Loudness wars legislation

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JGriffin
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Loudness wars legislation

Post by JGriffin » Wed Sep 17, 2008 1:32 pm

For broadcast TV commercials, anyhow:

The Library of Congress wrote:6/9/2008--Introduced.
Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act - Directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to prescribe a regulation prohibiting advertisements accompanying video programming from:
(1) being excessively noisy or strident;
(2) having modulation levels substantially higher than the accompanying program; and
(3) having an average maximum loudness substantially higher than that of the accompanying program.
...sounds like a problem for the cable company head end, mostly, as when I mix an ad I don't know which programs it'll be running in. I'm gonna go read the full text of the bill to see if/how they define "excessively noisy or strident."
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Post by Electricide » Wed Sep 17, 2008 3:09 pm

I bet the result is just that the local broadcaster slaps a super limiter on the way out.

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Post by JGriffin » Wed Sep 17, 2008 3:15 pm

Well, the guys who'd be slapping that limiter on are the ones playing the spots too loud, so sure, let 'em. Cable TV sounds like shit already anyway.

It seems silly to waste time legislating something that, while admittedly really annoying, is only that: annoying.
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Post by farview » Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:06 pm

Half the time, the problem is the local cable company. This doesn't happen as much on national spots, only on local spots. Most of the time, the spot is actually the right volume, the program is too low because no one at the cable company gives a crap about audio.

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Post by rwc » Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:43 pm

I am glad for this. The loud commercials can eat my cock.
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Mark Alan Miller
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Post by Mark Alan Miller » Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:49 pm

We've had a comp/limiter between the cable box and the stereo here for years, to mitigate that crap. (The "compressor" in the Motorola cable boxes sounds horrific, BTW. Not that anyone would expect otherwise.)
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Post by Electricide » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:02 am

i think most newish TV's have a limiter you can turn on/off for just this reason (though it's called a loudness averager or something sillY

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Post by lyman » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:09 am

Mark Alan Miller wrote:We've had a comp/limiter between the cable box and the stereo here for years, to mitigate that crap. (The "compressor" in the Motorola cable boxes sounds horrific, BTW. Not that anyone would expect otherwise.)
dude, I use that motorola box all the time for tracking.

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Post by GooberNumber9 » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:20 am

farview wrote:Half the time, the problem is the local cable company. This doesn't happen as much on national spots, only on local spots. Most of the time, the spot is actually the right volume, the program is too low because no one at the cable company gives a crap about audio.
I rather assumed it was because the professional TV and Film post houses usually send out the audio at around -20, or -10 dBFS, whereas the small-time local guys think they're mixing for radio and send it out at -3 or -.01.

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Post by T-rex » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:25 am

lyman wrote:
Mark Alan Miller wrote:We've had a comp/limiter between the cable box and the stereo here for years, to mitigate that crap. (The "compressor" in the Motorola cable boxes sounds horrific, BTW. Not that anyone would expect otherwise.)
dude, I use that motorola box all the time for tracking.
Great! Now the ebay prices for motorola limiters just went up. THANKS!
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Post by themagicmanmdt » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:27 am

cool!

it's all relative, anyways. the programs'll get louder, too.
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Post by T-rex » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:34 am

that was my thought. They make the programs louder and then they can make the commercials even louder, but keep the same ratio and bypass the legislation.
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