Re: [DCP-o-matic] audio loudness

Carsten - We have a Dolby CP-650, all QSC amps and all QSC speakers (5.1 system). We routinely play features at anywhere from 4.5 to 5.3. Somewhere in the 4.8 range is the most common setting. If we use 7, it's just too loud. I listen to dialogue scenes in each movie and set the fader to where the dialogue sounds good, and with very few exceptions anything above 5.3 is uncomfortably loud. The highest setting we've ever used on a feature is 6.5, which we used for Gravity. When we had the movie "Space Jam" a long time ago, we promoted a "super loud" matinee where we played the sound at 7. It sounded amazing of course, but just awful loud. Some of the KIDS were even saying it was too loud! But if you go to CinemaCon, you'll hear trailers being played at deafening rock-concert levels. I think Hollywood sound mixers think this is normal, so that's why 7 is so blasted loud. We virtually never get "too loud" complaints from our customers (besides senior citizens who don't like anything loud) and I don't think we've ever gotten a "too soft" complaint from sound nuts either, so I figure we're doing something right here! Mike B.