Frequency waterfall charts of a few familiar favourites (1 Viewer)

[MingL]

Jurassic Lunch is a magnificent bass fest. This track is taken from Telarc's "The Great Fantasy Adventure Album". I'm sure subwoofer freaks will want to permanently include this as one of their test track for subs. No subs will render Jurassic lunch in its true glory except for the very few best monster subs around. Why? Lets take a look.



Other than when the dino is roaring, munching and burping, his footsteps (approaching and leaving) all score lower than 30hz. With the lowest at 10hz, its gonna move lotsa air. Port noise aside, becareful of getting yourself sucked into the sub's ports.

Jurassic lunch is horrific; the few tracks that only feature bass lower than 30hz. Less able subs will just reproduce nasty harmonics, if not totally silent. Is this a great litmus test or what?


Just for kicks, I did another waterfall for T2 Theme in the same disc from Telarc's "The great Fantasy Adventure Album"


T2 Theme




Just want to point out the gobs of bass during the "explosive" ending. Right down there at 5hz, do give this a try, since Terminator season is rounding the corner again.

For sure, the explosion will be so darn loud, you'll feel its literally in your head. Don't be frightened if your vision blurs and your heart skips a beat. The infrasonics here verifies that its the sub thats blurring your vision. I can't say the same if your heart really skips a beat, but be warned that may happen if your sub can't handle the extra loud ultra low bass and a scary "clanck" comes from sub.

 

[Gordon Groff]

Fantastic, MingL!!!

I just ordered the Fantasy Adventure Album and can't WAIT to hear it and compare to these graphs you did. Wonderful job!! Thanks!!

I just put in a PAIR of SVS Ultra's w/ 1kw power. Ran them for the first time last night (before tweaking/calibrating)and just to see what they'd do, I played the LOR Sauron sequence a couple times (got up to -2dB before I wussed out). When I went upstairs to report that they are working, Sweet Nancy said (not so sweetly): "Don't you EVER do that again!! Felt worse than an earthquake up here!" Hehehehe

Gordon

 

[Vince Bray]

How about 'depth charged' from U571? A concussion-fest if I ever heard one...

 

[Manuel Delaflor]

Anthony, Spectralab can do similar graphs. I wonder why Ming doesn't want to tell us the name of his program??

 

[Frank Carter]

SVS has this one on in their FAQ.

http://www.svsubwoofers.com/faq.htm#moviedemos

 

[MingL]

Don't worry guys. It seems I've overlooked the name of the program amidst all the excitement of posting these plots.

I use Spectrum Lab to help me plot these charts. Get the program from here http://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/spectra1.html

Its made by a bunch of Ham radio ppl for analysing audio signals. Its a pretty nifty program.

Just so to ensure I'm measuring stuff correctly, here's how I setup the volume levels so that I don't get false readings associated with overload saturation, harmonic and intermodulation distortion . Use Cooledit to generate single tone to test for harmonic distortion. Saturation test passes only if the single tone does not manifest itself elsewhere other than the fundamental harmonic. Lower recording volume will help. Generate again 2 tones, one at 30hz and the other at 50hz for Intermodulation Distortion or IMD. Test this with Spectrum labs. Test passes only if the 2 tones only show itself at 30 and 50hz. Intermodulation (IM) products will show if there are harmonics at 20hz, 70hz, 90hz and so forth which is not what we want. Generally, adjusting the volume levels in the mixer will tend to be enuf. With these tests, we've already done enough tests to ensure the recording levels are correct and not saturate the analyser/hardware to give false readings.

Note, it isn't gonna be very accurate waterfalls, but its enough to perform these types of plots with enough accuracy.

The tests descriptions are abit brief, but to explain all will require a semester long college lecture on RF engineering. But I hope this is enough to seem logical rnough to the more adventurous.

Anyway, happy analysing. I'll still keep on feeding in waterfall plots now and then when I come across something interesting. Now, where is my JP3 DVD?.......:b

 

[Manuel Delaflor]

Thank you very much for the information! I will try to upload later a similar graph made with Spectralab with the jurassic lunch track.

 

[Manuel Delaflor]

MingL I wonder if you can host the image? There is no option to upload it to the forum.

 

[Keir H]

Hello guys, I think there was a database problem that killed my last post but, i just wanted to say thank to Ming for taking out the time to do the charts as all of us were wanting something to measure with to sorta see where we are on the bass side of things. thanks for the extra detail in those graphs too! :star: I have one request: when you get the time, can you do a small chart of the very beginning of Toy Story 2? I have always been interested in what a chart would look like during the opening intro. THanks again!

 

[Jeremy Stockwell]

Keir,

Toy Story 2 is another one that SVS has on their FAQ page (See link in post #25 above.)

JKS

 

[Keir H]

You know Jeremy, I ended up goin there just last night and DOh! I found them...did not know they were there since I thought those were only older movies they had put together, Dark City, 5th Element..ect...hopefully they or someone do more as new movies are reviewed. I'd like to see where my SVS 22-31cs stacks up...

Hey guys, how do you know if a sub is producing harmonics or true signal (HZ)?

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

the only way to really know is to measure it.

 

[Sihan Goi]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned "The Haunting"...well besides having Catherine Zeta Jones as eye candy, its not a very good show, but its bass levels are up there with the best I think.

 

[Jeremy Stockwell]

Sihan,

The Haunting is another one that SVS has on their site. (See link in post #25 above.)

Ming,

Just to clarify, I would be happy to see your software's version of any of these that have been mentioned that are already posted on SVS (U-571, Toy Story 2, Haunting, etc). The last one that SVS did was Phantom Menace and there have been several bass-heavy DVDs that have come out since TPM that I and others have been interested to see. Personally, I prefer Ming's flat waterfalls over SVS's 3D ones. Also, SVS's tend to be around 10-20 seconds at a time while Ming's have been a minute or more.

The next one that I'm waiting to see is Monsters, Inc. The "23-19" sock explosion, the "Hey Ted, Good Morning!" scene when the Godzilla/dinosaur monster steps off the curb, and two different instances when Boo laughs and knocks out the lights. Whenever you get around to it, Ming! Thanks!

JKS

 

[MingL]

Will be getting to TS2, Monsters Inc. But I'd really don't want to duplicate what SVS has. But just for you, I'll do it once I've run out of movies to plot. I do hope to be HTF's resident waterfall plotter, so I'll do my best to include everyone's suggestion; so once in a while, I'll post the few favourites, duplicated or not.

I don't have "The Haunting" so I'm not able to do a plot for that.



Just a few days ago, I tried plotting for "Panic Room" since I remembered hearing pretty deep bass (~20hz) in one of the high-tension moments. I can't find that scene now.:frowning:

But definately, there is losta pretty deep bass scattered all over the movie. Go listen for it if the sub can go infrasonic.

Ok, will get to TS2 and M Inc friday nite! Happy listening.

 

[Edward J M]

Just a few days ago, I tried plotting for "Panic Room" since I remembered hearing pretty deep bass (~20hz) in one of the high-tension moments. I can't find that scene now.

Hi MingL:

The scene you are trying to find is when the leaking natural gas explodes and rips out of the ductwork and into the bedroom and panic room. Very impressive bass in that passage.

BTW, great work on this stuff. It's probably more time consuming that any of us realize and I'm sure I speak for all the readers when I say it is much appreciated.

It's really amazing how much high amplitude subsonic bass content exists in some of these DVDs. Full bore stuff at 10-12 Hz - holy moses!

Regards,

Ed

 

[MingL]

Monster Inc: 23-19 sock scene



Infrasonics down to 5hz? Yes. This sock scene appears to be impressive, but not all will feel the same.

There is alot of energy between 28hz to 45hz. This coincides with 35hz to 60hz room modes of typical HT setups. Therefore, whatever bass between 5hz and 20hz will most likely be unheard/unfelt as compared to the bulk at 30hz. Still an impressive scene.

Because there is still lots of infrasonic bass 10dBs lower than the peak at 30hz, the infrasonics can cause ported subs to unload and bottom-out.

 

[Gordon Groff]

Because there is still lots of infrasonic bass 10dBs lower than the peak at 30hz, the infrasonics can cause ported subs to unload and bottom-out.

That's why I moved up to dual Ultras. I can now get over 100 dB @ 10hz. Yowza! I could consistently bottom my single out with We Were Soldiers - "Broken Arrow" scene. If you've got that one, check it out!! I'd love to see how it measures. It could happen a number of times from when the jet launches from the carrier to when the dive bombers start dropping the bombs on the battlefield. I think it's my favorite and most awesome bass demo scene. Great movie too!! Incredible sound track!! Incredible story. Amazing thing is that it is a true story, very accurately and realistically produced. Not for the faint of heart.

I never tried Monsters Inc. at reference levels 'cause a different audience is involved for that flic here

Thanks again for all this, Ming!! It is very cool to SEE what I'm hearing!!

Gordon

 

[Jeremy Stockwell]

Ming,

What's next?

I'd still like to see your graphs of several other spots from Fellowship of the Ring:

-There's one sequence where Gandalf is looking at Mordor from a distance and then when the ringwraiths exit Minas Morgul and ride past our POV, there should be some deep bass there.
-When the four Hobbits are hiding under the roots of the tree and the wraith is scaring the bugs out of the ground, there are some deep synth. tones that would be cool to see.
-Cave troll
-Balrog

-Arizona explosion from Pearl Harbor

-You don't happen to be a Harry Connick, Jr. fan do you? On his 1994 album, She, there's a song, "Joe Slam And The Spaceship" that has some infrasonics worth looking at.

-Blue Man Group - "Audio" if you have it, I can identify some deep bass moments for you to chart.

Ming, it appears that I've got your work cut out for you! Thanks for your efforts.

JKS

 

[Mark Fitzsimmons]

Isn't it great to have a sub that can handle this material?

I know I'm loving it