Cinema Sound and the Loudness Issue: Its Origins and Implications Seminar

Event details

Following the widespread introduction of digital cinema soundtracks in the early 1990s, the sound levels in cinemas began to creep upwards in a somewhat unexpected manner. Complaints from audience members gradually increased in number, and eventually reached a point where cinema operators felt obliged to reduce the pre-­‐calibrated levels. As this trend spread, some cinema directors began to demand higher recorded levels, to compensate for the reduced playback settings, but this led to the undesirable result of a 'loudness war'. Cinemas with reduced level could suffer from intelligibility problems during the quiet passages of films that had been mixed at higher levels, and cinemas which continued to screen films at the standard level risked provoking not only complaints, but also political pressure to curb the levels. Concurrently, the advent of full digital cinema has enabled some 'less-­‐professional' operations to produce films, and compliance with industry SPL standards has, indeed, been eroded. However, political, legislative interference in an artistic process tends to be a very blunt weapon. This paper looks at the origins of film sound, the development of standard playback levels, the technical changes which led to the unforeseen increases, and the ways in which the consequences may be dealt with by artistically-­‐sensitive means. No registration required