Theory and Practice of Music Bed Volume Levels

Mark,

I don't think you can make a general statement about this, like "music should be "X" dB below dialogue. There are many, many factors which can affect this equation. For example, the "intensity" of the music or the "tonal range" of the instrumentation makes a huge difference in how it will interact with dialogue. You can often reduce the "conflict" between music and dialogue by changing the eq of the music and Not changing the volume.

So, my best advice is just listen. If you find your attention split between music and dialogue, then decide which one is important and any given time and favor it. Yes, that means "riding" the volume to fill in the spaces of your dialogue track... but be careful. You don't want the music track "pumping" whenever there's a short gap.

Good luck.

Mark

Some people say I mix too hot. Othjers love my mixes. I believe if there is music it should set a tone, and therefore I mix the music up preferably at the highest point it doesn't cover any of the dialogue, that is a tough line and easily crossed to where the music conflicts, don't go that high. I personally hate hearing music that has been ridden up and down, it should in my opinion be constant unless there is a large gap adn it needs to come up for effect.

Not much help I'm sure too many variables.
Charlie

A good editor can ride the levels and make it sound like nothing changes. It's basically manual compression. If you bring your audio up during a pause in dialouge make sure you ramp it up and make it flow in and out of the dialouge so you don't hear the level raise. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's almost impossible, but when you get it right it sounds perfect. When you get it wrong it sounds like AGC.

let the vibe guide you.
that said, I now highly rely on numeric levels to tell me where I'm at.
Strange thing. Few years ago, I'm sitting, editing and grinning. My ear itches so I stick my lil finger in there and wiggle it around. Fixed it so I pulled it out and POP
daaang. Doctor said it was a ruptured blood vessel. A few surgeries later, I'm freakin deaf in one ear and I can't mix a show fer nuthin. Luckily, I had memorixed numeric audio levels in the audio mixer. 14 is up full, 28 is bed level under sot, and I always peak it between key phrases or chapter changes, if you will.
I have my left monitor 3 feel from my head aimed directly at my ear. My right monitor faces the room about 10 feet away. Closest I can get to stereo. Sometimes I can't here the music while somone is talking, I'll crank it up where it sounds fine, recheck my numeric levels and they'll be at like 20. Works for some music under some people some of the time but is hard to listen to over an extended period of time.
I guess thats the thing. If you hear it, did you want to? If ya didn't were you trying to stay below the radar?
What I do is lay the content down on a timeline. I go from the time subtractivly, ditchin' stuff I don't want. This gives me a real good sense of the vibe of the piece. I know where mood changes are happening and rearange content to the order I like.
I then hit it again from the top, cleaning stuff up on the content I am now keeping fer sure.
Again from the top, now with music. By now I have laid in filler where my swells will be and I simply backtime intros, outros, swells and transitions. Goes quick.
Then I do broll from the top, sometimes plopping in key shots when I do the audio pass.
One more time from the top with layers of lovew, graphics, sweetening and effects.
Thats not a template. It's a method of attack. There are no templates when it comes to any kind of editing.
Hopefully, the content will scream what it needs and wants and we'll all respond accordingly.

hi
i read your post on using eq to lower the music and bring up the dialogue track. it sounds intriguing but i'm not sure i understand. what's the difference between lowering the music on the music track in the trad way and using your method? can you explain exactly how you apply your method? really interested to find out as sports promo style footage is driving lots of what i do. thanks.