Center (Dialogue) Very Loud

[Kennfilms]

I recently tested a DCP at the theater where my film will be shown. The center channel seemed to overpower the other channels, when I listened to it, in the theater. The film is an extremely interview heavy documentary. Is there anything in the analysis that indicates this would be the result of the mix I have, or is this a result of the way the theater's sound system is calibrated? It's a very large theater, nearly 500 seats.

DCP Analysis.jpg

[Kewl]

Looks OK to me...

[Carsten]

Yup, looks okay to me as well. The overall loudness (LUFS) appears a bit too low for me, but that depends a bit on the level set for the auditorium, and if it contains interviews, it may be just the way it should be.

While we always recommend listening to a mix in a calibrated cinema - it doesn't mean that every cinema is actually calibrated to specs. I personally know a few cinemas that have their center raised to improve dialog intelligibility. I have one special preset like this configured on our cinema processor myself (our processor allows to activate many different presets, so I can select that one only if I feel it's necessary).

It is quite easy to find out yourself if a cinema is out of spec level wise, there are some loudness measurement apps that deliver quite dependable values, especially for iPhones (because iPhones use a smaller set/range of different microphones).

I use this one: https://studiosixdigital.com/audiotools ... meter.html

I think it is available as a standalone application by Andrew Smith at a mere 1€ or 1US$. I tried it on a range of different iOS devices, and because of it's device specific calibration, it showed more or less exactly the same values across all devices. And they matched the professional calibration of our cinema very closely. Use the 'C' and SLOW mode for cinema.

You can download/create a simple test DCP that plays pink noise on all channels while you look at the loudness app. It is easy to detect a center that is playing too loud.


If you're set to play this piece in exactly this theater, and if you don't get them to adjust the calibration - just create a VF based on your original DCP (OV), with the center level reduced by something like 3-6 dB. This will go very quickly. You can ingest just the VFs in a very short time and try which version is better for you. If you do the test with the pink noise and loudness app and find that their center is set too loud, you should still tell them that this is not correct and that they should at least keep an eye (ear) on it.

[Kennfilms]

Thank you Carsten and Kewl! I did have the mix done, professionally, just wanted some other opinions on the issue. I will try dropping the center channel and making another DCP. The theater has the current version in their system, so might actually try making a couple at different center channel levels, to see which works the best.

Thanks, again, for your advice!

KC

[Carsten]

You do know that you can adjust a single channel (even within an interleaved audio file) by right-clicking on that green connection square in the audio matrix?


BTW - for a better judgement, you can concentrate on the green (Center) RMS line, vs. the red and black (L/R) RMS lines, you may also disable the Peak curves (they are irrelevant for loudness). The level relation between Center and L/R RMS looks okay for me. Of course, this is just an educated guess from the visual appearance and the dB relation between these curves. One definitely needs to listen.

DCP Analysis.jpg