Mixing simple DVD commentary track question

F

funkmusicinstitute

Active member
Hello, I'm finishing up post on commentary tracks for a DVD. The commentary is of the film's director.
Originally I had put the director's voice on top of the (much lowered) audio of the movie, which was recorded in stereo when it was made.
It sounds decent, but I'm wondering if it might be better to pan the director's commentary to one channel and pan the movie audio to the other channel,
hoping it will make everything sound clearer. Or simply keep all tracks down the middle.
It's a half hour long semi-documentary made in 1959, that intercuts between live jazz and staged interior acting scenes.
Thanks!
 
Panning will make it sound even more weird, what you need to do is to mix it so it works better, some compression on the narration should make it punch through more but you should also be dipping the original tracks when required and featuring them if no narration is present.

I presume you are not doing an audio dub and films like this may seem simple but actually need a lot more audio mixing than you may think.
 
Thanks Gary. You're right, it's not so simple. The narration is nearly constant, but I will try dipping more where there is no narration, and try some compression. Many thanks!
 
Dubbing programmes such as this almost needs a music mix approach where you must always hear the main vocal regardless of what is happening in the background!
 
I've done a number of commentary tracks and Gary is on the money. You might also be able to cut out a "hole" in the spectrum for the narration. People will not be listening to the cometary if what they wanted to hear was the film. They really want to hear the commentary so that trumps everything.
 
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