Loud Commercials

[surlygirly]

I saw this was becoming a topic of interest on the Local Commericals You Don't Like thread, so I thought I'd take Tutusue's advice and start a new thread for it.

I've always noticed certain commercials were louder than others- like car commercials. Low-budget commercials seem to be louder also, for some reason. Does anyone remember those TVs that supposedly had a special chip in them to regulate the sound, and used these commercials as a selling point for the chips? Whatever happened to those? Did they even work?

[sophielynette]

Re: Loud Commercials

My dad built a device to regulate the volume of commercials but I guess it was just for personal use because I don't see the kit for sale on his website (he creates and sells electronic kits). I'll be seeing him next week so I'll try to remember to ask about it.

[Walkoff Balk]

Re: Loud Commercials

There's the headsets football coaches use so that you walk around the house.

[tutusue]

Re: Loud Commercials

This issue of loud commercials is becoming so aggravating. I have HGTV on in the background a lot and have noticed that the loudest commercials are the local ones. Inspiration and AIG>Farmers, to name a couple.

Being a condo dweller, still in possession of very good hearing, I'm conscious of keeping the tv volume as low as I can while still being able to hear it.

This morning while taking a shower I could not hear the TV...didn't need to! Then, it cut to the AIG commercial and I was almost blasted out of the shower! I wasn't in a position to run for the remote in the living room and had to let the commercial continue at an ear splitting volume. Soon there was a knock on my door...my neighbor nicely inquiring about the volume. Fortunately the shower and the front door are only a few feet apart so I was able to shout out the situation to my neighbor! And apologize! If my neighbor wasn't a good guy he could've easily called security and I could've been fined for breaking the house rule involving noise. I'm so glad I didn't have a sleeping baby in my hale.

It didn't used to be this bad. Something has drastically changed this year and something really needs to be done about this problem as it imposes on one's peace and quiet in one's own home, not to mention the neighbors. Come on congress, do the right thing! In this case I'm in favor of government intervention.

[Vanguard]

Re: Loud Commercials

Come on congress, do the right thing! In this case I'm in favor of government intervention.

A bill was submitted last year. It seems to have gotten lost.

It's stuff like this, exorbitant fees, and the exclusion of important channels (see this and this) that may force more and more people away from cable television, and toward streaming broadcasts on the internet. Most networks provide this on their own sites, in addition to Hulu.

[surlygirly]

Re: Loud Commercials

Now we're muting the commercials. My grandparents used to do this. They were both half deaf and would just blare the TV but mute the commercials. It would be dead quiet for a few minutes, then the show would come blasting back on.

[tutusue]

Re: Loud Commercials

I'm muting the commercials, too, and watching commercials is part of my job! It's quicker to mute than to adjust the sound up and down every few minutes.

[Vanguard]

Re: Loud Commercials

Now we're muting the commercials. My grandparents used to do this. They were both half deaf and would just blare the TV but mute the commercials. It would be dead quiet for a few minutes, then the show would come blasting back on.

That, plus an egg timer for multitasking, and you're in business!

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Loud Commercials

It's all in the audio mastering of the commercials. They aren't really "louder," but your ears perceive them to be. What has changed in recent years is mastering technology, and it came from changes in the pop-music world. If you could look at the waveforms of the audio, you could see how "cramped" the sound has become.

It's a battle that's been raging amongst pro audio mastering engineers for a couple of years now, with a number of them agreeing NOT to do this kind of processing. Of course, it tends to be the old-school guys, who are not getting the gigs from the newer acts now.

[tutusue]

Re: Loud Commercials

[...]They aren't really "louder," but your ears perceive them to be.[...]

As do the ears of my condo neighbor. That's never happened before. And isn't 'perception' 9/10ths of the law? Oh wait...that's not right!

Regardless of the mastering, the technology and the cramped waveforms, the result is the commercials I'm referring to are L O U D E R! No denying it.

[sophielynette]

Re: Loud Commercials

I talked to my dad about his volume device. Apparently he never marketed it for resale because it wasn't compatible with the newer televisions that display the volume on the screen, as, since it would constantly be adjusting the volume of the television, the display would constantly be on the screen.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Loud Commercials

It's all in the audio mastering of the commercials. They aren't really "louder," but your ears perceive them to be. What has changed in recent years is mastering technology, and it came from changes in the pop-music world. If you could look at the waveforms of the audio, you could see how "cramped" the sound has become.

It's a battle that's been raging amongst pro audio mastering engineers for a couple of years now, with a number of them agreeing NOT to do this kind of processing. Of course, it tends to be the old-school guys, who are not getting the gigs from the newer acts now.

Aural Exciters. It increases dynamic range without increasing Db.

Also some of today's programming comes across in Dolby 5.1 so the dialog is on the center channel while the sound track eminates from the front left and right channels. This setup is okay if you're watching with your surround system up and running, however once commercials come up the left and right channels also become commercial dialog channels and suddenly you have your Front Left and Right plus your center channel running dialog resulting in three sources of dialog pushing sound pressure, hence loud commercials.

If you find the dialog seems weaker than the accompanying music on a TV program chances are you have your TV set to 5.1 Surround Sound. Go into your sound settings menu and select 2.0 Stereo and the audio will mix better.

But in the case of this thread, it's the audio engineers using Compander circuits such as the Aural Exciter to enhance audio's dynamic range by boosting the Signal over Noise S:N ratio without boosting the actual sound pressure in Decibels. It really only sounds louder but it isn't. You can test it by using a Sound Pressure Level meter.

SophieLynette, your Dad probably uses a compression circuit that detects higher S:N audio and compresses it when needed. Dolby Labs used a similar circuitry called Dolby HX Pro back in the late 70's to expand high frequency audio during recording then compress it on playback to reduce hiss. All this was done in a pure analog domain. Nowdays with digital audio you can use algorhythms to elminate any if not all dynamic noise.

[tutusue]

Re: Loud Commercials

Spoke with one of my commercial clients tonight; a former tv guy. He told me the tv stations have control over this issue and he's aware of complaints going back years. The stations ignore the complaints. Best thing to do, he said, is to complain directly to the advertiser and let them know I'm muting their commercials. With enough complaints, the advertiser can put pressure on the station(s). And stations don't want to ignore their source of revenue! Just saying...

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Loud Commercials

Aural Exciters. It increases dynamic range without increasing Db.

We're showing our age, cw, with this topic. But rather than the Aphex Aural Exciters (part of the transmission chain, and in existence for many years), I was speaking more of recent advances in compression technology (part of the recording process).

[Walkoff Balk]

Re: Loud Commercials

It might be just the music background on shows that is just as loud as the commercials. David Caruso of CSI Miami does his whisper voice style of acting, take his sunglasses off, and then a sudden loud screaming music comes on.