How come music almost always sounds better in movies than on the actual album?

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Seriously, do they do a bunch of extra treatment/eq/fx/expansion on tracks when they use them in major motion pictures? Because I swear about 50-70% of the music used in films sounds hella better over my speakers than it does when I play it off of CD or from my laptop.

I've wondered about this for approx. 4 years or so. I thought somebody else here might have some explanation, if not at least corroboration of my experience.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:31 (twenty-one years ago)

more than two speakers in the theater.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:34 (twenty-one years ago)

GET ONE THX.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Remixed too, probably

― kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Not more than two speakers in my house. THX in my house is why I ask this q, you... new yorker.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:36 (twenty-one years ago)

K THX BYE

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I must say I've never noticed this phenomenon. Can you give examples?

― Andrew (enneff), Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:49 (twenty-one years ago)

"Sweet Emotion" in the opening credits of Dazed & Confused is what I'm dealing with right now

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:51 (twenty-one years ago)

They'd most certainly be performing some EQ'ing on it, particularly on older tracks (D&C is a period film, IIRC) - they'd make the bass and low-mids phatter, which can sometimes make you go "oo-err that sounds nicer".

― Andrew (enneff), Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm sure that was remixed.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:53 (twenty-one years ago)

IIRC Donnie Darko has its share of these moments "oo-er" moments as well. I am mostly in agreement with Andrew, though it would appear some expensive denoising has been applied as well

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I've def. noticed something like this phenomenon, though I'm not sure it's the same as what tombot is talking about. That is, I'm not sure I can say the music I hear in movies sounds objectively better, but it has an impact and a resonance that's often greater than the music on the album. It's not just strictly sound engineering (I watch 95% of my movies on crappy old TV and VCR combo, so whatever remixing might have been done would I think be offset by the crapola setup), but also an issue of context. The way the songs are set up in the movie (within plot, pacing, atmosphere) highlights their genius. The element of surprise followed by recognition adds to it. Example? "Magic Man" in Virgin Suicides.

(multiple x-posts)

― Collardio Gelatinous (collardio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, I think it's context, even without recognition, although that may add greater resonance. My examples - the scenes from Un Coeur en Hiver in the drawing room (a practice session?) and in the studio. It's a challenge to our imaginations.

― youn, Thursday, 27 January 2005 04:20 (twenty-one years ago)

totally otm re: 'D&C'. but maybe yr experience of it comes off a poorly mastered CD and the original vinyl sounded as good as the soundtrack, which was beefed up in the edit?

― Miles Finch, Thursday, 27 January 2005 10:36 (twenty-one years ago)

The way to spot the difference is see if the same song sounds the same/better when the movie is played on your DVD player/home entertainment system. If you can watch the DVD and still get the "oomph" then it's down to the mastering process and the EQ and the THX and Dolby GIGANTOSOUND process, etc.

If you play the DVD at home, and it still sounds approximately as tinny as it sounds on your CD player, it's cause you don't have A DOZEN EIGHT FOOT TALL SPEAKER STACKS dotted about your house like a really good movie theatre does.

I mean, we saw Phanton of the Opera in the Odeon on Leiceister Square the other night, and I *know* what that sounds like at home, and it sounded FAN-F*CKING-TASTIC in the theatre.

― The Phantom of the Operating System (kate), Thursday, 27 January 2005 11:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, compare adverts on telly and at the movies. They always sound so much better at the movies, don't they?

(especially when accompanied by ten foot tall vibrating arses)

― The Phantom of the Operating System (kate), Thursday, 27 January 2005 11:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Denoising, EQing, bass-boosting (especially on old stuff), plus subconscious psychosematic sensory boosting from having images to go with sounds, thus heightening the sensory impact in a kinda enforced synaesthesia, perhaps?

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 27 January 2005 11:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I spent last week wanting to make movies that used this fact to create huge booming awesomescapes, with the characters speaking in subtitles so as not to get in the way. I think this might just be because I don't really get cinema though.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 11:11 (twenty-one years ago)

american graffitti's soundtrack sounds particularly fine, as Lucas's sound editor had the songs playing on car radios on set, and mimicked that effect, of music coming from the cars, distorted and louder or quiter depending on the car radios' relation to the camera, in the mix. 'i only have eyes for you' by the flamingoes sounds particular bewitching in the movie's context.

― stevie (stevie), Thursday, 27 January 2005 11:13 (twenty-one years ago)

yea but Tombot that is the greatest movie music moment of all time, and the adition of the '70 GTO Judge does no harm

― lukey (Lukey G), Thursday, 27 January 2005 11:16 (twenty-one years ago)

i always find that stuff sounds better when i'm not expecting to hear it (ie whilst out shopping) than when i've chosen to listen to something.

― koogs (koogs), Thursday, 27 January 2005 11:40 (twenty-one years ago)

koogs OTN.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 27 January 2005 11:43 (twenty-one years ago)

M, on the MONEY. Fuck's sake.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 27 January 2005 11:43 (twenty-one years ago)

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