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I always remember watching Paul W S Anderson’s often-maligned Event Horizon in the 1990s, but in a cinema where clearly a lot of care and attention had been put into getting the surround sound for the film just right. But where’s the specific request asking for sound to be taken into account? To point out that, for the subtleties to work, the volume knob doesn’t have to be cranked up to maximum?īecause sound, after all, can enhance seeing a film in a cinema significantly. And surely that’s not what Dolby Atmos was supposed to do?ĭirectors, as we’ve seen in the past, have written to projectionists (remember them?) to specifically request care be taken in how their film is projected. Each, however, seemed to prioritise volume over anything else. These were across different venues, so it can’t just be an issue with one particular picturehouse. It’s been the same with other films I’ve seen in Atmos, such as Man Of Steel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Gravity, Frozen and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Gareth Edwards has clearly taken a lot of care and attention with the sound mix for his new Godzilla movie, but the screening I attended turned into an audio wall of very loud noise, to the point of making my ears ring for some time afterwards. But I find it particularly disappointing with an Atmos mix, where there’s a chance to do something more interesting. This does tie in, of course, to the ongoing debate about comfortable sound levels at your average multiplex. That somewhere along the line, the onus is switching from the delicate positioning of sound, to using the separate speakers and blasting you with very loud noise from even more directions than before.
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However, with every subsequent film that I see screened using the format, the thing that’s coming through more than anything is the sheer volume. Atmos, in theory, should all be about the placement. Getting the balance of levels is a fine art at times, and it varies on a film by film basis. And it ties into a broader issue with cinema audio levels.Īnyone who has tinkered with any kind of surround sound set-up will know that it’s the placement of the sound that’s crucial. The problem, though, is that I’m not convinced that Atmos is being deployed in quite the way that it should. This is brilliantly demonstrated in one of the Dolby Atmos demo clips that tends to play ahead of films screened using the technology: a slow, subtle build up of noise, as you get the growing awareness that the audio is all around you.