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Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Why Are The Adverts So Loud?...


Whether you’re listening to the radio or watching TV, it seems like those ad breaks come bursting out of the speaker at double the normal volume. It’s annoying, and to make it worse, all the TV and radio stations deny that the ads are any louder than anything else. As if you can’t tell how loud things are by listening! In fact they are telling the truth, but it’s not the whole truth. To get to the bottom of it, we’ll have to explain a little bit of how programs and ads are made.

Let’s say we’re making a TV or radio program… like a sitcom or a talk-show or a nerdy story about technology. The sound of the program is mostly made up of talking. Sure, there might be some mood music, or even the occasional loud sound effect, but mostly it’s people talking. Sometimes it’s loud, sometimes it’s soft, and there are natural pauses between words and sentences. The overall effect is that it sounds like real life, allowing you to believe what you hear.

But an ad usually has a totally different focus. Most of the time they’re not trying to make a scene that sounds natural and believeable. They’re trying to get your attention. There are exceptions to this. Some ads are quiet to create a particular effect. But they’re not the ones we’re worried about, are they? So how do all of those loud ads get made?

Generally, the producers of an ad have 30 seconds to get in a lot of information, so the words don’t have those natural pauses between them… they’re all jammed in together. Then you add music, to give it some energy, and to fill in all those annoying noiseless gaps where the voice-over person takes a breath. Sometimes, the audio engineer will even “de-breath” the ad, deleting the sounds of breathing so more words can be fitted in. If necessary, the audio engineer also adds sound effects or more voices, before mixing them all together.

The final part of the process is called mastering - you may also hear it being called compression, limiting, or maximising. The audio engineer processes the ad to make it as loud as it can be for the whole 30 seconds… so there are no quiet parts, and every moment is filled with the most volume possible within the limits of a TV or radio signal. So programs are made to sound natural, with lots of quiet bits to balance out the loud bits. And ads are made to have a high impact, so they’re as loud as possible the WHOLE TIME.

But that's not all folks! Now here’s the tricky part.

A TV or radio signal can only carry so much sound. And generally, the loudest part of a program is the same volume as the loudest part of the ads around it. This is what the stations mean when they say that the ads aren’t louder than the programs – that the ad and the program have the same maximum volume. But because the ad is right up near the maximum volume the whole time, it has a much higher average volume, and human perception says it’s louder.

But what can you do about it? Unfortunately, not much. The commercial stations are paid for playing ads, and they’ll play any ad that fits their technical requirements for a good quality broadcast… even if it’s loud. And in any case, turning the whole ad break down is technically a nightmare. The people who make ads – advertising agencies and media outlets – don’t want to turn the volume down either. They’re competing for your attention after all. Can you think of a business that would like their ads to be quieter than the competition? They’ll always aim for the maximum loudness that’s technically possible.

So there’s no broad solution in the current commercial environment. But now at least you know why the ads feel so loud. And you can prepare yourself with the mute button, or just turn the damn thing off.

4 comments:

  1. I wish there was a button that said "jump to end of adverts" when you're playing back a recorded show. My old Panasonic DVD recorder used to have a "jump 5 minutes" button which was about right for Sky programming!

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  2. Anonymous11:43 am

    You do ads an injustice.... Just think how empty your life would be without the shake n' vac lady....... lol

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  3. Anonymous2:46 pm

    I can think of four things we can do:

    1) As Geoff says, get a hard drive recorder, which skips the ads.
    2) Use the mute button or turn the volume down.
    3) Leave the room for toilet/drink break.
    4) Use the breaks for channel-hopping. I find it surprisingly easy to follow two programmes at the same time using this method (or at least get the gist of the second one). I have also become quite good at guessing how long the ad break will be and switching back at EXACTLY the right time. It's a gift, I tell ya! :-)

    PS. There is one positive aspect to loud ads; they wake you up if you're dozing off!

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  4. Anonymous9:08 pm

    ITC have guidelines for adverts which are usually 1db louder than progrmmes to grab your attention. It is legal. Guy (BBC)

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