The goal is to ensure that sudden loud noises don't become overwhelming and quieter parts sound reasonably the same.
My reason for doing this is because it's so hard to watch movies these days because of the inconsistent volume levels (2x harder at night).
Any suggestions or recommendations on specific products or solutions would be greatly appreciated! Any DIY suggestions are also welcome too.
Lots of pro audio boxes out there.
A MiniDSP box where you can implement a compressor is fun, you can also tune just about everything else with it.
https://docs.minidsp.com/product-manuals/flex/dsp-reference/...
* Alesis 3630
* DBX 166 or 266
* FMR Audio Really Nice Compressor
Explore the various demos on YouTube to see what these are about. The compressor goes between your audio source and your amplifier. I personally use the Alesis 3630 for normalizing the audio in my ham radio transceiver setup.
You can have four different presets for different signal processing. The important part is that you can set them up how YOU want. Proprietary black box DSP parameters labeled as “night mode” or “movie mode” are hardly descriptive enough for my taste.
It is also worth mentioning that if you decide to get a Dirac model/license, it is locked to the device instead of the purchaser. This is big deal for resale value, as many receivers lock licenses to the purchaser (and aren’t readily transferrable to new gear).
I am a big fan of what they are doing in the space. I recently purchased a HTX from them for my living room and I have been as happy as a clam.
2 - Use a PC for your video needs. Most video players support the same function (VLC, GOM player, Kodi... look for "dynamic range compression" and similar options). A 10 years old mid-tier machine will play everything including UHD, so this solution is fairly cheap. If you get a cheap IR-USB remote, you won't even have to mess with keyboard and mouse.
I would like to second this recommendation. I've put my work desk in the living room; the 43" screen doubles as a (non-smart!) TV; instead of futzing with remotes I have a wireless mouse, an on-screen keyboard, and a macOS/iOS shortcut to switch the display between 2x (couch mode) and 1.5x (desk mode), which could also take care of audio routing, DND, lights, etc.
Using a real mouse + virtual keyboard is so much faster than ANY remote I've ever used, and if you're not into clicking, you can type with a "real" wireless keyboard[0]. Another upside, is you get to watch things in the browser - with a proper ad blocker - instead of half a dozen confusing TV apps. Setting everything up takes a bit more effort than plugging a stick into an HDMI port, but it immediately starts paying off.
[0]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/d/microsoft-all-in-one-media... via friend's recommendation, they have a very similar setup with a projector and MS Windows.
Well, or get a compressor/limiter that you can jank into any signal chain, so you don't have to buy a whole new amplifier. You can find cheap compressors/limiters for like under $100 I'm sure.
It's been a while since I looked into this in detail, but iirc the decoder must automatically enable dynamic range compression when it's set to two channel output. So avoid configurations where you first convert the audio to 5.1 channel PCM or analog, and then apply downmixing or virtual surround.
If you're using a surround system, most receivers have a night mode as mentioned by others already. Some have also an adaptive system that adjusts the dynamic range based on your volume setting - turn it up and you get the full dynamic range, turn it down and the dynamic range is compressed more as you set the volume lower to try to keep the dialog audible. Many receivers include a microphone for automatic settings, and after calibration know the actual output level. The Dolby Digital bitstream (and I think DTS) include a flag to indicate the overall dialog level, and based on these a receiver can do quite a good job. Some I think go only by the DD metadata, others have a compressor that can be applied to any input.
https://www.amazon.com/rolls-SL33B-Stereo-Program-Limiter/dp...
Specifically what you want is a "stereo compressor" or "compressor/limiter"; if you want something more sophisticated than the device above, there are many 1U rack options available for ~$200 (dbx is a good choice), or used on reverb.com more like $70-$100.
https://youtu.be/d3XxckqoeXE
Is it doing the same thing? Seems rather easy and cheap to make.
There's no reason a simple compressor suitable for your purpose should have to be expensive; there just isn't much of a market for such a device.
If you're open to used gear, another good option would be an Alesis Nanocompressor - available in the $70-$90 range: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=alesis+nanocompressor&_...
Unfortunately modern receivers have preamps that do a ton of digital decoding, input switching and other stuff, making the audio signal between the preamp and the amp impossible to get to. That leaves you with receiver features like night mode, as suggested by others.
At least the Pocket Operators are reasonably priced and the OP-1 has some quirky uniqueness to it. The TX-6 is a brazen cash grab on par with their $1600 Ikea table [1].
[1] https://teenage.engineering/store/field-desk
I get it, but honestly, I actually think you're wrong about the TX-6, there is actually no comparable product to it on the market at all when you consider it's full end to end functionality, I also know one guy who has nothing else TE but sought out TX-6 because of it's pretty unique combination of attributes taking it's physical size/IO as part of the framing. I have a lot of their stuff because I enjoy it, but I do agree that everything outside of the OP-1, the TX-6 and the CM-15, are just toys. (The TP-7 is cool, but the most egregious all their products imo)
I think this guy totally nailed it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woiCEx5nWZY
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=audio+compressor
I had fond memories of using one at the KTEK college radio station where I was (first) the public relations officer and (later) the engineer. I was told we got it so that amateur DJs wouldn't saturate the transmitter. When I told my high school physics teacher (a classical music audiophile) about it I got a sharp talking to about how it hurts audio quality. Today I know it was an early shot in "the loudness wars".
(If you're listening in a car or other noisy environment, dynamic range is a bug and not a feature, however.)
6-channels would be enough for the typical 5.1 system but the "stereo" label on that expensive box makes it seem like it wouldn't do the right thing for home theater, where I think you'd want to reduce the gain in all 6 of the channel by the same amount.
I guess that you're asking for hardware because the source device is not under your control. In theory you could use any device with a line in to process the audio. However for watching movies that may be suboptimal as any significant delay would cause lipsync issues. That's probably something you need to check for in any solution.
That said, at night I simply use headphones.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285621756629
(Works okay, but not great)
A compressor compresses the dynamic range. They reduce the sounds about a selectable threshold with variable ratios and envelopes. Usually they have various other features.
This compressor/limiter/gate/expander/de-esser has more features than you are likely to use soon (side chaining) and will almost certainly sound good enough (despite what people may comment in response) [1].
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MDX2600--behringer-c...
Good luck.
[1] If it doesn't you can spend more later if it solves your problem. The nice thing about these compressors is: they have transparent bypass, a dedicated power button, robust construction, mature design, and are cheap.
Hard limiters limit by clipping.
If you look at the output waveform, I mean. It’s why limiters are sometimes used for distortion. The flat top and/or bottom create overtones.
The distinction is that limiters and other dynamic range processors do not use clipper circuits/algorithms directly, they have an amplifier controlled by a feedback or feedforward signal path as the gain computer. The amplifier may create harmonic distortion, or harmonic distortion can be created if an envelope follower in the feedback/forward path is configured in a certain way, but it isn't the design or intention of a limiter to clip.
Limiters can can clip if there's a clipper after the gain reduction which happens in some designs where the limiter is load bearing or uses a feedback path and no lookahead, but those are pretty rare these days since the entire point of a limiter is to avoid distortion.
A good book that covers the design and theory of operation is Zolzer's Digital Audio Signal Processing. It's relevant even for analog designs, since the topology of the designs are the same.
Studios keep limiters in their racks for exactly the reason I describe.
Just as they keep compressors around to add color.
Your DAW probably doesn't emulate limiters that clip because it is not common practice (not Common Practice, either). But your DAW probably has compressor plugins that do distort because that's what people have heard about.
In theory, an ideal limiter does not distort. Neither does a compressor. Or a mixer. In musical practice, an ideal device is often a bad idea. Musically we might want squelchy TB filters and CR1604 crosstalk.
When you want to hard limit amplitude, clipping is the simplest thing that might work. And clipping is usually better than tinnitus.
Systems like Atmos that decompose the sound track into components might help but they're likely to get used for the wrong reason -- in the last 10 years Hollywood gave up on making the vocals in movies legible, which has the positive effect that a lot of people are used to reading subtitles, which is why you can find subtitled anime [1], Italian crime dramas [2] and such in downmarket places like Tubi these days.
(Maybe it's why my acting coach who yelled at me to enunciate the same way my wife yells at horse riders to keep their heels down is here and not in LA)
[1] https://tubitv.com/series/2082/accel-world [2] https://tubitv.com/movies/571052/mafia-millionaires-subbed
The sound designers and mixers' customers are not the audience, it's the producers that hired them. They're also not creating just one mix, but up to one audio stream per every device and playback environment. The people that actually does that work is not always going to be the same as the ones doing the theatrical mix(es) or on the same timeline, and may be using a lot of automation to do it, or not doing it all.
That indirection and the way that incentives get twisted can lead to really good or really bad content, but the quality of it isn't really indicative of how successful it's going to be financially.
Good example of this is Wicked. Somehow, a musical in which you can barely hear the music, is clearing $700 million in the global box office and is going to be an awards darling. I have some suspicions about how the theatrical mix turned out so bad that has a lot to do with the economics of film production, but the gist is that whether something the audience thinks is "good" has nothing to do with what the producers paying the sound folks ask for.
I know enough about sound engineering to wire up the board for a concert but I hardly ever do it because I think most events have the sound levels 10-20db higher than I find comfortable, anybody I work with will push the levels up when I turn my back. I think they're all deaf.
In late middle age I know I'm finally slipping because I don't find hiss from tapes as offensive as I did in my youth.
But already over-compressed stuff like music will sound worse that way, so in your position I'd prefer a software fix that is limited to movies.
¹: I am not, I like dynamic audio