WRITTEN BY JEFF SHIFFMAN
CO-OWNER OF BOOM BOX POST
We are excited to kick off our new blog post series, Music Mixing Basics for TV & Film focused on the foundations of music mixing for television and film. All month long, this series will tackle a wide variety of approaches to mixing score, including how to approach musical numbers, dealing with diegetic (on screen) music and more, all from the minds of experienced Boom Box Post re-recording mixers Jacob Cook, Kate Finan and Jeff Shiffman. It’s Music Mixing May!
As a re-recording mixer, it’s our job to create the final sound balance for a film or TV project. Here at Boom Box Post, we edit and prep both the dialogue and sound effects. The score however comes directly from the composers. The music has been both organized and mixed but it’s now our job to fit it in to the rest of the soundtrack. That’s where this post comes in. For this Music Mixing Basics posts, I’ll be covering the steps we take to work the score into the final mix.
An ideal music delivery and layout
Assumptions
Depending on the composer, you may find yourself with wildly different music deliveries. Pro tip: get in touch with the composer prior to delivery and have a chat about what works best for you both. You may be able to avoid some headaches and last minute scrambling. For our purposes however, let’s assume a pretty standard score delivery which includes the following:
Score has already been mixed internally (stems leveled) by a score mixer and/or the composer
Score has been split into a reasonable number of “stems,” each comprising of a different instrument group and/or solo instrument. The format of these stems (stereo or 5.1) depends on composer and mixer preference.
A “comp” stem is provided. This stem is the equivalent of all the individual stems when played together.
Every other music cue has been checkerboarded onto two sets of identical tracks (A & B) so as to provide clean ins and outs, avoiding any overlap between cues.
Setup: WORKING WITH STEMS VS A COMP
Working with music stems allows a finer level of control in the mix. If you’re asked to turn up the strings, there’s a stem for that. You get the idea. However, it can get a bit unwieldy to always be working with a few handfuls of faders. Our workflow helps to simplify things. Group all of the tracks on the A side of the checkerboard, and group all of the tracks on the B side. Mute the comps across the board. Now you have just two faders to deal with (music A and music B). Although they are muted, we keep the comps as part of these groups so the same automation is written on all stems, all the time.
Another great way to accomplish this same task would be to work with VCAs. If you’re a visual mixer and you want to see the fader moves without showing automation on the tracks themselves, this method may be best for you. At Boom Box Post we use a hybrid method. The first pass of music mixing is done with grouped faders and the client pass on the VCAs. Any method that works for you is the right method, dealer’s choice.
MIXING SCORE AGAINST DIALOGUE
With any mix, we start with a pass of just the dialogue. Dialogue is the anchor of any mix and the element by which all other sounds are leveled against. This is also how you help get your mix into spec.
Once you’re dialogue pass is complete, it’s time (finally!) to work in the score. My advice, ignore the meters at this point. Sure, you’ll be checking your final mix but if you are beholden to the numbers on screen, you’re not listening to your mix.
I like to mix in the score one cue/scene at a time. Turn on preview mode and while the mix is playing, try and find a good base level to set your faders. Write that level across the entire cue, turn off preview mode and then go back to the beginning and with your hands on the faders, mix the music. A few tips:
Scroll in your session to where you can reference the dialogue visually. The key is that you never want to make dialogue unintelligible. Knowing when regions are coming up will help you carve around wherever necessary.
Try to avoid any very big fader moves. You should never make the audience aware of the mix. Big moves can stick out like a sore thumb and break the magic spell of the mix.
Small fader moves while mixing score
CHEATS FOR DX CLARITY
What if you’re having trouble getting the dialogue to read around the music? For starters, the music may just be too loud. Don’t stress about going back over a few times to get it right. Also, it’s absolutely ok to go back and turn up a dialogue line after a music pass. You mixed that dialogue in a vacuum. Now that the music informs the mix, you may have the freedom to crank a line without it being obvious at all. Lastly, it’s fine to dig into the stems to clear out something covering your dialogue. Oftentimes I’ll find a mid-range instrument that is just eating up the entire frequency spectrum. Subtly pulling down an individual music stem during a dialogue moment can be just the trick.
EXTRA CREDIT
Working in episodic TV, I quickly find out the preferences of my clients. After a few mixes, I’ll have a mental list of music choices that keep occurring on the mix stage. It’s certainly not for everyone, but with the right clients, you may be given the freedom to edit the score at will, prior to their review. I find this can save a ton of time in our sessions so we can focus on the important stuff. I only recommend it once a good bond has been formed, but if you find yourself with the opportunity, you could:
Make a joke or emotional moment hit better
Fill an awkward pause
Consistently remove a client’s pet peeve instrument (I’m looking at you xylophone)
FINAL STEP
I recommend you always leave yourself time to listen through the mix from top to bottom without stopping. This could be after the music pass or in most cases after the final stage, the sound effects pass. There’s so much start/stop in mixing that you need to get perspective on the project as a whole. Make markers for anything you want to go back and change, but let the thing run!