As someone who is very audiophile I wonder how other people perceive NJPWs audio production.
Since wrestling is something I usually watch 2+ hours, audio is the first thing that causes exhaustion.
What I've noticed: The screaming frequencies (btw. around 2 – 5 khz) are way more present these days. If they do it for Smartphones / Tablets: Please don't! They already boost them by design!
Also lack of compression / limiting: When people scream into microphones (and they scream a lot in wrestling) it oversaturates and not in the nice analog way, but digitally, which just hurts the ears.
Regarding screaming: While it's nice to have close in-ring sounds when it comes to chops and slaps, the grunts and shouts of the wrestlers are WAY too upfront! It also needs compression to make it more smooth and reduce the peaks.
Entrance themes: It would be nice uf they blended a dry line signal into the noisy room microphones. Not so much that it kills the atmosphere, just enough to make them cut through more.
Also entrance themes: I miss the heroic, upbeat themes with the catchy melodies. They still have a few good ones like Konosuke Takeshitas, the classics like Satoshi Kojimas or the funny & cheesy Dragon Dia tune, but way too many sound generic, cheap and non-japanese.
Audio is undervalued generally in wrestling right now. Even WWE don't have the quality they used to have and AEW sounds pretty rough at times.
Like I said – for me it's mostly about avoiding early exhaustion just because of the sound. Sometimes I want continue watching, but my ears just can't take it anymore.
The most important takeaway from my post is: 1. Limit & compress peaks, 2. Tame the biting frequencies
I wonder how everyone else thinks about it?
by K-Dave