NOOB audio mixing question

[crazymcnutjob]

As a person who is not very experienced editing audio, I had some questions as to how to correctly balance the volume of certain tracks. In certain scenes I am mixing numerous diagetic and non diagetic sound. Sometimes the music overpowers the dialogue and this is very frustrating because I can't seem to get it correctly balanced. I am editing in final cut pro, and I am wondering what are the ideal decibel levels I should have for dialogue, ambient sound, and music? I know it's probably a subjective answer, but i don't want people to have to make huge adjustments to their television volume when they see this project. thanks!

 

[Aaron Marshall]

Don't mix the music in so loudly. That's a pretty common mistake. There are no definite level settings. It will vary from mix to mix.

You could try side chain compressing the music triggered by the dialog. If it becomes too much of an issue for you; maybe I can wrangle the levels for you.