This is going to vary person to person I'm sure. That being said, audio is a big component for me regarding adult videos, so I can get pretty picky on it.
- Background/non-personal 'white noise', like air conditioners / cars / nature doesn't bother me much. This also somewhat extends to sounds of yardmen or people outside. I can phase those out as the background, no problem.
- The limit for noises (especially harsh ones) is if it happens where it becomes louder than whatever the performer's noise level is, in other words >50%. This is relative to the video. My attention goes naturally to whatever is the loudest thing, so if I hear a chainsaw in the background, I'll be focusing on that instead of the performer if she is not talking.
- If the performer is real quiet, I can ignore background noise (even if louder than the performer), if it's a "softer" noise, like cars / nature / air moving. The 50% applies still to harsher noises, like chainsaws/weed wackers or construction though.
- Background noise that is more personal, mainly someone in the room, pots/pans clanging, a door shutting... that does bother me. If I'm watching a video of someone doing their thing, it's very distracting if I know someone is frying up their lunch in the background. It feels less intimate. It's especially distracting to me if the model looks towards whatever the disturbance is and if there is a jump cut there. It removes me from the moment. If a model is doing something sexy on a camera, last thing I want is the boyfriend/husband just casually in the background. Idk, it kind of weirds me out, or makes me feel weirdly excluded. Tough to explain, but anyways-- it's distracting.
- I'd rather have a jump cut than a personal-type noise, even if I don't like jump cuts
- The limit is very low on this. It's less about volume at this point, and more so if I can tell if it's the same area or not. If I can somehow tell that it's a person not inside of the room, I can deal.
As for jump cuts, that's something generally I dislike. Imo, it makes it seem like a bunch of time has passed-- probably more than what actually happened. The closest equivalent I think of is like if you were getting sexy with someone, but then you said "wait a minute, I'll be right back" out of nowhere, left, and then you came back after 15 minutes and continued like nothing happened. It takes a person out of the mood. Not a perfect comparison, but that's what a poorly timed jump cut can kind of feel like at times for me. Still better than personal background noise, but still distracting.
As for music in vids, it doesn't do anything for me, but I can usually phase it out ....Actually, on second thought, if it's metal, I'll probably think the person is a badass and I'll give em props for it
. Overall, I'd probably rather have a music-less vid, but if there is music, I'd rather have it live in the room (even if not as great sounding since the mic and all) rather than put in via post editing. Makes it sound more authentic, and sometimes models like cranking up the music way too loud.
What bothers me more than background noise or anything else is clipping. I can't think of a good reason ever that someone's mic should be clipping on a regular basis. Heck, I've even seen real popular rooms live on CB have clipping mics
(*cough* 1k1_nights *uncough*). It upsets my soul. I'm an audio engineer in my spare time, and it's a huge pet peeve of mine. People can turn the gain down, or they can get a compressor if they want to get fancier or think they'll need it. It's an instant turn off if a mic is clipping with that horrible distortion sound, and it makes me want to mute the vid, leave, or give a boring-ass lecture on audio-setup if there is bad clipping.
So just no clipping-- No one needs to hear the sound of ultimate suffering in your vid.
