Setting the volume on problem movies

[Armand Daiguillon]

Just wondering, how do you deal with films which have quiet dialogue and loud sound effects? Our system is balanced every year by our service tech, but some films seem very difficult to strike a good balance volume wise. “The Faraway Magic Tree” seems to have quiet dialogue and thundering effects throughout, so much so we’ve had a couple of complaints, even though we’ve set the volume to a hopefully happy medium.

What’s your experience of this sort of thing? Any advice gratefully received,

Honestly if this is a frequent issue the solution is simple. Turn up your center channel (where 90% of the dialogue is) and turn down your surrounds. These are easy adjustments that can be made by logging into your sound processor. Some may say this is not the "proper" solution ....but it is the cheapest solution and will fix your problem. - Good luck

[Michael Jamieson]

Honestly if this is a frequent issue the solution is simple. Turn up your center channel (where 90% of the dialogue is) and turn down your surrounds. These are easy adjustments that can be made by logging into your sound processor. Some may say this is not the "proper" solution ....but it is the cheapest solution and will fix your problem. - Good luck

Sounds like an good idea, thanks!

[Marco Giustini]

yeah, not a proper solution!

That said, if I were tuning a room with sub-standard acoustic and speakers/amplification (and I am not saying yours is, Michael) I might end up tweaking levels and response until the room "sounds right". At least some of that is in the ISO2969 standard too: the HF content of your speakers depends on the size of the room.

Blindly turning up the centre channel and lower the surrounds can be a short term solution but I wouldn't want to pay a ticket and watch a movie on a system which has been tweaked like that.

[Bobby Henderson]

Oh, this has been a problem since the beginning of time.

No...this has not been a problem since the beginning of time. This is a more recent problem. Once every film had the dynamic range possibilities once reserved for 70mm with magnetic sound, then it became a problem.

Back when most cinemas were showing movies on 35mm prints with analog optical audio (with or without Dolby SR) all the different parties involved had to observe the limits of that audio format. Go too loud and the matrix would get crashed. Optical had only so much headroom. That put in a pretty hard limit on everything, be it the feature film, attached trailers and anything else built into the show.

Digital sound changed all of that, particularly when movie productions began tailoring their sound mixes for digital without having to worry about limits of the optical track.

I think some of the blame for loudness of movie trailers, commercials, etc. could be attributed some of the popular trailers and teasers from the 1990's. The first teaser for Twister was pretty incredible to watch, particularly in a theater that could play the trailer with digital sound. The same goes for the first teaser for Independence Day. During this era much of a movie's pre-show would play in analog with lower volume levels. The attached trailer would play in digital sound with a pretty noticeable boost in dynamic range. By the 2000's much more stuff was playing in 5.1 digital and with the louder volume levels.

I think the decline of THX (via watered down standards) and its eventual removal made matters worse. Cinemas would install digital surround sound in every auditorium, but do a crappy job at it. Bad room acoustics and "set it and forget it" practies of sound system setup became the new standard.

Blindly turning up the centre channel and lower the surrounds can be a short term solution but I wouldn't want to pay a ticket and watch a movie on a system which has been tweaked like that.

If a theater has bad room acoustics and/or EQ that isn't set right boosting the center channel volume will probably make things really annoying for customers. Dialog might be strident, harsh or even shrill.

[Stefan Scholz]

You might eventually say, digital changed sound to become louder. This is not really the case. Digital offers higher dynamic range, than analog Split variable area, either Dolby A or SR. That is true, but when it comes to Magnetic with NR, the discrepancy is small. Just the LFE channel is way more powerful in digital, than any analog format.
The usable dynamic range in theatres - even though design standards ask for quiet rooms, low noise A/C, no sound transmission from the road etc, with an audience whispering, crackling candy cellophane and chewing corm, we easily reach 55 dBC background noise. To have an dialog intelligibility, 26 dB above is required for dialog. That's where the setting for played back dialog at 82 dBC originated. This is far louder than in real life. And that's not been chanced from from the origin of sound on film until today. What has changed is the possible dynamic range.
85 dBC - or 70 dB (1/3 octave band SPL) at 7.0 fader is what we aim for. For full frequency reproduction this gives approx 85 dBC "on the meter". This 85 dBC setpoint is at -20dBC full scale. allowing headroom of 23 dB above speaking level. That's not so much differing from Dolby magnetic, as some might think. What has changed is the frequency response. Analog eventually was capable of 40, more like 50 Hz lower limit up to 11000 Hz upper limit, with a natural border using 3 layer color print film of around 12000 Hz due to grain and 3 layer structure.
The problem starts, when theatre sound systems are improperly set and rely on components far behind required power output levels or sound systems that are not full frequency range capable.
Digital offers from theoretical 0 up to 22000 Hz frequency range, all at the same theoretical maximum output level.
Simply adapting a digital playback source to a sound system that had limited frequency response and eventually not enough dynamic range led to distortions, specially intermodulation, which are nasty.

Still the adjustment is done by a practice of "85 dB on the meter at the reference listening position 2/3 the way back in the auditorium". This works fine, playing noise and adjust. For a frequency limited B Chain, we end up with higher in band levels, than wanted, remember the 70 at 7 rule, With, IM is not noticed. In real life, the system works at higher level than intended, which additionally raises the load on speakers, and leads to earlier nasty distortions with dynamics.

Then there's another tendency - one mix must fit all. In the early times of digital film sound, all 3 formats were mastered in seperate sessions, with a well paid mastering consultant joining the mixing crew. This person knew the limits and specialties of the format, and assisted the mixing person in tips and hints to achieve a perfectly matched, dynamic, lifelike mix. This was costly. TV required another mastering session, as did Home Entertainment 5.1 releasing.
Today, the aim is for low dynamic mixing, compatible with TV sets. They work fine on underpowered theatre sound systems. But suddenly, there is the dynamic blockbuster, which needs a powerful sound system - and then the problem starts.
Adjusting by dialog, 82 dBC, the extra dynamics can't be handeled. Lots of deep bass, the bass cabinets are driven to full excursion, and required mid bass has no more chance, except to creare IM.

The last movie I remember to be really quiet was ambuLAnce. Great mix, low dialog, and lots of short time dynamics in the shots and explosions. Really neat to hear. Crafted with love. I was able to play on +3.X dB or Fader 8.5 in the classic denomition. Using a very capable sound system. Making an OSHA loudness test, it stayed green, no noise hazard present.
The same movie had lots of complaints anywhere else. Dialog too low, and then way too loud, and extremely distracting sound. Typical for underpowered systems.

The requirements are known for decades, and Dolby and others published them around 1990. None seems to have read them or understood what they mean.

One way out of the dilemma, is raise center by 3 dB and lower Left/ Right and Surround. Our, therer were compressors available, and use one of these in your signal chain. Gone is the problem.

The better way, buy and install a capable sound system, do the mandatory upgrade. And suddenly it works.

[Marco Giustini]

Maybe I am not fully understanding what you wrote but you say "23dB over dialogue level"? 85dBC is not a dialogue level, it's just a reference signal for adjustment. I'd imagine the sound mixer can set the dialogue wherever they want, I wouldn't think 85dBC is the "dialogue level".

I fully agree with the "one mix must fit all" though I'd hope the production would prioritise the theatrical mix and then scaled-down ones are automatically generated by various software which might or might not be validated by the production.

What I feel could be a more pressing issue is the fact that movies used to last some time at the cinema and would only reach home video many months later and finally TV broadcast a few YEARS later.

Today I believe Hollywood is releasing about one feature per day. I can imagine there won't be much time allocated for sound - particularly for smaller productions. Everything nowadays is "release release release" and once it's released, it's "release another one, now!". Everything goes quickly through the grinder of "Cinema-Streaming-Home" and it's DONE in a month or so.

On Dynamic, I've always wondered what would happen if an Atmos system was run at full power. With 5.1 or 7.1, you can do easily do the math: front channels can do 105dB, surround 102dB, LFE 115dB.

Now imagine you do the same with Atmos where theoretically every single surround speaker is capable of reaching 105dB at RLP - and you might have 5 screen speakers. ?

[Martin Brooks]

I don't want to get into a long discussion here on loud sound as it is MUCH more complex than mere volume. Anytime you try to assign a single number (be that SPL or fader level) to describe a complex thing, like sound, or picture you are, necessarily throwing away a lot of the detail that went into that number. For instance, you can set your projector's center brightness to 14fL but that tells you nothing about its distribution or its color (in any part of the screen). Likewise, setting your level to 85dBc doesn't tell you anything about the theatre's frequency response, THD...etc. There is also the mix too that factors in. A Nolan movie is, notoriously, going to have crappy dialog compared to other parts of the mix.

But, for what you can do, make sure your theatre is in order first. To put it in a single sentence, build your theatre as if it was to meet THX requirements.

That is, make sure the RT60 (reverberation time) of your theatre is proper, use good equipment (speakers, amps, processor) and then tune it properly (which if you get the first two parts right, should be minimal). Those items alone will significantly reduce your audio complaint problems, including level. When people say it is too loud...more often than not, they mean it sounds too distorted. That is, it hurts to sit there and listen to it. I have theatres where I tuned multiple theatres with the same equipment and just due to the equipment in the theatre and how the theatre was treated (acoustically), the theatre with the better equipment and better treatment, run at a higher level EVERY TIME. Seriously, with the same movie and tuned identically, the volume level in the better theatre may be at 7.0 while in the theatres with lesser equipment/treatment need to be turned down to avoid complaints. And that is on the same movie. If you go in there with an SPL meter, they all will measure the same. If you go in there with an RTA, they will measure mostly the same. The better theatre has a little better top and bottom end.

What you might try, prior to really looking at your equipment and your theatre's acoustics is to lower Left/Right by 3-dB (give or take) and see if that doesn't address the bulk of your problem. Also, resist the urge to boost Left/Right with the SPL. If you set Left/Right to 85dBc as you did with Center, then you've boosted them to overcome their distance to the reference mic (longer distance). If your three speakers are functioning properly (all have similar measurements), set Left/Right no higher than Center on your processor's output such that if you were to measure each speaker standing directly in front of them, that they measure the same. Again, this isn't the "proper" way but in a theatre with less than ideal equipment/treatment, it can lessen the complaints.

While I agree with all that, it doesn't alleviate the problem of insane directors who are so insecure about their movie that they think they can create drama with constant loudness. When a film is mixed where people who are whispering hurts one's ears, that's an incredibly bad mix, IMO. They don't realize that it's dynamic range that creates impact, not a constant barrage of loudness - it's the bang or scream out of the silence that works the best. And it's really bad on trailers - I bring hearing protection with me to theaters these days, at least for the trailers. It's bad enough that they have to be worn at music concerts.

[Ed Gordon]

While I agree with all that, it doesn't alleviate the problem of insane directors who are so insecure about their movie that they think they can create drama with constant loudness. When a film is mixed where people who are whispering hurts one's ears, that's an incredibly bad mix, IMO. They don't realize that it's dynamic range that creates impact, not a constant barrage of loudness - it's the bang or scream out of the silence that works the best. And it's really bad on trailers - I bring hearing protection with me to theaters these days, at least for the trailers. It's bad enough that they have to be worn at music concerts.

The audience dislikes the bad mixes, and theaters can do little to make them better. I asked "Search Assist" what happened to standard volume levels and here is the summary:

Standard volume levels were established in the 1940s for audio equipment, with 0 VU equating to +4 dBu or 1.228 volts RMS, but modern streaming services and apps lack consistent volume standards, leading to varying loudness across different content.


Historical Context of Standard Volume Levels

In the 1940s, standard volume levels for audio equipment were established, with the volume unit (VU) meter becoming a key reference. The VU meter was standardized to show 0 VU at +4 dBu, which corresponds to 1.228 volts RMS. This standardization was crucial for consistent audio levels in broadcasting and recording.

Current Challenges with Volume Levels

Lack of Consistency in Modern Media

Today, there is no uniform standard for volume levels across various streaming services and applications. This inconsistency leads to significant variations in loudness, making it necessary for users to frequently adjust their volume settings. The absence of a common standard means that different content can be mixed and mastered at varying levels, resulting in a frustrating experience for viewers.

Factors Contributing to Volume Variability

• Different Mixing Practices: Audio engineers may mix content to their preferences, leading to a wide range of volume levels.
• Streaming Service Differences: Each streaming platform may handle audio differently, contributing to inconsistent loudness.
• Device Variability: The audio capabilities of devices (like TVs, soundbars, and speakers) can also affect how volume is perceived.

Conclusion

While historical standards for volume levels provided a foundation for audio consistency, the evolution of media consumption has led to a fragmented landscape where users often face challenges in maintaining a stable audio experience.

Explore More


In 2026, the standard volume levels for audio equipment vary by medium: -24 LUFS for television, -16 LUFS for gaming and podcasts, and there is no specific LUFS standard for music as streaming services normalize levels to their own standards. This means that while music can be mixed to any level, it is typically adjusted to remain competitive with other tracks.

Modern streaming services use loudness normalization to adjust the volume of tracks to a target loudness level, typically measured in LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale). This ensures a consistent listening experience by turning tracks up or down to match the platform's target loudness, such as -14 LUFS for Spotify, YouTube, and Tidal, or -16 LUFS for Apple Music.