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Objective-Based Mixing

Guide the Viewer’s Attention

This is my guiding objective in every stage of the mix process and is arguably the most basic and important creative goal in the sound mix.  By manipulating the levels of the dialogue, sound effects, and music of each moment you can highlight or bury the most important things happening on screen.

Here’s an example:  Imagine two characters are having a conversation on screen.  They are standing in a ruined city block after a big battle or disaster.  The characters are positioned in the foreground of the shot, and in the background maybe there’s a fire burning and a couple of other people digging through some rubble.

In order to guide the viewer, we want to place the character dialogue in the foreground of the mix.  It should be one of the loudest elements, so the viewer can focus on it without distraction. The fire crackling or sounds of people walking through the rubble in the background can be played very low or left out if needed.

If we mix the scene so that we can hear every sound element equally, the viewer may become distracted or confused. The footsteps, rubble, and fire sound effects of the background will compete with the dialogue of the on-screen characters delivering the exposition. By keeping the dialogue clear and present we are telling the audience “this is an important piece of the story, pay attention to this.”

 

Depiction of a conversation in a distracting scene.

You can achieve the same guidance with sound effects and music if they are delivering important story information to the audience. Perhaps you need to showcase the rattling wheeze of an airplane engine as it begins to stall, causing the heroes to panic. Or maybe a wide sweeping shot of an ancient city needs the somber melody on the violin to help the audience understand that the city isn’t the vibrant, thriving place it once was.

Get the Mix in Spec

This is not a very exciting or fun goal for most, but it may be the most important one on this list.  Every network or streaming service has a document of specifications they require for deliverables, and as a mixer, it is very important that you understand and conduct your mix to achieve these specs.  If you breach these requirements, you will likely have to correct your mix and redeliver, not ideal.

The important requirements I like to keep in mind during the creative mixing process are the loudness specs.  These can vary depending on the distribution, but usually, they explain an overall LUFS measurement and a true peak limit, and in most cases, you will have about 4 dB of range you can land in (-22 to -26 for example).

Depiction of LUFS measurement.

The key is to set yourself up for success from the start. I always start my mix by getting my dialogue levels set and overall reverbs applied. For a show that requires a mix in the -24db +/-2 range, I usually try to land my overall dialogue level around -25.  The dialogue is the anchor of the mix.  If I land the dialogue safely in the spec, in most cases the rest of the mix will slot in nice and clean, and my final loudness measurements will be right in the pocket.

I also try to keep in mind my peak limit, especially when mixing sound effects. In action-heavy scenes, it’s easy to crank up the sound elements you want to highlight, but if you aren’t careful you can run up against your limiters and in some cases breach the true peak limit requirement.

When In Doubt, Make it Sound Cool

It may seem like this goes without saying, but if I ever question how to approach a decision or process during my mix, I like to remember this mantra: “Make it sound cool!”  Sometimes this means adding that extra bit of reverb on the villainous laugh, or kicking the music up a bit louder than usual for a montage.  Other times it means digging in and spending that extra few minutes to really make a scene shine.

One “coolness” opportunity I run into often when mixing is a scene where music and sound effects both have impactful sounds happening. One straightforward way to enhance the coolness is to adjust the sync of the sound effects so they hit right on the beat of the music.  It may seem like a subtle change to knock each sound effect out of sync by a few frames, but when the moment hits just right the result makes the whole product feel so much more cohesive and cool.

Another fun opportunity is what I think of as “trippy freak-out scenes.”  Examples are a character having a nightmare where they are surrounded by floating, laughing heads, or a scene where a character takes powerful drugs which kick in and alter their reality.  It’s always worth it to go the extra mile in these moments to really pull the audience into the characters’ wacky world.  My favorite tricks in these times are reverse reverbs and lower octave doubles.

Depiction of ReVibe II plug-in set up for inverted reverb.

I could write a list with many, many items I consider as objectives when mixing.  There are so many competing goals and ideas bouncing around in each episode, but I always come back to these three.  Working with objectives in my mixing allows me to stay focused on the big picture rather than get sucked into the monotony of following a step-by-step process.  For me, it is the key to being creative on demand and ensuring that each mix has a personal touch.

This blog was originally featured on Boom Box Post

The Lowdown On Mixing – Re-recording mixer Jacob Cook

DIALOGUE

When we mix an episode of animated TV, we always start with the dialogue. I usually start by setting reverbs for each scene, then mix the dialogue line by line to get it in spec and sounding natural throughout the show. Any panning, extra processing or additional reverb is also added at this time. The dialogue serves as the anchor for the rest of the mix, so it’s very important to get this locked in before adding any other elements!

MUSIC

Next, we add in the music and ride the levels throughout the show. I’ll dip it for dialogue when necessary and boost it to help keep the momentum and add excitement.

BACKGROUNDS/AMBIENCES

Then, I’ll mute the music again and mix the backgrounds and ambiences. By mixing these without the music we ensure the scene will sound natural when the music isn’t playing. Then I turn the music back on and foley is next, meaning footsteps, hand pats and movement tracks. Like music and backgrounds, the levels will vary show to show and client to client depending on preference. I’ll set an overall level and ride faders when needed throughout the show, adding panning when necessary.

SOUND EFFECTS

Lastly, I bring in the rest of the hard sound effects.  These are organized into food groups such as mono effects, stereo effects, whooshes, toon, etc (shown in the photo below). Again, how these are mixed varies show to show. This is an oversimplification of the process, but this is the basic sequence I follow.  I usually wrap up with a few watch downs in 5.1 and stereo to make adjustments and take one last look at mix notes from the client.

Screen+Shot+2020-09-16+at+3.13.46+PM.jpg

What do you look for in a good mix?

It is important that the mix supports the style of the show. Something with a lot of action should feel exciting and have a dynamic mix. An educational preschool show needs a mix that will help direct the viewer’s focus correctly and highlight the information being presented. I also think a good mix supports the story and doesn’t distract the audience. It is important that the sound is helping support the narrative and storytelling style.

Do you have any technical/creative prerequisites you think would be helpful for a mixer?

You definitely need to be an expert in Pro Tools. Understanding all of the ins and outs of writing automation through all the various parameters is essential. A strong basis as an editor is a good start here, but it helps to push into the mixing workflow and familiarize yourself with things like preview mode, latch prime in stop, surround panning, VCAs, grouping and plug-in automation. The best way to learn about these is get your hands dirty. Read the manual or some tutorials and start mixing.  You will quickly learn where you can speed things up and the benefits of the different automation modes.

Creatively, the best thing you can do to prepare is to watch a pro work and learn how they approach each mix. I learned all of my mixing skills and techniques from watching Boom Box Owners Kate and Jeff mix and adopting their methods. Once I understood what they were doing and why I worked to get faster and developed my own techniques and style!

Referencing other shows and films is also a great way to get ideas and help your mixing improve. Critically listening to a mix on TV or in a theater can really surprise you, and I would recommend paying close attention to how the music and sound effects levels change throughout a film.

What do you wish you would’ve known before becoming a mixer?

Probably that it’s OK to not be able to hear EVERYTHING all of the time. It took me a while to really understand this, and it’s definitely fundamental.  It’s important that the mix doesn’t sound cluttered through the whole show with an abundance of unnecessary sound. Editors cut for complete coverage, but as a mixer, it is your entire job to decide what sounds or music are most important for the audience to hear at each moment, and not overwhelm them with sounds that don’t support the story the filmmaker is telling in a scene.

Also Latch Prime in Stop, which lets you write automation without playing back. When I first started mixing I probably wasted a lot of time writing panning and volume automation in real-time that could have easily been done in a half a second when stopped.

What would you say the hardest obstacle is when it comes to mixing?

As I mentioned in the previous answer, the hardest obstacle is determining where to direct the viewer’s attention and how best to accomplish that. It can be extra challenging when you consider how much time, effort and creativity went into each sonic piece. The sound effects editor may have spent all day creating an amazing glowing steady for the magic orb in the background, but if the characters are having an important story conversation, it is not the time to feature those sound effects. You may really love the cello melody in this particular scene, but you know the audience needs to notice the distant explosions that draw the character’s attention off-screen. You make hundreds of these types of decisions during a mix and learning which direction to take things can really make or break the final product.


Hopefully, Jacob’s insight gives you a better understanding of mixing! If you enjoyed this post, you should also check out Jeff’s mixing post about the technical side of mixing:

DEMYSTIFYING THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF MIXING

WRITTEN BY JACOB COOK – RE-RECORDING MIXER, BOOM BOX POST

 

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