What's scorching your groove today?

[Shawnee123]

My friends and I would cruise out to the HS parking lot at night with no one there, and do "doughnuts" in the snow. I drove a big 73 Impala...man that was fun!

[skysidhe]

Lucky is he who has a grove left to scorch.

[Lamplighter]

I want to revoke the licenses of today's movie and TV sound-editors...

Whoever thought it was good editing to raise the "background music" levels higher than the conversations of the actors. Maybe it was the same TV ad gurus who decided to raise the sound on commercials way above the program level.

I know young people think "music" never too loud enough.
But when my wife and I simultaneously ask "What did he say ?" enough is enough.

[classicman]

I agree - I find myself watching movies with the subtitles on lately.

[SamIam]

Me, too. I thought it was just because I'm growing old. I like Lamplighter's explanation better.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I find this especially annoying on PBS shows, when people like David Attenborough are explaining something interesting. I mean that's why I'm watching the damn show, ferchrissakes.

[Clodfobble]

Some small points of order in defense of audio folks:

1.) You're talking about a mixing problem, not an editing problem. On any reasonably-sized production these two jobs are done entirely separately, by different people. It's still an audio person's fault, but if you're going through the credits looking for your nemesis, it's the mixer, not the editor.

2.) Mixing is actually a very difficult job these days, because everyone has such a different speaker setup in their homes. You've got standard left-right, surround sound (with and without a subwoofer,) fancy left-right speakers that claim they can imitate surround sound (they can't really, it's a lie, though there are some headphones that can do a decent job,) and fancy all-in-one tuners with a dozen presets that take the audio signals from your TV and alter them in any number of ways the sound mixer never intended.

So for example, in a typical surround-sound setup, the traditional thing to do is put all speech coming out of the center channel, and background music would be split between the right and left channels. But depending on the budget and disc space, they may only be able to put one audio track on the DVD (as opposed to the instances where, in the setup menu, you see the option to choose Dolby 5.1 versus stereo.) So the question then becomes, do you put a surround mix on the disc, and let the stereo systems out there in the world squash the multiple signals into just two channels, thus throwing your mix off to a certain degree (if your speech audio is now getting split to either side of the room, it will need to be louder than when it was coming directly at you from the middle.) Or, do you put a stereo mix on the disc, and let the surround systems artificially duplicate the same signal coming out of multiple speakers? Well, which is going to piss off more people? Typically, the people who sprung for more expensive sound systems are the ones who care more about what it sounds like, so they're going to be disproportionately pissed off by improperly-mixed audio. And you won't be able to put "surround sound" on the box, which marketing won't like. What's more, a good portion of the stereo-crowd are going to be listening on inherently sucktacular internal speakers, and it's going to sound bad for them no matter what you do. As time passes, more and more people have surround systems anyway, so it's easy to see how it's the default choice if you only get one.


I can't tell you how many times I had developers/testers/producers/executives tell me the audio sounded inadequate in some fashion or another, and I told them to come up to my office and show me where the problem was... and every single one would realize it was actually because their sound system sucked, not the game audio.

[squirell nutkin]

That is fascinating, Clodfobble.

I read somewhere, possibly here, that Berry Gordy would listen to audition tapes on a crappy car radio set up in his office, reasoning that that would be how the song would ultimately be heard so it had better sound great on shitty equipment.

There is a parallel problem in photography. When printing (in the old days) or adjusting an image for newsprint you end up with an image that looks like ass until it is printed on newsprint. And if you adjust it for your screen, it will look like ass in newsprint.

[bluecuracao]

I've been on a cholesterol-lowering diet for over a month now, and I'm starving...need cheesesteak please...and macaroni and cheese...with extra cheese...

[Shawnee123]

OMG wow.

[SamIam]

Oh, grrrrrrrr! I am currently without a car, but normally that's not a big deal since I can easily walk to most places around here. So, today my doctor gave me a new prescription, and I walked down to the nearest pharmacy to get it filled. Its like 96 degrees here at the moment, btw. So, I walk down there, panting in the heat. Whoops! That pharmacy doesn't carry my new med. The nearest one that does is 2 miles away, and its only going to get hotter. I do NOT want to walk 4 miles round trip in 100 degree temps. Call me, wimpy, I don't care. Damn it all, anyway.

[SamIam]

Oh, it gets better. I found a friend who gave me a ride and waited around a half hour for me at the pharmacy. Guess what? Medicaid wouldn't cover it! I need to get a prior authorization. The doctor obviously authorized the prescription - it was written in her own little hand. Now I have to get the pharmacy to fax the clinic, and then the clinic will send this prior authorization thing. So, IF THIS WORKS, I get to still either walk back down there or impose once more on my long suffering friend.

If this is what national health insurance is going to be like, they can keep it!

[classicman]

<bites tongue>

[SamIam]

Oh, I know! I'm still in favor of universal health care, but government health care in the form of medicare/medicaid does leave much to be desired. I'm just frustrated today. And the heat just makes dealing with it all worse. (big sigh)

[classicman]

Been dealing with it for awhile now. I hope to all the tentacles of FSM that what I am dealing with is NOTHING like what is to come. I think it will be worse, but I'm praying its not. What I have seen so far is the utmost incompetence and lack of caring by 95% of the people I have dealt with in the system. The vast majority of the Govt. employees would not make it a week in a private company with the attitudes they have. The other 5% are friggin stars and I tell them so. I've made a list of them and try to get to them every time I need to deal with the system.