How to do audio leveling

K

ksduded

Active member
Hi I am about to start audio leveling my film and wanted to know if there are any particular way to go about it. For example do my voice tracks first and then the sound effects and music etc.

I have a lot of layers of audio tracks, cause its a richly treated film, so with around 8 different audio tracks... so please let me know any tips and tricks that might benefit me.
 
http://www.dplay.com/book/app/index.html

Mixing is much more subjective then just "put this track at this level". There are rules and parameters but mostly it about your tastes. Of course to really know what works and what doesn't you need a proper studio setup to actually hear what you are doing.

Link above will get you started.

Cheers
 
Find a mixer, honestly.

Find a mixer, honestly.

There are so many variables with audio that you really want to get it to a good film mixer to get it right. A calibrated room is essential as for film, as film is mixed by feel rather than by meters. How the dialog feels in a calibrated room is where the level will sit. Also, your intended venue says a ton about how your film should be mixed. DVD, Theatrical, Broadcast are all different animals. Broadcast has a strict set of requirement that limit dynamic range. In a theater, dynamic range is your friend. On DVD, you have a bit of both to contend with as you have to make sure you are not clipping the Dolby matrix when the decoder downmixes your audio, but you have a lot more range than broadcast.
 
8 tracks is not actually a lot. Most commercials we work on are 32 -64 tracks and we try to pre mix down to 24-32 tracks for the final mix.

What level your aiming at is dependent on your destination. Film is mixed mostly by ear in a calibrated mix stage, but broadcast usually has specific level ranges that must be met.

All mix generally in the same way. Dialog first then BG's and FX then music, though music and FX often battle for the same space so the FX music order is a bit misleading.

Assuming your mixing stereo/mono for a video release (festival not broadcast) you can do alright in a small space. BUT you need to be setup correctly and you should know what you are doing and you really want to avoid using a NLE to mix sound if at all possible, they just aren't very good at it. And if at all possible get someone who does sound to do yours, it's a much better way of working.

That said if your determined to do it your self go over to the DUC (digidesign Users Conference) and go to the post-production section and there is a stickey that goes into great detail on setting up your system and how to calibrate it.

It's not pop music, you dont maximize it to within an inch of it's life and you don't want to go too low so it's very important that your room gives you an accurate picture of how others should hear the mix.
 
I'll start with the assumption you already have high quality mixing equipment or software, excellent studio reference speakers and a great listening room. Those are really key components to have in place before you try to mix anything and will have a great impact on your final results.

Given that assumption the first thing you'll want to do is to normalize all of your tracks. Essentially this will bring all of your tracks up to the maximium possible level without distortion. You can certainly do this with ease using a program such as Audition, etc.

Your strategy for mixing ought to always be to service the story, the message you are trying to convey. As when mixing songs for CD, etc. you want the vocals to come across well with clarity, tone and presence above any other background sound you may have as part of the mix. Again, the way in which you record and the degree to which you are able to isolate vocals from background sound has a great influence on the result. The more you can isolate components of the sound track the more control during the mixing stage you will have over the result.

There will be times when you have a music track when you will want to punch up or mute down a particular passage. Again, this ought to be in service of the story you wish to convey.

I won't go into a lot of detail regarding mixing individual instruments to develop the music track. Different people have different strategies. Usually I'll do an initial mix for a song to get a feel for what I have and the way different tracks work or don't work together. I always do my mix in mono until the final stage since the addage "if it sounds good in mono then ... " holds true. After an initial mix I'll concentrate on the foundation - drums, bass, piano - taking care to equalize to insure each instrument has space for its own frequency response and compress to add punch - for example with a track for a kick drum. At that point I'll add other instruments with eq if necessary. Last, when I'm pleased with the overall mix for the instrument tracks I'll balance all of that with any vocals for the song and spend a lot of time tweeking the eq for the vocals since they really are key if the song is going to work.

In general, you don't want the sound to become a distraction for the audience. It is important, very important; however, keep in mind it is script, directing, acting, editing, video/film and sound all working to together which can make a project evocative for an audience.

Mikle
 
I will go on the assumption that you DONT have a proper setup. If I were you I'd take it to a mixer that knows what they are doing.

-Dave
 
This is our mixing facility at the office. I use a professional engineer. Its a collaboration. Just like most of making movies. We try to make it available to the local indie community as well, with engineers, free of charge.

studiowide.jpg
 
Normalize? GRRR NO, no no, not ever. I'm going to take a chance and guess you mix music. You can get away with normalizing on studio tracks, though most mixers I know would still frown on the suggestion. That is NOT the case with production sound. First off it is usually noisy (at least a lot noisier than studio recordings), normalizing will just boost the noise. Second if all your tracks are "just below distortion" then they will distort when you mix them unless you bring them back down. Third dialog is mixed to around -20 dBfs give or take so cranking everything to -0.1 dBfs is a waste. Fourth you DON'T want everything at the same level. Actors that are farther away should sound farther away etc.
Fifth, FX you want him to make the pin drop in reel 2 just as loud as the A-Bomb in reel 4??? Not.

You are mixing a movie not some compressed to death pop tune. You don't want a waveform that looks like a block.

serenity737 said:
I'll start with the assumption you already have high quality mixing equipment or software, excellent studio reference speakers and a great listening room. Those are really key components to have in place before you try to mix anything and will have a great impact on your final results.

Given that assumption the first thing you'll want to do is to normalize all of your tracks. Essentially this will bring all of your tracks up to the maximium possible level without distortion. You can certainly do this with ease using a program such as Audition, etc.

Your strategy for mixing ought to always be to service the story, the message you are trying to convey. As when mixing songs for CD, etc. you want the vocals to come across well with clarity, tone and presence above any other background sound you may have as part of the mix. Again, the way in which you record and the degree to which you are able to isolate vocals from background sound has a great influence on the result. The more you can isolate components of the sound track the more control during the mixing stage you will have over the result.

There will be times when you have a music track when you will want to punch up or mute down a particular passage. Again, this ought to be in service of the story you wish to convey.

I won't go into a lot of detail regarding mixing individual instruments to develop the music track. Different people have different strategies. Usually I'll do an initial mix for a song to get a feel for what I have and the way different tracks work or don't work together. I always do my mix in mono until the final stage since the addage "if it sounds good in mono then ... " holds true. After an initial mix I'll concentrate on the foundation - drums, bass, piano - taking care to equalize to insure each instrument has space for its own frequency response and compress to add punch - for example with a track for a kick drum. At that point I'll add other instruments with eq if necessary. Last, when I'm pleased with the overall mix for the instrument tracks I'll balance all of that with any vocals for the song and spend a lot of time tweeking the eq for the vocals since they really are key if the song is going to work.

In general, you don't want the sound to become a distraction for the audience. It is important, very important; however, keep in mind it is script, directing, acting, editing, video/film and sound all working to together which can make a project evocative for an audience.

Mikle
Click to expand...
 
Whew, thank you for clearing that up before it got ugly. Normalizing is used for specific purposes, but certainly not something you would want to do to all your tracks for a film mix.

steve
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top