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I would never re-EQ a theatre simply because it was Friday and a new movie was going to be playing in that room. I'd be EQ-ing just about every screen weekly!

~Manny

"Where is Brad Miller when you need him?"
...actually said by my U.S. technician today.

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Then I begin to ask myself "who the phuck am I go to around fooling with a sound mix?" The director heard the mix for this picture on his sound stage and in his screening room. THAT was the effect he wanted my audiences to hear. Who the hell am I to disagree?

Besides, Manny is right, I don't have the opportunity to change all the auditiorium eq's for every print that gets moved down the line in all our theatres.

Still, part of what makes me want to agree with you was when the distributor of a recent action flick sent out a memo to all theatres that this particular film was to be played a "7" - no argument - this despite the fact that our audience (suburban) pleaded with management to "turn the damn thing down". The complaints fell on deaf ears, (due, no doubt to hearing this picture played at 7). There were several refunds.

End result - I was summoned in to replace a blown high-frequency driver - centre channel.

I understand that these theatres have since reduced their volume to a more comfortable level.

Joe is not saying that everyone should do it, and especially not in a multiplex. It's just not feasible. Plus, in the wrong hands severe disaster is a distinct possibility! Again though, if you had've heard a movie in there, you would not have posted what you just did. I understand your comments were made "in general" and were not meant to be specific to the Northpark example, but without having heard a movie in cinema I as well as the benefits of fine tuning each individual movie by ear in that particular auditorium, you are speaking out of ignorance.

At this point I might point out the obvious fact that no two sound technicians EVER equalize a theater the same. NEVER. It just doesn't happen. In addition, if a certain tech goes into an auditorium and EQs it, then comes back a month later and starts fresh (say after someone who should not have been jacking with the settings jacked them), even then that tech will not end up with the same EQ that he came up with a month prior. That being a fact, you are not reproducing the sound exactly as it was heard in the mixing stage anyway. There are people who will publicly state against this practice, and for good reason. 99.9% of the time I also back that practice. However the fact of the matter remains that no two theaters will ever sound exactly alike and most importantly, if the customers are walking out of a theater BLOWN AWAY by the sound, they will come back! THAT's what matters.

Under the right circumstances and under the right care, yes it DOES improve the presentation. Will there ever be another example like this? Probably not. So in the end yes I am agreeing with you that EQ should never be touched, but do be careful about the "absolutes" of your post.

That is true. This is another reason why I avoid "checking" levels too often. You come back a month later and everything seems different, somehow.

I do B-Chains about once every three months. Sometimes sooner if I know there's a big release about to open (and if the movie will feature a rockin' soundtrack). That's good for these cinemas.

As for subjectivity, Dolby actually recommends this practice (after the instrument-guided procedure). They tell you to go into the room and walk around and use your God-given ears to verify what the machines told you to do.

I just did an EQ last night and I had to return to the booth a few times to tweak and get it just right. I'm working with new test gear and it's quite an adventure making friends with it. I have also chosen a new reel for testing.

And just where is this Northpark theatre?

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And just where is this Northpark theatre?

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In Heaven now, unfortunately. In life it was in Dallas. There are photos of it in its glory in the Pictures section, and of it in its demise somewhere in the Forums.

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Personally, I'm on the fence with respect to this issue. On one hand, I'm all in favor of standardization and I believe the filmmakers should have the right to expect the print to sound the same in theatres as it did on the mixing stage. On the other hand, I also realize that customers who are paying $7.00+ to see the film shouldn't be blasted out of the auditorium because the film was poorly mixed and the exhibitor insisted on playing it with the fader set to "7" (for example); customers want "good" sound and deserve the best that the exhibitor can provide, even if it doesn't necessarily sound the same as it did on the mixing stage.

I suppose that there is no "right" answer here, since it's a lose-lose situation as long as there are films with poorly mixed tracks....

Brad--I wish I could have seen and heard the Northpark. Of course, pretty much anything would be better than the crappy Kelmar mono system that I've been working with lately. There's nothing quite like running premiere screenings of films mixed for SR-D playback through a 20-year-old mono system with the director and half the crew in the audience. Oh, and exciter-lamp changeover is awesome, too.

As to re-tuning on films...I'll admit I might trim the Bass and Treble controls on a particular film if it so warrants but that is about it.

Steve

The last few years Northpark was opened I ended up installing outboard "user EQs" in the rack. This permitted the actual "house EQ" to stay unaltered (so long as the user EQs were left flat) and any change in the EQ would end up being smooth, unlike when changing on the actual EQ cards where you are not only trying to make a slight cut or boost, but you are affecting the actual smoothness of the response of the room too. The user EQs also permitted slight changes in level settings of roughly +/-3db in either direction. Regarding the master fader, the levels were commonly ran 5-10db over "reference" and we never got complaints. Such levels require careful tuning as each program changes or ear fatigue will definitely result. I worked there for several years and did not receive nor hear of one single complaint the entire time. In fact that is cinema 1 behind me in the picture.

Probably about 25% of the time the user EQs stayed "flat". 50% of the time they had slight modifications. Then the other 25% of the time they were tweeked heavily to make up for a really bad mix. In the end though the Northpark has gone down in local history as being "THE" theater for sound. Maybe it did mess with what was heard in the mixing room. I can tell you that no customer gave a damn about that though. All that matters to the paying customers is if it sounds good. Still though it's all a moot point, as that combination of a 2 screen theater with a top notch sound system and capable operators to tune the room for each program will in all probability never happen again.