[Kevin Franzen]

From what I understand, from school and people who have been around the business for a while, setting levels was/is very important for the analog broadcast signal. If the signal is too strong it can interfere with the neighboring frequencies. For a digital world there shouldn’t be any issues.

But the standards are still around for two main reasons. If every production company is required to set the output levels the same, the station engineer sets the fader to unity and doesn’t have to worry about the level strength being too loud or too quiet. On the viewer’s side, the views doesn’t have to continually adjust the volume every time a show/commercial comes on (however sometimes they do depending on the station).

Secondly, it prevents advertisement companies from competing on commercial loudness through limiting.

All my projects that head for broadcast have to be set a -20dBs, peaks at -10dBs.

I hope this helps
Kevin

[Kevin Franzen]

In the broadcast world, the FCC has very strict rules regarding audio levels both TV and radio. Most likely the production companies wanted to save money and didn’t go back to the pre mastered mix.

[Kevin Franzen]

My degree is in sound and one thing I used to do as a student is advertise myself on craigslist and other websites offering free service for credit. One be advantage to clients was the gear I was able to get my hands on; the gear list was very extensive with top notch gear. Depending on your area, look up schools that offers a sound program and talk with the instructors. Many students are willing to help out for little or no money. It’s a great opportunity for the both of you.

Good luck with your project.

Kevin

[Kevin Franzen]

It there is a phase issue, open the audio in a sound editor, i.e. soundtrack, or ProTools then flip the phase on one of the tracks. A sign for phase is an O with a / through it. It is always better to work with mono tracks and mix the two signals together to create a stereo effect. If the audio is panned, listen to the audio tracks through headphones and the two mics will sound different.