CLOSED: Volume During Episode vs Volume During Ads (UPDATED: Including Spinner)

Not sure if this happens for anyone else (or if this is the correct forum to mention this) but the volume during the episode (Future War) is like 200% or 300% lower than the ads (this happens on regular television too sometimes, depending on the network lol). When the ads come on the entire neighborhood can hear our TV lol. It’s THAT noticeable. Just wanted to point it out.

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Yep, happening here too. I think it might be tied to the actual episode, cause the new short at the start of the stream was a perfectly normal volume. It didn’t get quiet until Future War started.

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Yeah, the episode is much quieter than all the new material. I don’t think it’s as big a deal as the first couple rough cut episodes though since you only have to adjust the volume when they come and go from commercials.

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Yup, the ads are definitely too loud compared to the rest of it.

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Definitely an issue here too. Android TV playing through a 5.1 system here.

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The episode was what was too quiet. The wraparounds were a good volume but I had to crank up the volume for Future War

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Remember, friends: clicking “Vote” at the top of this thread will help to bring this persistent problem to the team’s attention.

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Like on Hulu, the ads were ridiculously loud compared to the movie volume. Don’t know if it’s a technical issue, or an advertising trend, but if it’s the latter it’s a bad idea, because it just makes me hit mute till the ads over. On the positive side, no synch issues whatsoever watching it on Roku.

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I noticed it too. The new host segments, and Madvertisements were much louder than the episode itself.

I was watching in the Gizmoplex virtual theater on PC.

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Just a little tidbit here from someone who works in broadcast tv…years ago there was something passed called the CALM act which requires any ads that are broadcast to be the same level as the programs around which they air. So basically as broadcast producers/editors we need to make sure our shows and interstitials are all the same level (and we have specific levels we need to hit for this and can’t exceed). If you don’t follow these standards and it gets reported to the FCC, your station can face fines.

Note that this does not apply to things online like the Gizmoplex so they don’t have to deal with following these standards, but just thought some might find this interesting to know! Before the CALM act, as I’m sure many of you noticed, commercials were often louder than programs.

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Maybe I’m just being pedantic here, but I am going to clarify that in my opinion the issue is not that the ads are too loud. The issue was that the episode was too quiet. I had to crank up the volume to hear the episode ok, which then made all the new material (including, but not limited to, the ads) seem way too loud. The issue was with the volume of the episode, not the volume of everything else.

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Yes, this. I was actually coming to make this clarification. If I had the volume at my normal level, the volume for the ads and all the new content was fine, but the entirety of the classic episode was way too quiet.

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I think the movie itself just had really bad sound. I could hear the riffs fine, but the dialogue from the movie was really hard to hear. Especially since it was 86 degrees yesterday and I had my AC running for the first time in the Gizmoplex era.

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This is the biggest problem with the Gizmoplex presentations, changes in volume levels from one show element to another. It would be great to have all the elements at the same level. It would be even greater to have closed captions. Then I could crank the volume way down. :smile:

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Current thought on this. Bad original movie quality. Mixed with modern recording of host/riffs lead to a bit of a lopsided balance from high energy / volume Jonah, Hampton and pearl/synthia bits, compared to Conor, baron and even emily who are a little more reserved in the humour. Just think the audio balance needs to find a middle ground of upping the movie, without awful constant BG noise / feedback or lowering the overlaying riffs. Rant over :slightly_smiling_face: or is it?? :scream:

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As a broadcast editor, checking audio levels and loudness metering across shows and elements like this is a huge part of my job. I do it countless times a day. I’d be happy to let the MST team know how I do it if they’re interested in a quick way to do so!

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For me, this was very apparent as soon as M. Waverly showed up - the spinner was noticeably loud. No thoughts on if the classic episode was too low vs new content too high, but that’s probably easy to compare by switching from the event recording to other episodes.

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Closed captioning should be in place. What are you using to watch episodes? TV with Roku/Chromecast/Firestick? Computer? Phone/tablet?

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I don’t think there’s CC on the live broadcasts, is there?

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There is no captioning in the live streams, no. It gets added later.

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