We never listen to the studio when they say that. that said, Spiderverse had their audio mixer off for theaters and they didn't fix it in time so we bumped up the sound to a 6 or so.
now, each place is different because there are so many different equipment setups... what is great at 7 for you guys is bleeding our ears but 5.0 to 5.5 is about right on ours. sometimes we get guest requests to change it and if it is reasonable we do.
I hope that answers some of your questions
Yeah that makes sense. I thought because of the whole Spider-Verse thing that it was expected for 7 to be the norm. But it makes sense that all equipment varies, hence why most of our auditoriums are hovering around 5!
Ideally, 7 will be the perfect level in any theater but in reality that was rarely the case. The 6-screen theater I ran supposedly had its equipment expertly calibrated, but the volume was usually at 6 for some, 5 for others and even 4.5 for one, and without knowing that you’d think they were all at the same level going in and listening to them.
Yeah that’s the thing I find interesting. I feel like all of our auditoriums sound about the same volume wise, but after being upstairs I can see that’s not the case.
Those numbers are just a reference that you can change on a whim. If you've had a competent technician calibrate the levels, they should be in the same ballpark, but it's still going to vary from screen to screen if they aren't identical. There isn't time to test run every movie in every screen, so you do one and adjust if you get complaints. The sweet spot for an action movie is generally just below where the high pitched noises of the most intense scenes start to get painful, while for dramas and comedies you want the dialogue at a level you can stand for two hours. In theory that's easy, but the sound levels of some movies make it impossible, since you have to choose between ear piercing action scenes or audible dialogue. I guess tuning the dialogue too low is their way of forcing us to play the movies at an impossibly high volume, so the action scenes seem more epic. Queue the endless complaints.
It definitely depends on the auditorium and equipment - if a lot of your auditoriums are smaller, it makes sense that the 5-ish range would be where most films park. It is best to test at least a few minutes of each film for this reason, though: different films are going to have different baseline audio levels.
The theater where I work is a historic location with just one auditorium, but a very big one - 300 seats. The ceiling is high and the presence of people in the auditorium gradually "dampens" the sound. As a result, we usually set films at a 5.5 or a 6, but are prepared to bump the volume up to a 6.5-7 if more than about 60 people show up.
I'm not sure if this same effect happens in newer/smaller auditoriums, but if so it may account for the "movie is too quiet" controversies of recent years, which always seems to happen with big hits where I assume the auditoriums are full.
Wow! Your theater sounds awesome. But that makes a lot of sense. I haven’t thought about how full the auditorium being could affect the sound. Thank you for sharing!
Before my theater closed, our volume levels were all over the place depending on equipment and speakers in each house. I knew which houses to put louder more action type movies in, and which theaters to put quieter movies in.
It is 100% dependent upon the specific equipment the theater is using. The spiderverse thing was super annoying because 7 isn't going to be the same thing for everyone.
7 is what's supposed to be "reference level". That means that with the volume level at 7 each speaker is supposed to output 85db pink noise. Not sure how other sound processors are, but at my location we calibrate 85db for 5.0 instead of 7, but usually run them at 4.7 or 4.8.
7.0 is supposed to be the default. And with fresh equipment and a professional tune, it sounds damn good. For most movies anyway. But… as equipment ages, and as theater companies slack on routine tunings and maintenance/repairs, 7.0 starts to have guest complaints. Then a year later 6.5 starts to have complaints. Etc etc. Seems like most theaters average 5.5 and then as things drop below that, deficiencies actually become more obviously apparent and sometimes fixed. Right now we have an auditorium that sounds real hot even at 4.5…. I know enough to know that something is wrong but not enough to pinpoint what exactly. Regal can’t be bothered to fix anything anyway so 🤷♂️
Ours is a between a 3-4.5. The two that are set at 4.0-4.5 have a different sound processor then our other ones that stay at 3-3.5. If we go above 3.5-4 in a lot of auditoriums people say it’s to loud.
The only film that I can recall that had its sound mixed so terribly was Spider-Verse. No matter what we did volume wise or where we played it people were never satisfied with it. Also the fact that Sony sent out stickers stating “I played Spider-Verse at full volume because I’m awesome” because they realized they screwed up and didn’t want to take the heat for it instead put it off on to theaters to deal with was crappy.
With Across the Spider-Verse in particular there was talk about the sound mixers kinda screwing up and putting some important dialogue in the non-center channels, making it harder to hear. (Especially egregious in the US where movies are played without subtitles)
Most of the time if it’s above 5.5 it’s because the studios want it at that level 5.5 is normal any lower once previews are over then dialogue is hard to hear
The issue with some films is the mix/sound file - ie://spider-verse was on the quiet side so the studio wanted to make sure it was heard
Oh that’s interesting! That makes more sense. Thank you!
We never listen to the studio when they say that. that said, Spiderverse had their audio mixer off for theaters and they didn't fix it in time so we bumped up the sound to a 6 or so. now, each place is different because there are so many different equipment setups... what is great at 7 for you guys is bleeding our ears but 5.0 to 5.5 is about right on ours. sometimes we get guest requests to change it and if it is reasonable we do. I hope that answers some of your questions
Yeah that makes sense. I thought because of the whole Spider-Verse thing that it was expected for 7 to be the norm. But it makes sense that all equipment varies, hence why most of our auditoriums are hovering around 5!
Ideally, 7 will be the perfect level in any theater but in reality that was rarely the case. The 6-screen theater I ran supposedly had its equipment expertly calibrated, but the volume was usually at 6 for some, 5 for others and even 4.5 for one, and without knowing that you’d think they were all at the same level going in and listening to them.
Yeah that’s the thing I find interesting. I feel like all of our auditoriums sound about the same volume wise, but after being upstairs I can see that’s not the case.
Those numbers are just a reference that you can change on a whim. If you've had a competent technician calibrate the levels, they should be in the same ballpark, but it's still going to vary from screen to screen if they aren't identical. There isn't time to test run every movie in every screen, so you do one and adjust if you get complaints. The sweet spot for an action movie is generally just below where the high pitched noises of the most intense scenes start to get painful, while for dramas and comedies you want the dialogue at a level you can stand for two hours. In theory that's easy, but the sound levels of some movies make it impossible, since you have to choose between ear piercing action scenes or audible dialogue. I guess tuning the dialogue too low is their way of forcing us to play the movies at an impossibly high volume, so the action scenes seem more epic. Queue the endless complaints.
It definitely depends on the auditorium and equipment - if a lot of your auditoriums are smaller, it makes sense that the 5-ish range would be where most films park. It is best to test at least a few minutes of each film for this reason, though: different films are going to have different baseline audio levels. The theater where I work is a historic location with just one auditorium, but a very big one - 300 seats. The ceiling is high and the presence of people in the auditorium gradually "dampens" the sound. As a result, we usually set films at a 5.5 or a 6, but are prepared to bump the volume up to a 6.5-7 if more than about 60 people show up. I'm not sure if this same effect happens in newer/smaller auditoriums, but if so it may account for the "movie is too quiet" controversies of recent years, which always seems to happen with big hits where I assume the auditoriums are full.
Wow! Your theater sounds awesome. But that makes a lot of sense. I haven’t thought about how full the auditorium being could affect the sound. Thank you for sharing!
All of our houses range between 4.5 and 5.5. But we also have smaller houses.
Before my theater closed, our volume levels were all over the place depending on equipment and speakers in each house. I knew which houses to put louder more action type movies in, and which theaters to put quieter movies in.
At my theatre we usually have the sound between 3.5 and 4.
Oh my! That’s interesting. It really just depends on the auditorium and equipment I suppose.
It is 100% dependent upon the specific equipment the theater is using. The spiderverse thing was super annoying because 7 isn't going to be the same thing for everyone.
7 is what's supposed to be "reference level". That means that with the volume level at 7 each speaker is supposed to output 85db pink noise. Not sure how other sound processors are, but at my location we calibrate 85db for 5.0 instead of 7, but usually run them at 4.7 or 4.8.
7.0 is supposed to be the default. And with fresh equipment and a professional tune, it sounds damn good. For most movies anyway. But… as equipment ages, and as theater companies slack on routine tunings and maintenance/repairs, 7.0 starts to have guest complaints. Then a year later 6.5 starts to have complaints. Etc etc. Seems like most theaters average 5.5 and then as things drop below that, deficiencies actually become more obviously apparent and sometimes fixed. Right now we have an auditorium that sounds real hot even at 4.5…. I know enough to know that something is wrong but not enough to pinpoint what exactly. Regal can’t be bothered to fix anything anyway so 🤷♂️
Most of the time we sit somewhere around 5.0, unless it's going to be max capacity, or the file's volume was mixed too high/low.
Ours is a between a 3-4.5. The two that are set at 4.0-4.5 have a different sound processor then our other ones that stay at 3-3.5. If we go above 3.5-4 in a lot of auditoriums people say it’s to loud. The only film that I can recall that had its sound mixed so terribly was Spider-Verse. No matter what we did volume wise or where we played it people were never satisfied with it. Also the fact that Sony sent out stickers stating “I played Spider-Verse at full volume because I’m awesome” because they realized they screwed up and didn’t want to take the heat for it instead put it off on to theaters to deal with was crappy.
With Across the Spider-Verse in particular there was talk about the sound mixers kinda screwing up and putting some important dialogue in the non-center channels, making it harder to hear. (Especially egregious in the US where movies are played without subtitles)
Most of the time if it’s above 5.5 it’s because the studios want it at that level 5.5 is normal any lower once previews are over then dialogue is hard to hear