Why Dynamic Range is Just as Important in Your Audio as It is in Your Image
Michael Coleman is back with another SoundWorks Collection video, and this time it's the sound team from Wally Pfister's directorial debut Transcendence. The sound team talks a lot about the dynamic range in their audio mix, where they utilize very quiet sounds all the way up to very loud sounds in order to maximize the effectiveness of both. Check out the video below and learn why silence at the right moments can actually improve your sound mix.
The concept of dynamic range in audio is something that is talked about a lot in modern music, because most of the popular stuff you hear is mixed in a way that makes it sound louder than it really is. Essentially everything is mixed up, and there are no quiet sounds to balance it out. Because of the way movie theater speakers are designed, it's actually to the benefit of the creators not to do this, especially since you can direct where you want specific sounds to be in relation to the audience.
Using silence or quiet moments followed by intense sounds can be extremely powerful, and it was also something explored in the SoundWorks Collection video for All Is Lost:
Is the same thing that happened to music also happening with videos online? Since so many people watch videos on smartphones or laptops with puny speakers, is it a losing battle trying to build dynamic range into your sound mix? What do you think?
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