What is Wrong With Sound Engineers?

Not sure what programs you're watching, but I rarely have issues understanding the narration. That being said, I think tv/film takes the opposite approach to music... in that they're are trying to get a very dynamic sound and make things more realistic. Music often gets stuck in "loudness wars" where everything is nearly the same volume and dynamics are lost. Personally I like things dynamic, but I guess some people don't. Then again, I got rid of my tv a year ago and just use my computer... so maybe I'm not as fluent with what tv broadcasts are doing as some other people.

In regards to your comment about removing vocals therefore yadda yadda... that's not as easy as it sounds. Vocals are relatively easy to remove because they are often played the same from both speakers (mono) where it sounds like it's coming from the middle point between the speakers. By off-setting the left and right sounds by a few milliseconds, you end up creating what's called "phase cancellation" where the sound essentially fights with itself to the point you don't hear it much, if at all. Music and special effects are different in that regard, because those are often done in stereo to give you a bigger sound. Stereo sound means the left and right speakers are playing often playing different things (sometimes only in timing), and therefore phase cancellation does not work the same. Sometimes you might even notice this in music situations where you "remove" the vocal, but you can still hear the vocal effect; that's because the effect was in stereo, though the vocal was in mono.

I often complain myself when on the television the commercials come on very loud compared to the regular program. In fact in the US there are some old laws against it; but not held to.

But the situation is more complicated than that.

For one thing the sound guy often comes from a theatrical background, without any real technical training. So you get what you get.

But between them and you there is a lot of equipment, including your own tv; and many have things like limited bandwidths, or favor surround vice voice frequencies.

All I can suggest is that you check your tv set to see if there is an audio style option which would sound better.

I also have trouble figuring out what the actors are saying, so I rarely watch or listen. Some home processing is possible, such as suppressing frequencies below about 200 hertz and over about 2000 hertz. Doubling the spacing (and having silence) between words would probably help, but the speech would take longer, so most of the commercials would have the middle part removed, assuming the software could identify commercials reliably. Most of the commercials, and programs are of less than no value to most of us. Keeping the extended speech synchronized with the picture would be challenging, but I think could be done by repeating the last video frame occasionally. Extend computer selected audio fragments about one millisecond would help with the actors who enunciate poorly. Neil

If all else fails if the program has a CC (closed caption) or other subtitling use it and turn the sound down a bit. A lot of documentaries tend to be a triumph of gee wow whiz graphics and overwhelming music at the expense of content these days. It's the TV arty producer guys dumbing down the science. The audio guys aren't to blame but only produce what they are asked to although most of them are probably wincing when they do it.

That is not the sound engineers, that is the marketing people. Someone made a survey and determined that people liked music background, so they overdid it.

But I agree, and everyone I know, agrees with you. In fact the US government actually passed a law that should help, it takes effect (I think) next year. But why should the gov. have to pass a law to make TV shows watchable? And interpreting the law will be interesting.