Consistent audio levels from mix

tildenm

tildenm

Member
Howdy all,
I am in post on a short film and am working with a sound editor and mix. We get along well, and his sound editing and tools are great. We are using ProTools for the edit and mix.
What I am concerned about is getting consistent levels for the master. The mix I have now has places where the score is pretty loud making dialogue a little hard to hear, and some dialogue guieter than others. Is there a workflow for final mix for a narritive that someone has?
I am looking for something like, Edit -> Normalize dialogue per scene (all peaks) to -xdb -> etc -> Polish and tweak.
Thanks!
Tilden
 
If your sound editor/mixer really is great, he'll know how to do this.

Do not - I repeat, do not - normalize your dialog or final mix! Compression and limiting can play a part in this process, but have to be used carefully. And before any of that is done, the editor/mixer should have been maintaining proper levels for dialog across the mix using basic tools for each track.

Some of this depends on what your final output will be. Is this for broadcast, Internet, DVD, or theatrical screening? The answer to that makes a huge difference. Second, film sound (unlike television) has a pretty wide dynamic range. Normal dialog has an average level, quieter (whispered) dialog will fall below that, and louder (shouted) dialog will have a much higher peak. Loud FX like explosions will hit a high peak. Score will also rise and fall, depending on the music. If your score is fighting with your dialog, then the editor/mixer isn't doing his job.
 
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Kind of "what he said". What your talking about IS mixing. I have come heel dragging to the conclusion that normalizing is not always the ultimate evil I always felt it was. BUT that only brings me to, sometimes in certain workflows normalizing can be useful on some bits.

It is NOT used in narrative films. What you want is the mixer to MIX the film. He/she needs to mix the levels so that they all work together. It sounds like either your mixer isn't mixing or (and I think more likely) your editor is still editing and hasn't really begun the mixing part and you are not used to hearing work in progress.

The other possibility that happens a bunch is that the two of you are not quite on the same page. If the music is too loud for you at some point then tell the mixer it's too loud for you. It's the mixer/ editors job to help you make YOUR film. YOUR film needs to sound the way YOU want it to.

If your mixer won't/ can't make the film work for you then it's time for a new mixer. That sounds harsh but it's what I tell directors right off the bat. If they feel they are not going to get what they need from me then they need to save us both a lot of grief and go find someone who can. It's not my movie it's the directors.
 
Thanks for the responses! I am very much an audio amateur - I have a lot to learn.

Do not - I repeat, do not - normalize your dialog or final mix!
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Noted. I thought that normalizing just brought the gain up to a standard level. I can see that I must be incorrect... My editor was not normalizing, just adjusting the gain by hand, and I thought just normalize it to get it all even.

We had too little time, due to some technical issues unrelated to editing, to do the mix for submission to a particular festival. We submitted the rough mix, and now are going back to remix and make better.

...your editor is still editing and hasn't really begun the mixing part and you are not used to hearing work in progress.
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Definitely the case. :)
 
It is also an issue of "translate-ability" or how well the mix translates to different mediums. CV2 mentioned that the way something is mixed will be dependent upon the final viewing/listening medium. Another issue is how you are listening to the mixes versus what your sound editor/mixer is using. Even if s/he is not mixing in an approved mix-down facility the room s/he is using is probably fairly quiet and, hopefully, well treated. When the mixes move out of that room into the real world it will translate differently. I can't tell you how often my clients insist that the mix is for festivals (where my mixes sound okay) and then complain about how the mix sounds on their laptop speakers. After a festival or two they usually put it on-line or send out DVDs to friends and family; that's a different mix, at least at the low/no/micro budget level. A great mix that will translate everywhere is, of course, extremely desirable, but then you have to pay for the facility and the expertise to make it so.
 
You do not want all dialog levels to be equal. Indeed, the dialog levels are a vital dramatic element ... pillow talk in a tender love scene should be much softer than the yelling when the jealous husband breaks down the door to confront the couple. Mix your dialog for dramatic effect, gointg softer and louder as the scene demands, then mix the music stems, FX, etc hinging their levels around the dialog. If in a certain scene the score overwhelms the dialog as you mentioned, the solution is not to mess with the dialog levels but rather to reduce the level of the score in the mix and/or use equalization on the music stem to reduce the frequencies that lie in the human voice range in order to "make a hole" for the dialog to rest in.
 
It is also an issue of "translate-ability" or how well the mix translates to different mediums. <SNIP> A great mix that will translate everywhere is, of course, extremely desirable, but then you have to pay for the facility and the expertise to make it so.
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Understood. The mix facility itself is good, a professional mix-only studio. My editor is good, but probably does not have the experience yet to be top notch. Always a balancing issue with cost <sigh>

You do not want all dialog levels to be equal. Indeed, the dialog levels are a vital dramatic element ... pillow talk in a tender love scene should be much softer than the yelling when the jealous husband breaks down the door to confront the couple. Mix your dialog for dramatic effect, gointg softer and louder as the scene demands, then mix the music stems, FX, etc hinging their levels around the dialog. If in a certain scene the score overwhelms the dialog as you mentioned, the solution is not to mess with the dialog levels but rather to reduce the level of the score in the mix and/or use equalization on the music stem to reduce the frequencies that lie in the human voice range in order to "make a hole" for the dialog to rest in.
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Totally. I don't think we had time to make those holes, or if my mixer knew to do them. I'll make sure this happens during our remix.
 
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