Mixing for Theatrical Release

Jaime Valles

Jaime Valles

Veteran
Hello, all. I'm working on the final sound mix for a feature length DVX film I'm producing. The feature is intended for theatrical release in the near future, probably on digital projectors. All the sound editing is complete, and I'm now moving on to setting the levels and volumes of the music, dialogue, and sound effects. I'm working on ProTools LE with the MBox.

I'm wondering about overall volume levels. How loud should the audio be in general? There are some moments with full out music cues, and some with soft dialogue, and everything in between. Is there a particular volume level I should be striving for?

Right now, I'm listening to the mix on a high quality pair of Sony headphones through the headphone jack on the front side of the MBox. The headphone volume knob is set to 50%. Everything sounds great. Is this OK? Or should I be listening with the knob turned to 75%, or maybe 100%?

I'm new at this sound editing business, and I want this to sound the best it can, given the resources available. Ideally, I'd have access to a ProTools HD studio with professional monitors, and several sound engineers that do this for a living. But I'm not rich, and my last name isn't Spielberg. Therefore I need your help. Any advice, suggestions, and tips for setting final audio volume is greatly appreciated. :)
 
Optimally you should try to monitor your mixes at the level your listeners will hear it. If your target was a home television audience, it would be something like 65dB on average. For a theatrical release, it is probably a bit louder. I do know that in generally audio is remixed for consumer release to account for the (in general) lower quality playback equipment and enviornment.

Instead of worrying about your overall volume, you should probably be more concerned with how much dynamic range you are creating (the difference between the softest passages and the loudest ones). Check out a big budget movie with some soft dialogue, and I think you will find that it is essentially as loud as all the other dialogue. It will sill sound like a whisper because the actors are whispering.

Oh yeah, mixing on headphones is dangerous (for your final product) not to mention fatiguing. At the very least get a cheap stereo to reality check, and DEFINATELY listen to the mix on a crappy mono speaker on a television. Most larger studios have a set of Auratone speakers (aka. Horrortone) which are designed to emulate the crappy speaker in a television. I just use a television, since I have one anyway :)

Do you have the Waves plugins? I could probably give you helpful hints regarding those plugins and doing mixdowns.
 
Pretty much what tigeba said. Really NEVER mix with headphones, use a good pair of monitors in a room with good acoustics.

You want your average main vocals set around -20dbfs. Then mix to taste from there.

Read Jay Rose's audio post book, this will help a lot.

Good luck
 
Stop what you are doing right now, and take it to a mixer. Doesn't have to be a large mix stage...even someone working out of their apartment. NEVER mix on headphones. They don't translate well at all.

A couple of years ago, I did sound design on a sci fi that we mixed in someone's home studio on an hd rig. We mixed in surround.

If you continue on the path you are now, and go to the theater for the screening you, and eveyone else will not be happy with the results.

-Dave
 
Thanks for all the replies. Yeah, I'll be getting myself some monitors soon. Probably the M-Audio LX4 2.1 and Subwoofer. It's around $300, which is about all I can afford right now.

Tigeba - Good point about the soft whispers being as loud as everything else. Right now there is quite the difference between the louds and softs in my mix. I'll have to work on that a lot. And no, unfortunately I don't have the waves plugin. Is there anything that comes built in with ProTools LE that could do a decent job?

Wabbit - As for setting the average main vocals to -20dbfs... Where do I see this? I can see the level indicator with the green bar moving up and down, but I don't see a numerical readout of dbfs anywhere. Is this in the Mix window? The actual position of the slider on the board?

As you can see, I'm very new at using ProTools LE, so forgive me if these sound like stupid questions. Also, I should have clarified before that the mix I'm doing is for putting on a DVD to show potential investors and distributors. If this ends up being projected theatrically, I'd insist on having a Pro mix made in a studio, because by that point there'd be more financial resources available.

Again, thanks for the replies. And if you have answers to the questions above, I'd really appreciate those, too!
 
I got Jay's Rose's books on pre and the one on post a few weeks ago, I am still trying to get through all the info!

That is money extremely well spent!!!! The man is a genius! The tips a knowledge in these books are awesome!

Buy em through is website www.dplay.com. that way he gets a bit extra commission which he without a doubt deserves!!

- Derrick
 
Read through the archives and you will find that I'm the ultimate guerrilla audio guy, always willing to help folks figure out how to do something on the cheap - when appropriate.

A mix being performed for theatrical release is not an appropriate time. The mere fact that your mixing on headphones is only a beginning. Even if you purchase really good monitors, you will still, more than likely, be mixing in a bad room that hasn't been tuned and your mix will suffer greatly from this fact alone. For what you will spend on the monitors, you could have your feature professionally mixed in a proper studio.

If your visuals suffer a little (soft image, on a big screen) it really isn't THAT big of a deal, if the content is there, folks will adapt to the visual image in short order. People NEVER adapt to bad audio, no matter how engrossing the story.

Spend the time to do a rough mix, that's great. But if this is really going to be played in a theater, have it mixed right. You'd be surprised how many small studios will do an exceptional job for you for very little money, just to mix a film.

Matt
 
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