Due to cheap technology, there are a lot more people these days creating music but as the music business is in decline and making any money is so difficult, many turn to the film/tv scene. There are two types of composers working or trying to work in this field, people who compose films scores and people who compose library music. While there are many similarities between the two, there are also significant differences and different skill sets required. Ultimately though both are creating music for use in film/tv and there are technical and usage requirements which need to be fulfilled which are different from the almost complete lack of requirements in the music business. I'm creating this post to help to avoid the issues which seem to be increasing due to lower budgets causing producers and directors to hire less experienced composers and due to the internet allowing anyone to offer their music for use in film/tv.
Delivery: The audio format should be: 24bit 48kFs/S wav or aiff, with a maximum peak level of -6dBFS. If you're working with a 32bit (or higher) mix engine you do not need to dither to 24bit. If for some obscure reason you do need to dither, use a standard TDPF dither, never a noise shaped dither. If you're thinking of creating 5.1 music, don't! By all means work with surround (it's a growing market) but the .1 is for low frequency effects, not for music. So 5.0 is OK and 4.0 might be even better as it leaves the centre channel free for dialogue and Foley. If you are hired as a composer for a surround film/tv program, you will need to discuss with the director and the supervising sound editor or the re-recording mixer which channel format to use for the music.
Usage Considerations: With the exception of the end credits, the vast majority of the time your music will not be the most important audio element, the dialogue will and frequently some of the SFX or Foley will take precedence as well. If your music gets in the way of the dialogue I (the re-recording mixer) will get rid of it! I'll lower the level of your music, I'll EQ it to reduce the frequencies interfering with the dialogue or I might even add reverb to it, commonly I'll use a combination of these. In extreme situations I may have to edit the music out in part or entirely! If you're a hired composer you have the benefit of being able to orchestrate around the dialogue but even as a library music composer there are certain things you can do to help keep your music sounding as you intended and make the Director's and Re-recording mixer's job easier. For example, make your music mixes wetter than you otherwise would and use compression sparingly and only for musical reasons, not just to make your music louder (as you would in the music business).
Check Your Mix:
If there is much interest in the information in this post, I might add to it as useful points to remember spring to mind.
G
Delivery: The audio format should be: 24bit 48kFs/S wav or aiff, with a maximum peak level of -6dBFS. If you're working with a 32bit (or higher) mix engine you do not need to dither to 24bit. If for some obscure reason you do need to dither, use a standard TDPF dither, never a noise shaped dither. If you're thinking of creating 5.1 music, don't! By all means work with surround (it's a growing market) but the .1 is for low frequency effects, not for music. So 5.0 is OK and 4.0 might be even better as it leaves the centre channel free for dialogue and Foley. If you are hired as a composer for a surround film/tv program, you will need to discuss with the director and the supervising sound editor or the re-recording mixer which channel format to use for the music.
Usage Considerations: With the exception of the end credits, the vast majority of the time your music will not be the most important audio element, the dialogue will and frequently some of the SFX or Foley will take precedence as well. If your music gets in the way of the dialogue I (the re-recording mixer) will get rid of it! I'll lower the level of your music, I'll EQ it to reduce the frequencies interfering with the dialogue or I might even add reverb to it, commonly I'll use a combination of these. In extreme situations I may have to edit the music out in part or entirely! If you're a hired composer you have the benefit of being able to orchestrate around the dialogue but even as a library music composer there are certain things you can do to help keep your music sounding as you intended and make the Director's and Re-recording mixer's job easier. For example, make your music mixes wetter than you otherwise would and use compression sparingly and only for musical reasons, not just to make your music louder (as you would in the music business).
Check Your Mix:
- Check for reasonably good mono compatibility and very good stereo compatibility if you're working in surround.
- Check your mix still works well at low levels. If the re-recording mixer has to lower the level of your music significantly to accommodate other audio elements, the perception of your mix will change. The most obvious change will be that the bass frequencies in your mix will seem quieter or will disappear entirely.
- Check your mix still works well at high levels. Dubbing theatre systems are incredibly revealing, you need to make sure there is nothing in your mix which will make you look incompetent. Editing clicks and spurious noises completely invisible in an average music studio may suddenly become incredibly obvious in the dubbing theatre (and of course in the cinema or on a good home cinema system).
- Check the bass! Cinemas often have subs which go down as low as 12Hz, even home cinema systems commonly go as low as 18-20Hz. Near field monitors and most other home and studio speakers usually can't reproduce much below 40Hz, so you really you need to use full range speakers. If budget doesn't allow for full range speakers, your only workaround is to check your mix on a good set of headphones (with a wide frequency response) and check to see if you can find anything untoward in a spectrum analyser.
If there is much interest in the information in this post, I might add to it as useful points to remember spring to mind.
G
