[David600]

hi guys


what do you think of the sound mix in terms of power, surrounds, low frequencies etc , compared to TPM (movie, dvd, ld) or other recent action, sci fi movies ?


I hear a lot of projectionnists (film-tech) but also spectators who were slightly disappointed by the low end for instance. partial reason might be that the theaters decided not to push the sound too high to avoid too much shaking in the close by theaters ...


care to comment ?


let's make sure the dvd has DA punch

 

[pdjennings]

It was TERRIFIC at my theater.... (a less than 1 year old AMC, all digital sound MegaPlex). Very powerful,.... and the surround was quite active. Specifically,..... the (spoiler) mines in the asteroid field sequence was sonically AMAZING.

 

[DavidMc]

I just saw this on Sunday at a newer film based theater. I too felt that the lower end was lacking that punch when certain scenes would come on, inlcuding the asteroid scene. I also felt that the volume level in general was a little low due to voices being hard to hear at times. Unfortunatly I was forced to go to this theater because the theater with the best sound system in the area , which is THX certified, is not getting AOTC. I saw LOTR at my favorite theater and there were several scenes where the LFE was pounding you in the chest. This is what I feel the asteroid scene should have been like, as well as some other scenes in AOTC. I plan on seeing it again in a different theater, so I will see if the presentation is the same or not. The first theater was a Dolby Digital presentation. Now if only this area would get a DLP theater before the next one comes out.


David

 

[David600]

hi guys


the mines in the asteroid pursuit ( love that sequence ) was particular indeed : at first, when the first mine explodes, you wonder for 1 second what the f?? but the next second, the explosion occurs and bam!!!!


it really reminds me somehow the mines used against submarines
http://www.theforce.net/multimedia/a...onewar_025.jpg


very neat. that's one scene that will be used for demonstrations in many home theaters

 

[amillians]

I saw it in two different theaters (I'm a masochist) and in both the low end was pretty weak, but that could just have been two very bad sound systems. As an aside, George's "standards" for which theaters got this film should have included things like (1) not having a tear in the middle of the screen and (2) employing people who can focus across the entire frame.


The thing about the sound mix that got me was the (lazy?) re-use of sounds from TPM. Maybe it was just me, but everything "cool" sounded like one of the pod racers from TPM...I for the life of me can't understand why a spaceship careening through space sounds just like one getting ready to land, which also sounds just like a pod racer careening through the desert. Go figure.

 

[Tweakophyte]

Quote:

Originally posted by amillians The thing about the sound mix that got me was the (lazy?) re-use of sounds from TPM. Maybe it was just me, but everything "cool" sounded like one of the pod racers from TPM...I for the life of me can't understand why a spaceship careening through space sounds just like one getting ready to land, which also sounds just like a pod racer careening through the desert. Go figure.

I thought they reused a lot of sounds, too. One thing that bothered me about the movie was the over-use of the lightsaber sound. In the original 3 starwars, the sound of a lightsaber turning on was dramatic. It meant that something "interesting" was going to happen. In AOTC it was overdone. I thought I was playing Jedi Knight II on my PC.


As I watched the move (a struggle at times) I was thinking how much better it would sound on my system...

 

[lax01]

I didn't remember that until now, but I did remember hearing Ep. 1 sounds in Ep. 2. I actually got pumped up for Ep. 2 by watching Ep. 1 pod race and final fight at close to full volume, so I had a good understanding of how it sounds.


The LFE was absolutely horrible. It felt like there wasn't a subwoofer.


But the surrounds were full, when in use. The theater volume at a whole was not very loud. Not like Spiderman, where the theater rocked! Ep. 2 sound was so calm and didn't seem to bring you into the movie at all.


I really can't wait to hear it on my own system. It should sound a whole hell of a lot better at home (at least I hope).

 

[David600]

the 6channel PCM track on the digital projection we saw was great but this an uncompressed format ('recommended by TI in fact for digital projection as the prefered format on the Qbit server).

 

[Sean Parque]

I thought the bass was quite good at the AMC 1000 Van Ness in SF, CA (DLP too). The asteroid scene in particular was shaking the place. I think most of the bass complaints are due to crappy systems. I saw ep2 at another theater and the bass was sorely lacking so I know it wasnt the mix...

 

[gtaylor74]

I saw it in two different theaters, neither of them in DLP. I don't know what the first one showed it in, Dolby Digital I'm assuming. The other I know was DTS. The sound was way low. The trailers were fine in volume, but when the "star wars" flashed across the screen, I thought something was wrong because it was so low. This was in both theaters. Oddly enough, the surrounds seemed to be fine in level, although the bass was also kind of low. Overall, I was not real impressed with the sound.

 

[Jon S]

I saw it in a relatively new theater here and was rather disturbed that the left channel kept dropping out here and there. To compounf matters, the guy in the projection booth left the light on in there which kind of washed out the image since it had large windows into the auditorium. When I complained, they said they always do that and no one ever complained before.

 

[Carey P]

I saw it in a new Century theater which had a supurb picture, but the sound was very very weak. I'm surprised and also dissapointed that so many others experienced the same thing. I was hoping to see it again in a different theater, where the projectionist might know what he was doing. Now I wonder if this was something they were required to do. I really don't see the reason why. There were plenty of explosion sounds coming from the next theater which drowned out many scenes. There seemed to be lots of good surround effects, but they were mostly all lost behind the popcorn bags russling and people whispering


Carey

 

[David600]

well, seems lots of shows were far from reference...pffffff . hard to judge the mix this way. I must say I would have loved a bit more bass too. some left surrounds crackled at times ( not the mix, probably the hardware ).


it just keeps confirming how MUCH BETTER the sound in our home theaters is


I think we should not take for granted what comes out of the upcoming dvd: TPM dvd left a grossly unsatisfying impression in our eyes and ears (EE, non digital transfer, which "they" say would not have looked good on dvd (??? what ?? ), and toned down mix (compared to the ld, even when adkusting the level... ).


studios are not great listeners to what we say. it's more often "after" that they react ( cf JP DTS for instance ).

 

[jschlege]

Having just seen Spiderman the day before (and on the same screen in the same theatre), my wife and I were both very surprised when the movie started because the volume was so low. Not that it was necessarily obnoxiously low, but rather seemed to lack the power and punch of other movies we had seen.

 

[David600]

Jsch


hi


I concede the overall volume was a bit low. let's hope this is only due to the theaters deciding on the volume level rather than the mix itself...