Why are adverts so loud?
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- Опубликовано: 3 сен 2023
- This was so much more complex than I thought. ■ AD: 👨💻 NordVPN's best deal is here: nordvpn.com/tomscott - with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Graphics by William Marler wmad.co.uk
Written with Sean M Elliott / seanmelliott
Audio mix and script proofread by Graham Haerther and Manuel Simon at Standard Studios (who had to deal with the audio-nightmare that was the echoey green screen room I filmed in)
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There's still a lot of simplification here, so hopefully sound technicians and physicists will forgive me! ■ AD: 👨💻 NordVPN's best deal is here: nordvpn.com/tomscott - with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Gotta say I'm really going to miss your videos
Thanks for the LUFS
i thought you were against vpn sponsorships?
This is by far the most clever use of an advertising spot I've ever seen in a video. 😅
i guess not ?
He kind of was, but did say that there are benefits to a vpn and that most people are simply not telling the truth about the actual benefits or downsides or whatever.@@bronze81
Tom somehow convinced NordVPN to pay for the worst ad ever made on purpose.
Yes, and still we all watched it even though we usually skip that crap...
@@sandeex1 i have sponsorskip but i watched it because people were talking about how good it was. it was worth it.
And somehow it's also the best nordvpn ad in existence
While also having made a video previously about how VPN adverts are misleading and they don't do for you what they all claim lmao
From what I remember his main complaint in that video was "they advertise encrypted browsing, but everything is already encrypted nowadays, but if you want to spoof your location it works" which is what his ad said.
Tom Scott just trolled us all into watching a Nord VPN advert which 90% of us would probably skip through normally.
He's learning from his friend Jay Foreman
Trolled you maybe.
I really thought that Tom Scott was against vpn sponsorships!!
I've got the sponsorblock extension which skips sponsorships
@@Tpbraut he used to be then he started actually using a vpn not for security reasons but so he can use regional services wherever he wants
Not only did I learn why ads are annoyingly loud, I also learned why some movies have annoyingly silent dialogue which make me turn up the volume just to get a heart attack when the loud bangs follow.
Yes. Everything is upside down. Idiots (sound "engineers") are ruining music and movies. Music has too much compression while movie sound is too dynamic. It should be the opposite.
@@GrandePunto8V Who should the makers cater to? People with poor audio setups that have to turn their volume up for silent dialogue, or the people who have setups that don't have that issue and can get a richer experience for the higher dynamic range?
@@GrandePunto8Vbro just called himself 200 years old without saying anything.
If you want dynamic range go listen to classical music. Compression, clipping and limiting are literally key to a clean mix on any music genre
@@TunaIRL I also struggle to hear dialog in movie theaters with high-end audio equipment. Though on my part I know that I have sensory issues that might exacerbate the issue, I have heard many people complain about the same thing in certain films. Even with our (not cheap) sound bar at home, nearly every film is difficult for me.
@@elliotagnew9960 So do you believe the people making the movies don't know how to master audio to neither home setups nor movie theaters?
The funniest thing is Tom immediatly calming down angry sound-engineers because he knows how fast they get angry
and how LOUD they get 😂
@@HassanSelim0too many LUFS
They do it at the speed of sound, you can't prepare for that
I've always hated that the advertisements are always 20-40% louder than the show or music playing. Especially on the radio.
The countdown to premieres and livestreams on YT also have the same issue. They're usually way louder than the stream itself.
All it does is make me immediately mute it/turn it off. No clue why they think it works
happens on youtube as well.
@@ThatOpalGuyYeah, imagine trying to relax with the lofi song playlist, and suddenly the ad comes with uncomfortable full blast volume
@@bbbbbbb51because it does. You turn down the volume. For every you there's 100 people who don't bother doing that and just endure it
As an audio engineer, I hate everything about this video because it’s so true and sums the pain of mixing and mastering up very well
summing joke
you're the bastard that keeps making the dialogue unintelligible on my blurays
But you work magic when doing so! Love audio engineers
@@freezedriedicecream the problem is that blurays don't have stereo mixes anymore, they expect you to have a surround sound system with a dedicated center speaker, which no one has
I don't know how it is in other languages, but in German dubs the dialogues are usually easier to understand, because they leave much more space for the talking.
Eating the microphone has got to be the funniest thing Tom has ever done. A little reward for staying to the end of the video 🤣
AAAWWWWH
Tell us something your mum doesn't know
@@thetree1994 what
It’s a RUclips video where the dude eats the mic
It's so unhinged and out of character, I love it haha :D
My poor laptop speakers could not render the low tone in the comparison, so the experience was:
"if you want this tone: " *silence* "to sound as loud as this tone" *beep*" 😅
Thankfully I had another audio output available... Which I rarely use because it makes everyone's voices seem four tones lower than I'm used to
Ah, that's what was happening. I wondered why I couldn't hear anything.
Omg I thought I lost hearing 😭
It´s the sample rate of your audio output. You gotta fix it. Just go to audio settings> sound control panel> and you´ll be able to find your way to set both of the outputs of you device to the same sample rate. I´ve had this issue when mixing because i´ve got a higher sample rate for the DAW than for the computer. It´s ez, hope you find this helpful.
@@isaacavendanob4492can't do that on a phone though - I had the same issue on my Pixel 7.
My phone's speaker isn't playing it either.
A little over a decade ago in Canada there was a major controversy over the fact that cable and broadcast advertisements where significantly louder then the programs they where playing, people where constantly having to mute the ads the moment they came on because of the difference and the government very quickly got regulation passed to equalise volumes because everyone hated it.
I wish auto muting yt ads was a thing, I really love watching something late at night and then an add for a stupid mobile game screams at me
Edit: I’m on mobile so no Adblock for me :(
@@Iden_in_the_Rain You can "Enhance" the youtube experience by installing apropriately named plugin into your browser ;)
*were not where
@@Iden_in_the_Rain sposorBlock for desktop, re-vanced for mobile, ez
I remember a year or so ago on Gem, CBC's streaming service, there were these tourism ads that weren't just annoyingly loud, they were uncomfortably so, bordering on painful. I ended up complaining, and noticed very shortly after that the volume had apparently been adjusted.
My pet peeve:
I'm watching TV, straining to hear the dramatic dialogue as the hero reluctantly half-whispers their dark secret. Enthralled, I turn the volume up to hear it clearer.
And then a character shoots a gun, and all the windows in my house shatter from the volume.
Im starting to suspect that hollywood has it in with the hearing aid industry lmfao
I'm more bothered by the number of movies in which the dialogue is drowned by the music, sound effects, or even ambient. Come on, Hollywood, it's not that hard to figure out that even if the characters are somewhere noisy, or the music is supposed to be dramatic, we still want to know what's going on!
Captions are your friend, even if you're not auditorily impaired.
As another commentor pointed out, AVLS (automatic volume limiting systems) are a common selling point with TVs
Saw a video about this on RUclips some while ago, just as Tom pointed out, to make your explosions stand out, they have turned down the dialogue volume.
Which has resulted in more and more people like in this thread using subtitles even though their hearing is OK.
Here's where i get to actually contribute something! I work in a technical role at a television station where one of my jobs is to segment advertisements and get them on the air. One thing that is incredibly common in ads is that the raw file of each ad is incredibly loud. I'm talking ear-splittingly loud. Unsafe to air kind of loud. So, our process involves an algorithmic "loudness reducer" which scans the video file and turns down the LUFS on the ad before letting us segment the ads and get them on air.
So, as loud as ads are on television, just know that they are WAY WORSE before they get to your ears.
HAVE SALES INCREASED?
SIR?
HAVE OUR SALES INCREASED YET?!
THE NUMBERS INDI--
WHAT?!
THE NUMBERS INDICATE THAT
SPEAK UP, SVEN!!
NO WE HAVE NOT INCREASED SALES YET, SIR!!
THEN WE ARE TOO QUIET!!! PREPARE THE CANNON!!
WHAT?
THE CANNON!!! GET THE CANNON!!!
SHANNON'S NOT IN THE OFFICE BEFORE MONDAY, SIR!!!
WHAT?!
Why? Wouldnt the producers of the ad just normalize the sound before sending the audio file because I assume you could just turn it up if its too low for tv.
@@lifedocumented3944 So, I'm not gonna wade too far outside my area, but, from my understanding, advertisers generally like their ads to be attention grabbing and "punchy", so they will typically make the video louder than average (like what Tom mentioned in the video). When we get the files, there are usually a bunch of moments in the spot that peak and clip the audio, hence the loudness reducer. It doesn't bring the audio completely in line with the show, but it does stop the peaking and keeps the audio from actively hurting people
@@lifedocumented3944because the advertisers are the station's real customers, and customers will only respond to requirements by making things somehow even worse or just leaving. At least I'd imagine that's how the suits see it.
@@lifedocumented3944it’s part of something called the loudness war. It’s been going on in music since the 1940’s and gained popularity in the 1990’s due to the increased dynamic range (or fidelity) of CD’s. Several articles in Sound on Sound and many RUclips videos if you’re interested.
You may have noticed radio adverts often use a lot of reverb. It's because you can add reverb to certain frequencies to create the impression of loudness without it actually being so.
In a similar fashion to people using echo chambers on CB radio back in the day.
Which frequencies?
@@KartikChughall
@Shoomer1988 which frequencies?
@@KartikChugh The midrange. Adding to the bass just makes it sound woolly and the treble makes it sound harsh and nasty.
Small note: The 100hz example at 4:48 can't be heard on a lot of laptops and phones.
I thought I was going insane.
Or my cheap desktop speakers.
Thank you for the information.
Had to put on my headset for this part, my laptop speakers didn't play it
bump
“Just blame mathematicians” is a motto I like to live by
I blame reality, which consistently and very strongly resists being easily classified (and often succeeds). Mathematicians are a symptom of that, not the cause.
We don‘t even use units anywhere -.-
If someone is innocent that would be mathematicians 😅
We're just over here playing with our greek letters. Why are we catching strays? Mathematicians didn't define decibels, engineers did.
Hey!
Mathematicians don't even care about reality, how can we be a symptom of reality being hard to describe? That's the scientists and engineers “borrowing” our toys (and breaking them, boohoo).
Acoustic engineer here - superb video! To reassure the audio engineers out there, I can confirm that dealing with “loudness” in projects as an acoustician is also a headache!
what's the difference between an audio and acoustic engineer?
@@ailurophile47 Hi! As acoustic engineers, we primarily deal with the behaviour of sound in real spaces, as opposed to the digital reproduction of sound and setup of speakers/mics/equipment. This means we spend a lot of time designing spaces to enhance/control the sound in the room (reverberation, diffusion, frequency response etc) by looking at materials and geometry. We also look at sound insulation (i.e. making sure the separating partition between spaces is suitable so as to not cause noise nuisance/privacy issues!). I suppose you can think of it as closer to architecture than that of our audio cousins!
@@caneofsomaria that makes a lot of sense, thanks for the answer!
When I did my music production course, the teacher said adverts sounded louder because they were more compressed. The shows having a higher dynamic range making it feel quieter.
I didn't expect to receive an actual answer to the question "If a tree falls when nobody's around, does it make a sound?" off the bat. Enlightening, thank you Tom!
Answering philosophical questions thousands of years old in a side tangent while explaining why TV ads are so loud is definitely a vibe.
I still think the physicist should have said: Don't know what happens, all our theories describe is how things behave when (eventually) observed.
@@MrRedstoner Indeed, a theoretical physicist could say that the tree is in both an upright state and a fallen state until its state is observed. You could call it Schrödinger's Tree! 😁
@@Milesco Not even that, all we know is that when we eventually observe the tree it will look fallen but what it was doing while unobserved is technically unknown, we just observe that the state it is when we arrive is consistent with it behaving as if it was observed during the fall
He didn't, answer it just gave a more sciency way of defining the question. Is sound how we interpret the pressure waves, or the pressure waves themselves
That was by far one of the most entertaining adverts I've seen on this site out of how purely chaotic it was. Eating the microphone was the cherry on top.
Watched the whole thing for once hope he didn't start a trend
A trend of making videos about how adverts are constructed, with sponsored segments that illustrate those techniques? I wouldn't hate it...
This Video Is Sponsored By ███ VPN!!
Internet Historian, "architecture." 11:12 - 13:00.
You're welcome -- he has a lot of titillating ads.
The microphone was the cherry
Man how I’ve missed these more informational videos from Tom, we’ve been getting amazing places and such for too long, just let Tom have room to make jokes.
I have a sensory processing disorder, which makes a lot more sense when I’m reminded that our senses are in our heads. This sound hasn’t changed, only my perception has, making it louder to me personally.
Similar to advertisements, there's also a history of the "loudness wars" for music, where tracks are also mixed to be as "loud" as possible to draw more attention to themselves, relative to other tracks (particularly on the radio or in public spaces). Everyone trying to compete with each other then results in a standard of highly compressed music with very little dynamic range.
That's how I learnt to loathe remastered albums.
My dad absolutely hates "Remastered" albums. He just calls them "loudened" because they turn everything up and you lose all the detail.
bloody Rick Rubin
I've heard it described as, "all knobs to the right".
@@ArturdeSousaRocha I think we've gone past this though. Listen to the newest remasters of The Beatles and Rolling Stones albums and tell me they don't sound crystal clear
The irony of this video being recorded in an untreated sound studio is not lost on me
That's what is drawing my attention.
Don't worry, he took it out to dinner afterwards.
Found the sound engineer.
@@Woffenhorsthe's so nice
I really thought it was part of a bit or something, thought there would be some sort of pay off...but no...
I work in a noisy environment and some podcasts are so quiet I can't listen to them...but I can hear the ads just fine. Thank you for this clear explanation.
Fascinating that there's a technical reason. I always assumed a more pragmatic / cynical reason: advertisers know that a lot of viewers are going to leave the room during the ad breaks, and they turn up the volume so you still hear the ads.
I honestly don't mind Tom just talking about something instead of going somewhere cool.
He has really great research and information to share all the same.
Tom's original and older style of videos was mainly him talking and explaining stuff instead of going places.
now it's the opposite.
Is it just me or does this feel like a really old school Tom Scott video? I love it!
Reminds me of all the green screen vids from 2020.
I was thinking the same thing
Definitely does.
It’s the green screen.
Even thought it was an old video from the past if I didn't check the uploaded time.
What I learned from YMS editing streams is that microphone peaking "feels" incredibly loud, even if actual dB values are low.
Form Dan Worrall "I won the loudness war" video I can see that this effect is actually accounted for by LUFS as what he created in the end to achieve his goal was a 1-bit track, similar effect as when microphone is peaking.
Another example of such 1-bit "track" is Pikachu's cry in Pokemon yellow as explained by Retro Game Mechanics Explained. It feels incredibly loud because of it.
One really annoying thing about youtube and loudness for me to point out: it WILL arbitrarily decrease the volume if it detects it's too loud, often even too much, resulting in videos that I just can't watch on a phone through headphones in a loud environment (for example when on a train) because it's too quiet. But it will never to the opposite. If the video is quiet, it will stay quiet.
I ran into way too many music videos where I can see youtube decreasing the volume by a few dB seemingly arbitrarily, making it definitely quieter than other music. And there is no way to turn that feature off.
Gotta love how this video falls 2 seconds short of the mid roll ad requirement. Mad respect.
I'll take your word for it.
r/madlads worthy
Nonetheless, a massive 1m14s at the end was advert.
@@rosiefay7283Yeah but you don't NEED to watch that to see the video
@@MuffinSeekeryeah.. but I did watch it because he did that advert so well and seamlessly wove it into his message. It was artful. *chef’s kiss 😘
Tom is the only creator-that I’m aware of-who tells people in the ad read to check the streaming services’ terms and conditions before using a VPN to spoof their location
wanna give a quick explanation about what’s in the terms that would cause a person to think twice about spoofing?
Many sites, like Netflix, have banned spoofing, and if you somehow (its not likely but a disclaimer is a disclaimer) get caught, your account could be locked or deleted since you broke the ToS
@@davidswanson5669 I think some streaming services don't want you to use a VPN....
@@davidswanson5669 from Hulu’s user agreement “bypass, modify, defeat, tamper with or circumvent any of the functions or protections of the Services, including using any technology or technique to obscure or disguise your location when you are accessing the Services;” I believe it’s to protect them from any legal trouble with digital rights and such.
@@davidswanson5669Something like: 'any attempt at providing an incorrect location of the user will result in immediate and permanent suspension of the user's account, as well as the prevention of any future accounts belonging to the same user or using the same payment identifier'?
I really noticed this particularly in the new Star Wars Ashoka series - you have to turn the TV volume up quite a lot to hear the speech, and then you really feel it when something is supposed to be loud! It works really, really well.
Brilliant way to hook me into watching a full adread because I was so fascinated by the fact that the "louder" bits being technically quieter.
The most amazing thing about this video is how Tom fit an entire semester’s worth of audio engineering fundamentals into 8 minutes
Arguably in a very simplified way as he said.
While making it an advert for some VPN service
…and an entire microphone into his mouth for good measure
We do very much use dB SPL tho? Tom implies as if we use dB SIL more? 🤔
He get a lot of it very wrong though. A bit beyond what an be excused as simplification.
I remember when I was a kid I had a friend that didn't get the tree falling in the woods thing. Of course it makes a sound, he'd say. So I tried to explain the conundrum, that sound was an experience and so if nothing experiences the sound and picks up the sound waves then is there really a sound? To which he answered "just because no-one has experienced my dingeling yet doesn't mean I don't have one".
He was quite the philosopher.
Your friend has a point there about his dingaling.
Neat if true
I mean, we should be able to agree that a "pressure wave" was caused by the tree regardless of observer. All that is left is to quibble what exactly that wave can be called.
If you have two observers with different hearing ranges you get situations where one hears a sound from the "pressure wave" and the other does not. This means that a "perfect" observer will 100% hear a sound and the problem is imperfect observers.
Removing any and all observers merely makes the whole thing fundamentally one question: is there an external objective reality (even if people can only ever imperfectly perceive it?). If there is, then just because you have been born 100% deaf and literally can not be an observer to Sound, you can still accept that sound may may well be happening around you despite not perceiving it, as your perception of reality is not prefect. Alternatively you can argue that labelling something as "sound" semantically and by definition requires by set or inclusion it's perception through hearing, and therefore if there was nobody capable of listening during the sound then the "pressure waves" do not qualify as sound. I accept it is logically consistent from both angles. The starting point simply starts with a different definition of what sound is; does it become "something of a different nature once translated by your senses?" or "something out in the world which may or may not be heard by someone". In my own opinion its just splitting hairs over the semantics of a manmade and artificial distinction, where on a highly technical level the psychologists are right but only because humans have created a meaningless conceptual distinction (and therefore, in and of itself, has no value from a real world perspective. humanity could have just as easily not created the distinction and we wouldn't be having this conversation).
@@rowanmales3430 So if nobody listens, then it's not a sound.
So, if it's recorded and registrer by measuring devices, but no-one is there listening, it's still not a sound?
Because that would be implicit in what you're saying. Only if someone listens, not if something listens.
And thus all sound recording devices in the world suddenly does not record sound unless a human was there to hear that sound? That would be the consequences of your argument, if that's how you're saying we have to define the term sound.
No, listen, this discussion is only a discussion in semantics and nothing else. It's a discussion of how you define the term sound.
No words have finite unchangable definition which are used universially by all who uses that word, that's not how language works. Words will mean different thing to the different people using the word, and particularly so in this case.
So it ends up just being a case of futile semantics. It's a pointless discussion, it serves no purpose. We learn nothing, other than how one world can mean different things to different people using that word.
@@Nabium Many different things: Second sound is an unusual type of propagating wave mode, which can occur in superfluids, involving fluctuations in the local temperature and entropy of a medium rather than in the local density and pressure as found in a conventional sound wave.
If anyone's interested, the 20x increase vs 10x comes from a square (log(x^2)=2*log(x)), so it usually depends how the thing you're measuring behaves physically.
Never seen a video like this which explains loudness from sound wave to LUFS in such a clear manner. Another great job Tom!
Streaming services are kind of awful about this, too. Especially if you're watching older shows where the audio quality isn't *bad*, but clearly designed to a much more reasonable audio standard, and then the advertisements come in so loud it's practically a jumpscare.
When I'm working out with my Spotify playlist, whenever an advert comes on I run towards my laptop to lower the volume because it's so damn loud. When I'm streaming shows on my TV, my hand is constantly on the remote upping and lowering the volume because characters would be whispering and suddenly there's an explosion.
Dare I say it, but, I've been using an app - 'Movie HD' to watch a crap tonne of movies and TV series, now, as the films and Series volume is SO quiet, I have to set the volume up to max, and when each film/episode ends, an add is played at a HUGE volume increase, it's like tryikng to blow my amp & speakers! so, I have to quickly hit the 'Mute' button 'Just in time'... 😒
😎🇬🇧
Huh? Why do you have ads when you use streaming services?
@@moos5221Streaming services with ads exists. Usually they come with cheaper subscription plans. Heck, RUclips is a streaming service with ads, and "free" is practically cheap.
@@moos5221because they want to make money
Only Tom Scott could absolutely nuke my ears whilst educating me at the same time and making it enjoyable
All that while trying to sell you something
and while simply whispering
In addition, I would like to emphasize that LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) serves as a relative measurement unit for volume and does not represent the absolute volume level. While it provides a close approximation, it's important to acknowledge that transient elements continue to hold considerable significance in shaping our perception of loudness. These transient elements, such as sudden peaks and dynamic changes in audio, contribute significantly to the overall perceived loudness, even when LUFS measurements suggest otherwise. Therefore, when evaluating audio quality and loudness, it's crucial to consider both LUFS values and the impact of transient characteristics to get a comprehensive understanding of the sound experience.
I think this is genuinely one of the best videos you've ever made. Great description of a very complex topic, and brilliant ending!
There's one important detail you didn't mention: there is a whole art practiced by advertisers, to master the sound in such a way that the scientific LUFS meters _constantly_ hit the legal limit, to still feel louder than the regular programming, which is usually mixed with more headroom to preserve proper dynamics. Ads don't need the contrast between quiet dialogue and loud explosions, so they will still _feel_ noticeably louder even if the legal guidelines are followed to the letter.
Why though? It just makes the ads incredibly annoying.
Hmm. I mix adverts with dynamic range, it's important for maintaining interest. When there's no dynamic range it's not impactful and fatiguing. It's possible to go over -23 LUFS momentarily as the measurement is taken over the whole piece. As long as the specified peak limit in dBTP is not exceeded.
This goes for music too - overly compressed music is not emotive, it's boring and fatiguing.
Good mix engineers working on adverts understand that selling means emotional connection, and that means manipulating dynamic range, not squashing the hell out of the audio just to try and make it as loud as possible.
@@soundguyldn I guess it depends on the style as well. If you're doing some "artsy" type commercials that get awards in addition to just being ads, then sure. But there are still plenty of ads that just shout out the selling points.
Although even in the more emotional ads I notice that the voiceover tends to have this "breathy", saturated quality, kind of like what Tom did in his "whisper" ad segment. It still feels like relatively quiet speech, but sure "pops" through the speakers and feels louder than, say, newscaster speech.
He literally said that in the video. That was the entire point of the bit about the explosions.
@@ZealotOfStealProbably worth it at the end of the day to startle a minority of people into paying attention.
I'm a Hearing Aid Audiologist and this video will definitely be shared amongst my clients and colleagues! Nice one Tom
I gonna show it to my relatives because they don't understand what's going on in my hearing aids at all or why I can understand them just a room over, even when they talk loudly.
I have never found myself paying SO MUCH ATTENTION to an advert. Not sure if science educational video or if Tom has cracked the code of advertising engagement
Once you played the two ads side by side I could tell the whisper was louder but you're right, the background noise plus the knowledge my brain has that you are shouting makes me think its louder, or at least harsher
I'm convinced the average advertiser would hold people hostage and torture them until they purchased the product, and then hold their family hostage until they purchased the product again, if advertisers could get away with it. The only thing stopping them from following through with their fantasy is the consequence of the law, which you'd hope continues to be enforced but who knows what lobbyists will secure from politicians in the future.
"come see the dungeon! yes, its all the way down the stairs until you hit water"
Giorgio Agamben wants to know your location
I am a broadcast sound engineer/technician with over a decade of experience. This video is 100% factually correct. In fact, I know other sound engineers that should see this to educate themselves. ❤
Editor here. I wish this video was there when I started out. Tom condensed all the info I gathered throughout the years into a single 7 minute video. Amazing!
Sometimes, in a single recording, the volume goes up and down as they change location. Or different people speak at different volumes. Or they just drift away from the mic. It's a pain to have to adjust the volume constant.
Wouldn't it be great if there was a program that can just listen to the recording, check the LUFs, and turn the volume knob up and down as necessary?
Well, THERE IS. And it's a very old program, back from the days when your grandparents were using the Internet 😁, but it is almost magical. It evens out the entire recording completely automatically. It was made by Bruce/Malcolm Sharpe, Norman Lorrain and Doug Kaye. Originally used internally by GigaVox Media and the Conversations Network, it is today freeware. Both organizations are today defunct, but the program can still be found on the Internet.
what is it called
@@danielch6662
@@danielch6662 its levelator thank you
@@danielch6662waves vocal rider is a modern, vst based solution
As an artist and producer, this video was extremely helpful in understanding how and why loudness is perceived, great work as always Tom!
Thankyou Tom! You packed my 2 years audio engineering degree into 7:58 min 😀 the only part you left out is psychoacoustics which can have even more influence in perceived loudness but can't be mesured by computers... its why some digital clean dry music can sound somehow louder if you add noise to it or likewise speach appears loud if you scream and have background noise despite the digital mesured signal is quieter.. this is why most ads contain background music and noises depending on the picture.
I think another thing that made the "louder" advert loud, was that the location had more constant noise. In the whispering, I could easily hear the peaks and valleys of your speach. But in the traffic and music shouting one, there was sorta flat line of noise coming across. Like painful static
Painful static is the perfect way to describe the effects of working retail during the November-December holiday season.
Yes I was thinking along those lines, the 'louder' advert didn't come across to me as louder per se but just noisier because there was a lot going on. Sort of like the difference between folding a piece of paper or crumpling it in those ASMR videos which put my teeth on edge.
also more higher frequencies
Had that same thought! I'd have loved to see a graph of decibels over time for each ad in the video.
The advert has also a lot of induced distortion. Which will sound bad/loud to your ear, even if the level is lower...
And it's the same reason that a high end audio system can play calmer and cleaner to your ear than a bluetooth boombox that will go into distortion quite fast and won't be pleasant to your ear, even though it don't play as loud.
Absolutely genius advertisement integration.
When the advert is 20% of the value of the whole video - as you said: genius
I wonder if he could've also slipped in the fact that with the vpn the user can also receive EU compliant ads with regulated levels...
This is like an expanded version of a segment from a video that Benn Jordan did about a year ago, called "How Loud Can Sound Physically Get?" I'd still love to understand what was the physical difference between the whispered sound and the blown-out peaky sounding one that was technically quieter.
The is the most well written, well spoken, well thought-out, and thorough video I have ever watched on RUclips. Well done Tom and writing team!
I used to have a tv with a setting that kept the sound the same so commercials wouldn’t give you a heart attack. It worked great. I just assumed it was a new feature on all TVs. When my TV eventually died, I didn’t think about that feature. I was pissed to find out new TV didn’t have it and couldn’t find a tv with the feature. Although I didn’t look really hard since I rarely watch live tv now.
This feature is called "Dynamic Volume" and it is a common feature on most audio receivers designed for surround sound setups. I suspect a lot of sound bars have it too.
Some devices call it 'night mode' or other things. It's effectively a compressor that makes quiet and loud parts of a program near the same loudness so you can just control the average loudness from the volume knob.
If you are in europe, as Tom mentioned but didn't explain, it is standardised at -23 LUFS programme integrated. At home I don't even touch the volume control anymore, except for maybe a quiet evening setting to not wake up the kids. The old problem of insane volumes in advertising is gone for years, so the title of this video are a bit misleading.
@@hepphepps8356eeeeh honestly I live in france and even with these regulations we still feel the ads louder than the programs, im kind of an anti-ad extremist cuz I profoundly hate that so maybe i’m not as objective as someone else could be but there is always some trickery possible to turn over those type of rules
@@dayga5568 maybe it depends also on the sharp contrast in the background noise: when you watch a movie, there is music, people talking, other backgrounds and everything is mashed together. When the commercial starts, you have a sudden interruption of background noise and it's only the narrator talking to the mic.
I am not a sound engineer, but that's the only thing I can think of.
I have experienced the same in the Netherlands countless times.
In Italy I think it's much more mitigated...maybe because they usually put some in-between animations between the movie and commercials that help to not have a shock.
I hope that when Tom takes his break (and hopefully/likely returns) he doesn't stop this kind of video too. They are simple and informative
I'm hoping that, even if he doesn't continue to travel to different places or release 2-5 videos a week, he'll still put out the occasional video on something interesting that he's either thought of or experienced or anything at all really, even just a couple videos or even just one video a month would be ideal.
that's probably the most brilliant ad placement I've seen in a youtube video!
can't believe Nord actually agreed to do a sponsor spot like this
Why not? It's actually more likely that people will listen to the whole thing (or larger part) to hear the volume differences, rather than simply skip it.
They should have paid double (or perhaps they did?)
i just find it funny that he accepted it
@@BingiBingurt Why wouldn't he accept it?
It was one of the few times I didn't skip it, because for the duration of the video I wanted to go back and compare the two recordings.
i can't even count the amount of times i put on a video to fall asleep to and end up waking up because of an ad, it's especially awful when the video is MEANT for sleeping since I listen to sleep meditations quite often
Yes! And that damn one that goes something like "WATCHING RUclips IN BED AT 3AM ARE WE?" is so jarring
I'm so glad I can block ads with an app. I still get the ads that are within the video, made by the creators, but I'm okay with those because they blend right in without volume change.
Mathematician here. Why are we getting the blame for the competing standards at 3:36? We're not involved.
You are too blame for everything
That was one of the best editing jobs I have ever seen. Awesome job
This is a question I've genuinely asked myself so many times over the years!
If ever there was someone that was going to answer it, it was going to be Tom.
I've always assumed ads were purposely louder because they figured you'd leave the room to make a cup of tea and they want you to hear it from the next room
It's the same reason why pop music is louder than classical music, I guess. It doesn't need as much dynamic range.
This is the most British assumption ever, I love it
It's funny you say that because I remember when I used to actually have a TV and watch it that sudden silence was usually the indication that the commercials were over and I had to run back to the TV since the commercials were loud enough to hear them from farther away but not the show.
Why would anyone ever WANT to hear, see, or even THINK about an ad?
I'm taking an audio basics course in college, a lot of material covered in this video is actually relevant to stuff I'm going in to with this semester. The breakdown is definitely making it a lot easier to visualize and understand how sound works than the wall-of-text readings I normally use.
Best of luck with your courses!
@@brownbenplumm9027 Many thanks for the well wishes!
Schools really need to adapt to multimedia presentations instead of making someone read 20 paragraphs. I hated physics and history in school but today I watch videos about those topics almost everyday. It's really about the presentation. "Edutainment" is so helpful in stirring the interest of people in science and history.
Audio Engineers also add compression to songs to sound louder on the radio. Songs have been getting "louder" for decades.
shoutout to the guy who did the sponsorblock segments on here, thats a cool way of managing that
Quality NordVPN ad placement. I don't think that segment would have been complete without you "eating" the mic. Thank you for that.
As an engineer who worked over 9 years with audio measurement equipment i found your explanation of what sound is excellent. A really good explanation for explaining it to everyone without getting too much into the technical nitty gritty of it
i don't really know what did it for me, but I feel this is one of the best videos you ever made. great job
Well done, Tom! Clearly explained & smartly presented. The sponsor plug at the end tied it up perfectly.
A Tom Scott video featuring green screen graphics while explaining a technology thing? Folks, he's playing from the greatest hits now. The swan song is near.
Dawn of the final quarter. 16 weeks remaining.
His swan song? A new ballad of Mad captain Tom?
The style of this video made me check the upload date to see if it was an old one.
I laughed, then I cried
I’m still waiting on that video idea Gary teased when he used that foghorn.
I love when a creator put as much effort into the ads as they do the video. Ads are much more palatable when they are entertaining
Ryan George and Jay Foreman are good examples of that.
squashy boy!
And short
You will love Jay Foreman's ads then.
thats one of the few ads i actually sat through good job
1:34 The pretend newspapers were hilarious! Also you coming in as the Linguist explaining that they're both correct because they're meaning different things by the same word.
I love the fact that they decided to make the video two seconds shorter than the mid-roll ad threshold.
Edit: Has the production team been playing Phasmophobia?
Also: In the US, this is so problematic that televisions with AVLS (automatic volume limiting system) are a common selling point.
Hmm, why the question about phasmophobia?
Ah, the Orphan Crushing Machine system.
@@mcawesome9705 The corkboard scene is extremely similar to the one seen in game.
the mid-roll ad threshold doesn't matter if they don't enable the mid-roll ads anyway
@@RycoonGalloy RUclips will still shove mid-roll ads into a video. When you don't tick the monetization box, it just means you don't get a cut from those ads.
Now if someone could teach that to all the sound engineers in Hollywood maybe they could learn to mix a music track into a movie at the correct volume.
We're talking about you Mr Nolan.
Okay, this is really amazing! Thank you so much!
gotta be the best sponsorship advert I've ever seen
Tom strikes again.
I see Tom has forgotten how time intensive videos with motion graphics are again
Who did he kill?
Fascinating! I ❤ that you've finally made decibels actually make sense to me. Thank you, Tom! 😘
This is super interesting, especially with the struggles between ASMR and ads going on right now, thanks Tom!
7:37 Tell us something your mum doesn't know!
Beat me to it 🤣🤣🤣
Mom*
Best advert off all time. You literally deserve an award for how clever this is from start to finish.
I usually skip them but every time it cut back to the noise and metal it cracked me up so much
@@ellicerslavicThank god you heard it too. I watched on phone so the speakers aren't great and I was not sure whether I was hallucinating cuz I listen to too much music of that kind xd
@@ellicerslavic It just made me flinch, but I'm glad someone enjoyed it.
That's the most intuitive explanation of the decibel scale I've ever... Heard. No seriously i had seen the maths before but never really got it at an instinctive level. Starting with the pascals expressed in relatable values was brilliant and made all the difference. Outstanding!
Thank you for bringing this up.
Audio clarity and balance is so much more important than actual loudness. Thanks Tom for making that clear :)
Now if the audio... person at the live concert would think about this. Instead there's a bunch of people with hearing protection.
The funniest part of this whole video is where you explain that RUclips will just turn the volume down to prevent startling jumps in loudness, except it's completely broken right now, drastically reducing volume on some videos, forcing me to turn the volume up, then the next is supremely loud and I have to turn the volume down rapidly...
I know there's an issue where, for whatever reason, many live streams are super quiet relative to regular videos. This is at least partially on the streamer's end, given that the degree varies from streamer to streamer, but the pattern is consistent: videos are noticeably louder than streams.
Oh is that what's going on... I keep having to turn it way the hell up and then my screen-reader is shouting at me.
ok, so i'm not the only one getting that! i've literally had to install an extension that boosts sound to 300% volume just to be able to hear some videos at all, and i was worried my headphones were dying or something.
I'm a sound engineer and this hits home! in the music industry there has been a "loudness war" for decades. Everyone wants their tracks to be louder than everyone because subconsciously we end up thinking that louder is better. However, this is at the detriment of dynamics. Dynamics are what make a song feel impactful, having very quiet bits, and having loud parts. A tool called Compression is used to do this. It's good to use some to equal out volumes, as it helps blend all the musical parts together, but a lot of the time too much is used in order to make a track much louder. LUFS has helped put a stop to it, as now everything gets evened out on streaming services. Thank you for making this video Tom! Wishing you all the best
Did anyone else notice all the Easter eggs at 1:43? All the physics headlines were great. I only got the Psychologist headline about Pavlov being banned from veterinarian school.
Respect to Tom for waiting in the forest until a tree fell and standing right in front of it for this shot
And then using his reality-freezing abilities at exactly the right time to pause it.
As a kid who had a parent that worked nights/slept through the day, I remember the pain of trying to predict the loud bits of TV and turn it down really really fast
As a mastering engineer I want to thank you for informing people about what we actually do!
You are ruining the music (too much compression, no dynamic range) and movies (too much dynamics, dialogues are too quiet and other things like explosions too loud). Everything is upside down.
@@GrandePunto8V I'm ruining it?? Jeez dude! and movies too? I'm friggin sorry!!
7:03 I never expected to hear heavy metal on a Tom Scott video.
This is amaaaaaazing! Probably about 5-6 years ago I sent in a report to hulu about their adverts being way too loud, specially from a specific advert. I received a response back that they were unaware and appreciated the response and would look into it. Cool to understand why that probably happened now. When you mentioned the issue with adverts, my issue felt justified and I wasn’t crazy!
Love all the technical and scientific stuff! For anyone in a rush though, the short version of the actual answer is at 6:04 :)
As a student who started studying audio engineering at music college 2 years ago, I must admit that this video sums up all the things that I still find hard to understand. Although it's also true that the more I watch and learn, the more I understand.
I love how a youtuber who has made loads of videos about languages and linguistics said "blame the mathematicians"
how is it possible that you make so many videos and so many are seemingly about such a dull subject but you manage to make every single one of them a joy to watch. absolute magic.
A video on volume vs loudness for non-audio people - will certainly be sharing this everywhere
Ngl that was probably the oddest sponsorship read I've seen so far. Great job as always, Tom.
As an audio engineer I love the info in this video and the absolute chaos in advert. Well done!
That's Genius, it just educates with examples! Hopefully those who take decisions around ads volumes WILL TAKE NOTICE of how annoying it is!
"Schrödinger/Pavlov banned from veterinary school" are the best headlines.