What Is the Difference Between Gun Sounds on TV and Gun Sounds in Real Life?

I'm sure it might be obvious to some but this question has been nagging to me. Sure, in movies there must be sound editing that makes them safe to listen to. But what about gunfire on reality tv or more specifically recorded video such as YouTube or streams?

Is listening to a harmful sound (recorded, not sound edited) just the same as hearing it yourself? If not then why? What is the science/technical aspect behind it?

I'm asking for a reason of course. Being exposed to such a sound on a YouTube video and spiking minutes afterwards with a minor headache. But have been wondering long before this.

 

Because the sound of a gun coming out your TV is limited in volume by how loud you set the speakers etc. I think you're worrying over nothing.

 

Yeah, to be fair though...I do not whine over the constant low flying planes, train horns, motorcycles, fire alarms, ambulance sirens that stress out many users here.

Not needing TT for 4-5 months. But that is the nature of the condition. What can you truly say to a person to assuage their worries? Nothing because tinnitus care equates to medieval era in terms of comforts.

 

Sounds that come through a recording and playback medium will have been compressed to suit the bandwidth of the network connection and further limited by the volume control setting on the playback equipment.

It will sound quieter than the real thing (i.e. "live")

But listening to anything at high volume can still be harmful

 

Simple: there’s no dangerous pressure wave coming out of your TV speakers. At the most basic level, noise is just energy moving air particles. The more energy the more powerful the wave is. For things like explosives, for example, a blast wave can be instantly damaging because of the sheer force and energy involved.

Your TV, no matter what is being portrayed (guns, bombs, etc), is still just a TV speaker moving small amounts of air. That is, of course, unless you are running it through a 1200 watt (rms) sound system and have it cranked high. Then you would be creating dangerous levels of noise. This would still be very different to a real life gunshot, however.

 

It's not the sound profile of the gunshot it's the volume... Even movie theater speakers aren't able to pump out 160 decibels. Unless you have a RIDICULOUS audio system in a small space, you will never come close to being able to replicate that kind of sound energy with audio speakers.

 

And most mics have max SPL way below 160dB and they do not have the frequency response to catch all the elements of a gunshot or an explosion. But even when the sound is distorted, playing it too loud will make it dangerous, just like @Ed209, @dingaling and @AZeurotuner stated.

 

Yes, but I don't think you're going to see a measurable difference in damage between a gunshot recorded on a 140db mic and one recorded on a 160+db mic. I could play a perfectly recorded explosion at a reasonable volume and not experience any ill effects, it's the volume that gets you. That being said I doubt that any legitimate sound crew would use a low spl mic for action scenes to begin with. These folks have plenty of money in the budget for audio equipment, we're not talking high school level production here.

 

Volume? Not the loudest I have ever heard. Problem with YouTube is often quiet voices and loud sound effects so you can have your volume low and the sound effects will often still be loud. This is how I got tinnitus initially albeit it I was wearing headphones at the time. It was the sound dynamic of the shot that surprised me. Give me a headache for the rest of the night and all the next day. Along with a H spike.

 

Anyone else notice in the Home Alone movies when Kevin uses that fake movie video tape to fool the pizza delivery guy, the burglars and the hotel staff? Well get this how those scenes are so unbelievable - how is it that to the people Kevin is trying to fool, that the machine gun sounds like a real gun firing to them? I mean it's just coming from a late-80s consumer grade TV, so it wouldn't make that much of an impact. I know when he's trying to fool Marv, he uses fire crackers for greater impact, but not the other times. That's been bothering me for years.

 

uh, amplitude

 

LMAO

 

I'm sure Harry got some ringing in his ears after he frantically dipped his head in kerosene in the toilet and it exploded. Kevin that monster!

 

Edit: This is an old thread that's already been answered, but I already typed up a response before realizing it.

Real gunshots are probably somewhere between 16 and 64 times as loud providing you already have the volume turned up on the TV.
Lets assume the TV is cranked all the way up, I doubt it's going to be much more than 100db and gunshots start around 150db https://www.m1911.org/loudness.htm. You can use this site http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-levelchange.htm to play around with the numbers with different loudness levels.

I thought he put firecrackers in a large pot to make it sound more authentic?

 

Like I said, only when he was tricking Marv. But he didn't do that for the pizza delivery guy or the hotel concierge in the second one.

 

Oops, guess I didn't read thoroughly.

 

You don’t need a 1200 watts system to cause harm. 600 is more than enough in a medium room :-(

That one dreadful night I turned up my system for an action flick. Mad Max: Fury Road. Volume in movies can be deceiving.

Let’s say the max levels of a movie do not register above 82dB... and average at 67 dB. Gunshots, explosions and sandstorms at that same volume CAN cause peaks up to 110 - on my system at least.

If you watch a non-stop action flick... those peaks can catch you off-guard. It was enough to give me T.

Even though parties and concerts I visited before must have been louder (and longer)

(Measured with niosh slm)

 

Proximity and percussion?

 

Time to move on to films like The Duchess, Pride and Prejudice, Phantom Thread, Howard's End, and Remains of the Day, I guess.

 

Excellent selection!

That’s what I usually see

Mad Max was me saying: let’s try something different )

 

I watch tons of Old Hollywood too. Like 1930s/40s old. Maybe people here would like 1920s silent era film?

 

This thread provided me with a lot of relief when I posted it.

But remembering the words here is also what lead me to worsened hyperacusis. (4 months in, no improvement) Maybe it's not harmful if you just have tinnitus. But if you have hyperacusis certain sounds are capable of triggering damage even if they are only moderately loud. I believe this is a H thing, not a T thing and those of us with H should be careful about asking if certain sounds are safe. We should follow our guts.

 

Me too! I find explosive sounds, screams, gun shots etc very uncomfortable to my ears and have to have the volume very low through fear of a sudden noise. It’s so very frustrating. I have hypercausis too x

 

One of these you may not hear at all.

For those who don't follow the logic: a gun sound in real life means there's a bullet being fired somewhere close, and you could die from that bullet before you even hear the sound of the gun (because the speed of a bullet is bigger than the speed of sound, so you could die before the sound waves reach you).