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Topic: Volume for movies?

Devriendt Miguel
Film Handler

Posts: 14
From: Belgium
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 02-24-2000 01:37 PM

We just installed dts and dolby digital.
Can you please post at what level you normally play? For dts and dolby and could yould you please send the sizes of your rooms? (so that i can compare whith ours)
personally i find 7 good but my supervisors say that it's way to load and put it directly to 6. What do you guys think?

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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-24-2000 02:18 PM

I have found that if the theatre sound system is really good, that you can play most films at the reference level which is 7 for Dolby and DTS and 0 for Sony.

The worse your sound system the lower you have to set the volume to please your patrons. My sound system consists of a CP65 & a DA20. I have three QSC1400 amps and some old Altec Lansing, Voice of the Theatre speakers with the segmented horns. There are 8 Boston Acustic surrounds on the wall. I can only set my volume at 5 for my audience. When I worked a a theatre with a much better sound set up, I was able to play louder, cleaner.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 02-24-2000 02:25 PM

I think Ian pretty much summed it up in a nutshell. A truly good system well tuned can play at incredibly loud levels while systems not exactly "top of the line" or with a quick-eq-and-then-the-sound-tech-left will have to be played significantly lower. It is common for me to walk into a theater and find the fader setting at 4-5!!! Those who have let me do a check with my own meter and p/n generator against their "7" always ends up at 85db too...so it's their eq and/or equipment and/or acoustics (I have found that usually the fault is in that order).

Sound shouldn't be harsh and screechy. I don't like my action movies to sound like 1000 police sirens going off at once (perfect example of this from bad mixing..."The Mummy"). Unfortunately, sound is subjective and many people mistake harsh sound for "wow, listen to how clean and crisp that is!"

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Ari Nordström
Master Film Handler

Posts: 283
From: Göteborg, Sweden
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 02-24-2000 06:17 PM

We play most of our Dolby Digital films at the reference level, 7, and it works fine. There are exceptions, of course, both up and down in volume, but the vast majority of SRD films (from all over the world; we ran a film festival recently, with a lot of SRD films from most corners of the world) so far appear to work well at 7.

The auditorium is large, with 713 seats and a heigh ceiling.

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Reeve Byrne
Film Handler

Posts: 35
From: Anchorage, Ak USA
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 02-24-2000 07:51 PM

Most of our smaller theaters (100-175)are at 4.5 to 5. But we have all CP500, THX, and what not. In our bigger theaters (175-250) we're at 5-6. We used to play louder but people would complain that it was too loud so we found this to be the right levels. Some of it also depends on the movie. A big action movie doesn't need to be turned up as loud as a chick flix. I find it is best to play with the volume when previewing the movie.

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"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most."

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-25-2000 05:17 PM

Tinseltown's processors are at 4-1/2 to 5. Mainly because of customer complaints. Honestly, I don't think 6 is too loud for some movies. 7 is okay for quiet ones.

I just think people aren't used to hearing movies being played in surround sound. Cinemark's the first place in town to offer it.

After 4 years, I still get people telling me that they were sitting RIGHT UNDER the speaker and there was nothing comming out.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-25-2000 05:29 PM

I'm not an audiophile, but I'm in complete agreement with Brad's comments.

A genuinely good system should be able to reproduce very high levels for brief periods without any sort of distortion or "listener fatigue." Usually, the sound systems that people want turned down are the cheaper ones.

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John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 02-25-2000 05:42 PM

I once ran a theater which ran all its films around the 5.5 mark. It had great sound and all... the type of clientel just warranted that they need not have their ears bleeding to enjoy a film.

On the day we opened Portrait Of A Lady, Jane Campion had put a letter in with the print instructing (demanding) that this film MUST be played at 7 no matter what. Anything less would seriously damage the enjoyment factor of the film for the patron.

OK, I thought. Obviously this is a quiet mix and she's trying to make it heard. Up to 7 it goes at the feature. I go out to check the sound and am almost plastered up against the back wall! Ended up playing this at 4.5 from memory.

Bottom line? There is no real level you MUST go to. Use common sense and check the auditorium yourself to find out if it's a soft or loud track and adjust volumes accordingly. If it's the latest 'Rambo' (oh, no!) you're running the audience will most likely want it loud, if you're running the latest Jane Campion film, Jane will want it loud but ignore her and run it at a proper level.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-25-2000 06:21 PM

We play almost everything at 6. As far as I'm concerned, 7 sounds great here, and I have had hardly any complaints over the years. More along the line of "comments" like "boy, that's loud isn't it!" I can't tell if they're complaining or complimenting. After experimenting, I've found that if I set most movies at 6, I don't get those "loud" comments but I still get the compliments, so I guess that's good.

For what it's worth, I hear about 20 comments praising our sound for every one "that's loud!" comment I hear.

We're running DTS and an Ultra Stereo processor with all Peavey amps and stage speakers, and 10 EV surrounds.

As others have said, the movie can make a difference. And if we have a crowd of teenagers or kids, I always turn it up a half-notch to compensate for their talking, fidgeting, floor stomping, candy-wrapper rustling, etc.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 02-26-2000 12:33 AM

>>"The worse your sound system the lower you have to set the volume to please your patrons. My sound system consists of a CP65 & a DA20. I have three QSC1400 amps and some old Altec Lansing, Voice of the Theatre speakers with the segmented horns. There are 8 Boston Acustic surrounds on the wall. I can only set my volume at 5 for my audience. When I worked a a theatre with a much better sound set up, I was able to play louder, cleaner. "<<

Wow, with that equipment, you should be able to have excellent sound. (no joke). What do you mean by "segmented horns"? Are they A-5s with "Multi-cell" or A-7s with "Sectorial" horns? If they are A-7s then you have to be careful since it only has a 1" compression driver. I generally limit the use of those to rooms under 45' in length. When ever possible, I dump the older horns and mount the driver(s) on Altec Mantarays.

In any event, you should be able to get exceptionally good sound out of them with the CP-65/DA-20 using QSC 1400s...try bi-amping.

Steve

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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 02-26-2000 03:24 AM

I get a ton of letters included with prints that say the volume should be played at the proper "reference level" of 7. They believe that "7" in the mixing studio will be "7" in every single auditorium around the world. They also assume that they all have the same EQ, equipment, etc... Some directors sure are stupid. Even THX theatres have drastically varying results from auditorium to auditorium.

One of the more interesting letters I got was from that one guy who directed Magnolia. He basically demanded and pleaded the movie be played at 7. The sound in that movie was so harsh and overdriven throughout the entire thing that we could only turn it up to 5. What a dumbass. We normally play most of our movies around 7-ish and they sound great. The majority of our EQ's are similar to what Brad does --- soften out the harshness without making it "dull" sounding, while boosting the lows in the stage channels which give more bass and also help to blend the subwoofer in better to the main channels. We will get the occasional complaint on a weekday during the first show, but that's about it.

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Paul Powers
Film Handler

Posts: 14
From: Marin, CA
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 02-26-2000 04:52 AM

Our theatre only has Dolby Digital and SDDS no DTS. We usually run at 6 to 6.5 depending on the movie. If it is a movie that seems to warent the higher volume and it does not seem to be a very loud film it will play at 7. Also we do bring it back to 6.5 or so if it is a small crowd, once it has played a few weeks We have a large auditorium 700 seats and if there are only 30 people in there it seems to take a bit of the edge off.

I remeber running the special edition Star Wars movies and we got a bunch of complaints about it being toooo loud at 6. When we ran Phantom Menace it was run at 7 for the whole run with maybe 3 complaints. We did close the theatre for two weeks proir to retrofit it for THX certification and put in the suround EX. Got the best sound going in the county.

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Joseph Pandolfi
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 213
From: Milford, CT.
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 02-26-2000 10:06 AM

Normally when we open a movie, we set our level at 7. If we don't get any loudness complaints we leave it there. For every call we get, we would turn it down to 6.5 then 6.0 etc. but not less than 5.0. We also consider the special effects (explosions, crashes etc.). If we get a complaint on a movie like Cider House Rules (no loud effects) we would drop it down to 6.5 just for that show. And then "kick it" back up to 7 for the next show. I remember the first day we opened American Beauty I had a complaint that they could not hear people talking. I had to "kick it up" to 7.5 and kept it there. I had no loudness complaints thereafter.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 02-26-2000 03:22 PM

I challenge your sound, Paul! Mine is better.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 02-26-2000 07:10 PM

Paul,

How many other theaters are there in your county and what sound systems do they have? You never said what fader setting you run your SDDS films at.

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