Why are commercials so LOUD?
Compression. Advertisers use compression so that everything in a commercial is about at the same (loud) audio level, close to the maximum allowable levels. This way, you can still hear their pitch even if you get up to go the kitchen or bathroom. SCI FI does not turn up the volume on these commercials they’re just recorded and mixed that way. Most of our shows, however, are not in an audio-compressed format so they generally have a wider dynamic range than the ads. Since we can’t go back and add compression to our shows, the ads tend to sound a lot louder than the programming.
We’ve all had that “grab the remote” moment after a crazy-loud commercial blasts into our living room. It’s one of the biggest questions submitted to the Good Question Team: Why are commercials so much louder than the regular TV programming? “They are perceived as louder, but technically from a volume standpoint, they’re the same,” said Gary Kroger, WCCO-TV Director of Engineering. According to Kroger, the loudest point in a commercial is just as loud as the peak volume in a TV show. But the average volume for commercials is indeed louder than most types of programming. “The philosophy that ‘louder is better’ is alive and well,” he said. According to Kroger, there is no technician at TV stations jacking up the volume when it’s commercial; there’s no magic machine that adjusts the volume upwards. In fact, there is a machine that attempts to raise the volume levels of the regular programming. “We do everything we can to keep that level as consistent as possible,” he said. Kroger said, at
‘ Perception and Modeling of the Loudness of Amplitude-Compressed Speech* Authors: Moore, Brian C. J.; Glasberg, Brian R.; Stone, Michael A. Affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England JAES Volume 51 Issue 12 pp. 1123-1132; December 2003 The level of broadcast sound is usually limited to prevent overmodulation of the transmitted signal. To increase the loudness of broadcast sounds, especially commercials, fastacting amplitude compression is often applied. This allows the root-mean-square (rms) level of the sounds to be increased without exceeding the maximum permissible peak level. In addition, even for a fixed rms level, compression may have an effect on loudness. To assess whether this was the case, we obtained loudness matches between uncompressed speech (short phrases) and speech that was subjected to varying degrees of four-band compression. All rms levels were calculated off line. We found that the compressed speech had a lower
You’re relaxed in your favorite easy chair, munching on popcorn, the cat is asleep on your lap, and you’re watching a whodunit on TV. The private eye knows the killer is lurking somewhere in this dark house. He tiptoes from room to room in his gumshoes barely making a sound as he opens the door to the basement, when…BAMMM!!!! BAMMM!!!! BAMMM!!!! MUSIC PLAYED LOUDLY!!! GUY SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS!!! A MASSIVE ASSAULT ON YOUR EARS!!! You flinch, popcorn goes flying everywhere, and the cat is jerked rudely awake and catapults from your lap leaving behind shreds of your pants and leg in his wake. That THUMP THUMP THUMP you hear is your heart trying to recover. Blasted commercials.
