Volume of dialogue v music in films.

[Kendodd]

How come, the music/explosions/etc are deafening while the dialogue is bloody inaudible? Am I the only one who finds this a problem?

YANBU - Drives me nuts as well
YABU - Don't know what you're taking about.

YANBU I'm constantly adjusting the volume as it goes between quiet dialogue and loud music / explosions / shooting etc.! My husband says we should get a sound bar but I genuinely don't think that will help....

Yanbu! I hate this! I have the remote at the ready to turn the noisy sod down during the action /music bits, then turn it back up (or subtitles on!) for the dialogue! So annoying!

YANBU! It's definitely getting worse as well! It's so bloody frustrating.

This drives me barmy. I have to have low volume and subs now because I can’t stand being deafened by the music and sfx but barely able to hear the talking.

I have a sound bar, makes no difference.

Why can't film makes do something about this? According to my research 100% of people don't like it.

Utterly infuriating. Especially when you’re straining to hear dialogue then suddenly there’s a stupidly loud noise that has you jumping out of your skin.

I always use subtitles now, it’s the only way I can watch.

We have a sound bar; if anything it’s made it even worse. Hate hate hate it.

You are bang on with your observation, and it's annoying as hell. Tenet was the most recent example I suffered through.

My other pet peeve is shows and films that do night scenes so bloody dark you can't see what's going on. Late seasons of GoT seemed particularly bad for this.

YANBU! I swear every time I watch a film these days it's "Jesus Christ, why does everyone mumble now... FFS why is it so loud??!!"

YANBU.

It's my pet peeve, along with constant background music for no reason. A lot of lower budget American drama producers seem to think that 10 seconds without some irritating droning in the background is 10 seconds wasted.

But yes. Your point is very valid, and a soundbar doesn't help. In gaming, you can usually choose the sound levels for dialogue, sound effects and music. You can turn the music off entirely if you want. The person who invents a TV that lets you do this will make a bloody mint.

Yes! Christopher Nolan films are particularly bad for this.

Netflix shows are also terrible for this, even watching the Queens Gambit we were up and down with the music interludes. Who knew Chess was so noisy?! It's driving me potty on loads of shows. DC are taking to calling 'sorry loud bit' to pre-empt my grumbles about the volume!

Oh, one person thinks I'm being unreasonable!

I wonder if me and all the NBU lot are old (music's to loud)?

There was an article in Which? magazine about this. Apparently the film-makers do it on purpose. They want a “realistic” difference between the volume of speech and of explosions, etc, but there’s a limit to how loud they can make the explosions so they turn the speech down instead. It’s really annoying.

Same thing with adverts too. You have the sound turned up so you can hear the program then the adverts blast out at top volume.

Good speakers have helped me a bit, I think because I can differentiate speech at a lower volume that way. Still sends me nuts and I mainly watch TV with the subtitles on now.

Oh this drives me up the wall. I'm lucky to hear every fifth word. I resort to subtitles sometimes. Even more annoying are the shows on Discovery etc where they have ridiculously loud hard rock music on in the background in an attempt to make the programme appear more exciting.

Yep, I agree that the sound bar makes no difference. I’m neurodivergent and struggle to process the dialogue at the best of times without sensory overload from the music giving me a heart attack.

I also watch YouTube videos on my TV and the adverts within each video are bloody deafening. I genuinely think it’s a ploy to annoy people into paying for premium.

I have a hearing impairment and I can't tell you how much this bugs me.

Yes! Watching ‘Gravity’ was a challenge, I couldn’t hear them talking!

Drives me crackers having to turn the volume up and down. I was seriously considering some of those hearing ear buds, thinking it was me. Now I know it's the films. Thanks for this thread

My brain has trouble deciphering the sound I hear & with TV and film it's really noticeable. I often have to have subtitles on so I can work out what they're saying. I actually prefer foreign language stuff because my brain doesn't have to work so hard.

Tell me about it some dvd films are terrible, it really is.

What is worse, is when you have turned the telly up 10 notches to hear the actors "basically whisper" and 2 minutes later, a screaming sex scene comes on

It's the volume of the action bits that day it really pisses me off.

Boom bam crash 9000 decibels.
Dialogue whisper whisper.

Maybe they do it cos the dialogue is shit?!