced fine sounding, smooth, rich digital playback in some movie theaters. But it sure was a sickening switch to begin with.

Rich H.