Sequentialsilence
@Sequentialsilence@lemmy.world
- Comment on How do movie theaters work? Which seats in theaters are the best? (never done this before) Also is the IMAX thing actually any different? 1 day ago:
They changed how they measured loudness a few years back on both the mixing side and the playback side. Back in the 00’s the measurements were based on peak volumes, so brick wall limiting was used to get the most volume that you were allowed to have in playback. This caused the dynamics to be essentially non existent. Filmmakers hated this, movie goers hated it, the only people who liked it were the lawyers because it meant lawsuits didn’t happen.
Laws were changed in the early 10’s that changed how loudness was measured. Now it’s measured as exposure over time. This has had many benefits in the production of both films and music, however the laws, at least in the USA and Canada, were written very broadly, and consider movie theaters and concert halls to both be performance venues. This means movie theaters have the same restrictions as concert halls.
Because the law measures exposure over time it allows the loud areas to be loud as long as there’s quiet areas to offset it. This means when you have someone who doesn’t understand yet how the new laws affect the audio mix, the dialogue will get buried to make the explosions more “impactful”. It has started to get better since the laws have been around for a while and people have gotten used to them.
As dumb as all this sounds the calculations themselves, are very well calculated and you are way less likely to get hearing damage these days from a concert or movie theater than you used to. Your ears get damaged from long term exposure easier than peak volumes, and with measurement stick now measuring long term exposure as opposed to peak volumes, you end up better protected. Because of the regulations you are more likely to get hearing damage from headphones than you are a concert or a movie theater.
- Comment on How do movie theaters work? Which seats in theaters are the best? (never done this before) Also is the IMAX thing actually any different? 1 day ago:
I used to tune the speakers in movie theaters.
If it’s a Dolby certified theater there will be a chair that has a placard on it, that’s where the mic was placed to tune the theater. It will always be center, about 2/3rds of the way back. Most other certifications mirror this in some way.
We did THX certification and that was a little bit more broad, we wanted the “sweet spot” to be an area, not a single seat. This is why a THX certified room will look different than most other theater rooms, because it’s designed for maximum coverage. This also means we are sacrificing sound quality for sound consistency, making sure every seat sounds the same. With that being said we completely ignored the margins, they were called quarter margins and anything within 25% of the edge was disqualified from primary readings. We would take secondary readings from the edge, but that was just to verify that there were no glaring problems, not for actual certifications.
In short… central-ish is good for any movie theater.
- Comment on In the US we have signs that say No Shirt No Shoes No service. When did this become a norm? Also if I am wearing a shirt and shoes but no pants can I still enter? 5 weeks ago:
The no shirt part was a result of the hipster movement in the 1970’s, and that’s originally how it was for over a decade. The no shoes part was because of lawyers and liability, hence why sandals are allowed, but barefoot is not.
- Comment on How much money should one person realistically make or have? 2 months ago:
I think it should be percentage based, not fiscally based. That way it can adapt and grow with the times. I also think all income should be taxed, as it stands only certain types of income are taxed, and at different rates. Not surprisingly your W-2 taxes (taxes taken out of your paycheck) are one of the highest tax rates you can have on income. I also think tax breaks shouldn’t be a thing at all either. If the government wants to promote something they can offer a rebate so there’s a cap on how much they promote it, and it’s not an endless give away. Finally, expenses are the cost of doing business, and you shouldn’t be able to hide income because you paid money to make money.
The fact that I can buy a property, get a tax break because I’m paying interest on a mortgage, rent the property out for more than my mortgage, claim that as a business, then claim the mortgage as an expense for said business, and end up not paying any taxes on charging someone else to pay for my mortgage, is insane.
In my ideal world there would be no tax breaks period, you pay what is owed end of story. Anything below the median income (50%) isn’t taxed, anything above the median is taxed at 1.5% for each percentage point above the median. If you are in the top 10% and make more than 90% of the nation, you get taxed at 60% above the median and can take home 40% of that additional income after the median. In the USA this would be ($251,036-$80,610) x .4 + $80,610 or $148,780.4. If you are in the top 1% ($731,492) that would be a take home of $253,093.73. If you’re Elon Musk (est $400,000,000,000 last year alone) that would be “only” $100,000,000,000. Keep in mind in 2024 he didn’t pay any taxes, and in 2021, he was the highest tax paying individual in US history at $11 billion. Yes he would still be ultra rich, but there would be $300 billion going to taxes last year alone, or roughly 7.5% of all tax income.
This means rich people can still enjoy their money, while still paying their fair share, and if you’re just trying to get by, don’t worry about it, we got you.
- Comment on Sign the Petition: Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide 3 months ago:
Everyone knows dihydrogen monoxide is water, they’re not going to ban it. What we need to ban is hydric acid, that’s the most dangerous chemical in the world.
- Comment on Is audiophile bullshit cheating? 3 months ago:
So I’m someone who actually designs and deploys speakers in large scale applications like arenas and performance halls. There is some truth to making all of the frequencies arrive at the same time based on your listening spot. However the “peak of an average waveform” is bullshit. The reason why time alignment is a thing is because of 2 reasons.
- It takes time for the diaphragm that is moving the air that produces sound to move. A smaller diaphragm that produces higher frequencies will move sooner than a larger diaphragm that produces lower frequencies meaning the higher frequencies will arrive to your ear before the lower frequencies.
- the speed of sound is not a constant. It varies with temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure. Unless you have a fully pressurized climate controlled space the speed of sound will vary, meaning the time alignment will vary.
Is any of this important? No. Sound (any wave really) will merge with other frequencies and produce a unified wave as long as the drivers are close enough together. So as long as the distance between the tweeter and the woofer is within half of the wavelength of the crossover frequency, it literally does not matter. The crossover’s between the tweeter’s and the woofer’s in most speakers are typically within 800-2.4khz, or 17”-5.6” (43cm-14cm) in wavelength. As long as your drivers are within that distance of each other the sound will converge.
And if it wasn’t, we can delay the electrical signal in the amplifier to make it all line up!!
As someone who designs audio equipment, I hate audiophiles, they make a mockery of my profession.
- Comment on [deleted] 9 months ago:
The only person I know who supports these actions is literally known around my neighborhood as crazy Mike, because he’s crazy. He also openly admits he’s hypocritical, as he will condemn an action democrats do, but praise the same actions if they’re done by republicans. He knows he’s hypocritical but doesn’t see anything wrong with it. Like I said he’s crazy.
- Comment on Why is there steam coming out of the streets in New York 11 months ago:
There’s a lot of things under the streets of New York, many of them cause heat. In order to cool them off the heat is vented outside and the warm moist air meets with the cool dry air and condensates into droplets that we see as steam. Same affect as breathing out on a cold day, you’re not creating steam but it looks that way because the warm moist air from your breath is condensing in the cool dry air.
- Comment on Singer Rick Astley dead at age 59 11 months ago:
Jokes on you I saw the XcQ
- Comment on Why hasn't video quality improved much over the past ten years? 1 year ago:
It’s cyclical, years ago, video quality improved dramatically, and then stagnated for almost 40 years as prices fell until it was economical for video quality to improve again. We likely won’t see a meaningful improvement for another 15-20 years, then prices will come down and then we’ll see another improvement.
- Comment on Is there audio AI that cleans up audio? 1 year ago:
Depends on what kind of ai and how much control you want over it. There are some consumer stuff like adobe or elevenlabs, but if a professional is using ai it’s likely either waves or izotope as they give way more control. Personally I use waves, their clarity pro plugins are amazing, but I know several people who use izotope as well.
The problem is doing it in real time and having it sound halfway decent. The only companies who have managed that is waves and Yamaha, the later of which requires hardware that costs $70k+.
- Comment on What advice would you give to your younger self? 1 year ago:
All debt is bad, it is better to not own a house than to pay a mortgage levels of all debt is bad.
The only way you’re not going to be working a minimum wage job is if you have a college degree.
- Comment on What advice would you give to your younger self? 1 year ago:
Ignore the financial “advice” of your parents, they’re retiring and still in debt. Real estate, and stock market. Those prices only go up over time, and although it may be difficult in the short term, long term you’ll thank yourself.
Also college is a waste, don’t do it.
- Comment on If you can’t discriminate based on age, how are there 55+ neighborhoods? 1 year ago:
The fair housing act doesn’t stop age discrimination, it protects “familial status” meaning they can’t discriminate based on a family having children, or being in a gay or lesbian relationship. It does have three exceptions to the law and they all center around senior communities.
- Every occupant is 62 or older. (Why 62 I have no idea.)
- Every household has 1 person who is 55 or older.
- The community is part of a state or federal housing program that assists elderly people.
- Comment on Calculatable 1 year ago:
C = clear CE = clear everything
- Comment on How does US "early voting" works logistically speaking ? 1 year ago:
Oh, we’re not that organized. The only thing that they really do is require some form of government ID. They don’t really care what they just need to identify you.
They don’t check if you’re allowed to vote, or if you’ve already voted before you vote, as those machines aren’t connected to the internet, so there’s no database to check against. It is checked after the fact when they start counting as the counting machines are connected to the internet.
We had an issue about a decade ago where they were able to hack voting machines on election day, ever since then voting machines aren’t allowed to be connected to the internet.
- Comment on How does US "early voting" works logistically speaking ? 1 year ago:
Where I am there’s simply too many people to have a single location, so there are 4 different locations you can vote at in the district.
- Comment on Pavlov 1 year ago:
I first heard of Pavlov from the game incredible machines, where if you dangle a banana in front of a mandrill (looks like a baboon to 6 year old me) he would run on the treadmill giving you power for your machines. So I always think of a baboon when I hear pavlov.
- Comment on Knife vs. Gun Control? 1 year ago:
I went looking at every state I’ve lived in and the one with the most restrictions was Texas, obviously states like New York or California will be more restrictive, but the only real restrictions that I found outside of new england / California, were switchblades or “automatic opening knives”, and carrying in locations like schools and government buildings, which I expected. I used to carry a 8” hunting knife (13” overall) when I did a bunch of outdoor work, now I carry a smaller 3” folding pocketknife.
- Comment on Knife vs. Gun Control? 1 year ago:
The US has strong knife laws? I carry a knife almost everyday and this is the first I’m hearing of this. The only time I can’t take my knife somewhere is if no weapons at all are allowed there, like government buildings.