Movies issue: sound effects and music too loud, dialogue too quiet.

Some movies have this annoying issue. Can anyone recommend a compression settings with Audacity or other program?

I get this a lot from going to movie theatres. I suppose for some people its important for crashes and explosions to reverberate through the entire building and make you feel like you're really there! I watched Beauty and the Beast the other day and there was a part where i could see dark overcast skies and I thought to myself, "fuck there's thunder I this movie isn't there?"

-next scene-

**BABOOOOMMMMMM**

I suppose some people like it but I find the extreme bassy earthquaking subwoofs to be pretty unpleasant.

Yeah, I actually wear earphones in cinema now to block the sound somewhat. That stuff just doesn't seem healthy.

If you're talking about watching movies at home, make sure you turn off any kind of surround sound feature. Voices often come through the central channel, so anything that boosts the side channels will drown them out. In fact if you're able to even boost the central channel, that can help.

Also, if you're using a TV I'd highly recommend a sound bar (in the absence of a proper home cinema setup). They're pretty inexpensive for the quality of sound they provide. 

Finally, if you can turn on auto volume levelling, that helps immensely. It's terrible for games, but works pretty nicely for TV shows. I used to really struggle with exactly the same thing, and between all of the above I more or less seem to have sorted it out.

If you can use VLC for playback on a PC, this guide works pretty well.

I notice that too. Dialog I need to turn up to 7. Music needs to get turned down to 3. I think its just my TV or my sound system.

23 hours ago, Scotty said:

If you can use VLC for playback on a PC, this guide works pretty well.

I already knew about this. However, I don't want the solution to be limited to VLC only.