I would bet there is one mix created in surround sound (7.1 or Dolby Atmos or whatever), and then the end-user hardware does the down-mixing part, i.e. from Atmos with ~20 speakers to a pair of airpods.

In the music world, we usually make stereo mixes. Even though the software that I use has a button to downmix the stereo output to mono, I only print stereo files.

It’s defintely good practice to listen to the mix in mono for technical reasons and also because you just never know who’s going to be listening on what device—the ultimate goal being to make it sound as good as possible in as many listening environments as possible. Ironically, switching the output to mono is a great way to check for balance between instruments (including the vocals) in a stereo mix.

At any rate, I think the problem of dynamics control—and for that matter, equalization—for fine-tuning the listening experience at home is going to vary wildly from place to place and setup to setup. Therefore the hypothetical regulations should help consumers help themselves by requiring compression and eq controls on consumer devices!

Side tip: if your tv or home theater box has an equalizer, try cutting around 200-250hz and bring the overall volume up a tad to reduce the muddiness of vocals/dialogue. You could also try boosting around 2khz, but as a sound engineer primarily dealing with live performances, I tend to cut more often than I boost.

Audio compression is much older than 20 years! Though you’re probably right about it becoming available on consumer A/V devices more recently.

And you’re definitely correct that “pre-applying” compression and generally overdoing it will fuck up the sound for too many people.

The dynamic ranges that are possible (and arguably desirable) to achieve in a movie theater are much greater than what one could (or would even want to) achieve from some crappy TV speakers or cheap ear buds.

From what I understand, mastering for film is going to aim for the greatest dynamic range possible, because it’s always theoretically possible to narrow the range after the fact but not really vice-versa.

I think the direction to go with OP’s suggested regulation would be to require all consumer TV sets and home theater boxes to have a built-in compressor that can be accessed and adjusted by the user. This would probably entail allowing the user to blow their speakers if they set it incorrectly, but in careful hands, it could solve OP’s problem.

That said, my limited experience in this world is exclusive to mixing and mastering music and not film, so grain of salt and all that.

Soon as you drive it off the lot it’s in decline:

https://open.spotify.com/track/00wGbGsdC5vB6wxK47NIiY?si=Q9qWFgPHQEyYadevDx8eMQ&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1YfYKrsK953RSyGiMUBixx

I know it’s a different vibe, but I’ve been obsessed with this album lately and couldn’t resist.

Judging by The Dawn of Everything sitting next to it, I’d guess that book is Debt: The First 5000 years by David Graeber!

I have to back into a parking spot in a shitty, shared driveway. If I don’t throw my (automatic transmission) car into neutral and coast into place, my car will decide I’m too close to the curb and just slam the fuck out of the brakes while still several feet away from where I intend to be. It sounds awful and it scared the absolute shit out of me several times before I internalized the workaround.

Good thing I’m not a fan of the backup camera in general, or this problem would be even more irritating, since the camera turns off when I go from reverse to neutral.

I started on a small instance that fortunately gave a heads up when they decided to shut down. When I moved to a second, small instance where I ported all my community subscriptions, it shut down with no warning. It’s a shame, because both instances were topically-focused and small enough to avoid defederation drama.

I love the idea of decentralized infrastructure, but now I’m on .world because I just don’t have the time or willpower to move every few months, and I definitely don’t have the wherewithal to run my own instance.

I remember laughing at business-aspiring folks rocking bluetooth earpieces back in the day, and now everyone walks around with at least one airpod attached to their skull.

Edit: forgot a “to”

OneDrive decided to kick on after an overnight update and uploaded some projects and vst plugins to the cloud. Apparently, the files weren’t accessible except via the cloud, so I lost a few hours re-downloading my folders before I could do anything. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more furious over technology that I theoretically owned.

I got a PC in order to eventually go back to Linux, where at least I know that when something goes wrong, it’s generally my own fault and somewhat easy to troubleshoot. Unfortunately, the plugins I’ve been using only have Windows and Mac versions. If I had done a bit more research, I probably would have just gone with an apple device.

Sure, but why’s the coke mirror on the floor??

I’m actually just now coming up on my tenth year in the biz, and most of my experience is with indie venues and artists — my perspective on these very good questions is somewhat limited!

On the marketing side, it seems to involve a lot of social media and local publications rather than the traditional music press, as you point out.

I’m sure A&R execs still do their thing with the big labels, but there also seem to be a shitload of small booking agencies/management groups that handle a lot of the organization and business end for national-level indie artists. It seems that a lot of folks in those organizations are doing actual work and not just sitting back collecting a fat executive bonus.

As far as jobs disappearing, my bet is on the assistants and other staff with indirect roles that maybe aren’t as involved since technology has allowed more folks to work from home. I’m thinking along the lines of people eschewing large studio spaces for home studios, since a lot of mixing and mastering can be done “in the box” on a computer with a good set of monitors and a decently-treated room.

I imagine the same would go for some of the distribution and licensing side, since instead of depending on a major label or hiring a person to mail out CDs to a bunch of radio stations and such, you can just use an online service like CDBaby to get your tracks submitted to multiple streamers at once and keep track of royalties without needing a dedicated accountant.

Again, take all this with a grain of salt, since my experience is still somewhat narrow! And also, I don’t intend anything I’ve said as a defense of do-nothing execs sitting back and amassing wealth at the expense of us regular folks on the ground. It’s just that in my experience, most of the non-artist people involved with the entertainment biz do actually provide value to the artist and fans.

Not OP, but I work in the industry, mostly in the live production side. Here’s a taste of behind-the-scenes stuff that artists often rely on others to handle after they leave the recording studio:

• Booking shows, radio and television appearances, and other events

• Advancing those events with venue staff

• Organizing transportation, lodging, and food for tour

• Acquiring and managing all of the gear for tour

• Getting the artists from show to show while protecting them from themselves and others

• Marketing for shows and new releases

• Mixing the material the artist just recorded in the studio

• Mastering the music the mix engineer put together from that recorded material into a dozen different formats, so you can listen on vinyl, Deezer, YouTube, Spotify, etc.

• Mixing the front-of-house (what the audience hears) and mixing the monitors (what the artist hears) for the live show

• Making sure all the folks involved with the above are booked

• Paying all the folks they booked to make the above happen

I’m not saying the entertainment biz isn’t fucked up and that artists don’t deserve a bigger slice of the pie, but a lot of artists rely on other folks to handle this stuff for them so they have the space to live their lives, create new music, and give audiences a show worth attending.

Certainly, I depend on people more creative and musically talented than me, but they also depend on me and my technically-proficient and business-savvy peers to translate their creativity into something you can access and enjoy.

The Dollars Trilogy is a great recommendation, and I think your analysis is spot on! The cinematography in the second and third installments is incredible.

I like to follow up with Tarantino’s Hateful Eight (my personal favorite film to recommend, especially as a Christmas movie in place of Die Hard) to see how hugely influential the Trilogy was.

The only way we cleared Tainted Lost at my house was playing co-op!