Yeah, having worked on ads you can be sure we check our levels to make the most of the audio’s range. It’s a technical issue not an intentional one. The people to be annoyed at are the content creators who don’t check their levels and have quiet audio so you get blasted when properly mixed audio in an ad kicks in.
Compression is a bit of it. The other bit is commercials usually mix in stereo and negate the 5.1. By not using the subwoofer, it gives an extra 10dB of immediately available headroom, before any compression or limiting occurs. 10dB is… you guessed it, more than double the amount of perceived loudness.
The solid rectangle block is the result of using a limiter. Basically a hard ceiling compressor, for simplicity.
It has to do with sound compression. It’s not so much that it’s louder, more that the average sound level is higher.
That said, fuck them.
Yeah, having worked on ads you can be sure we check our levels to make the most of the audio’s range. It’s a technical issue not an intentional one. The people to be annoyed at are the content creators who don’t check their levels and have quiet audio so you get blasted when properly mixed audio in an ad kicks in.
I don’t think that audio whose waveform overview looks like a rectangle is “properly mixed”. This is not at all how naturally occuring sounds look.
There’s also a huge difference between a single guy calmly explaining something vs. a person talking over background music.
I thought for TV at least they are regulated on average loudness, so they take advantage of that to make parts of the commercial super loud.
Compression is a bit of it. The other bit is commercials usually mix in stereo and negate the 5.1. By not using the subwoofer, it gives an extra 10dB of immediately available headroom, before any compression or limiting occurs. 10dB is… you guessed it, more than double the amount of perceived loudness.
The solid rectangle block is the result of using a limiter. Basically a hard ceiling compressor, for simplicity.
source: been there done that