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I was bored this morning and I've not really seen this topic discussed much at length, so I thought I would share a method I've used to get add music to edits without it sounding out of place. It is inspired by my extensive dabbling in music production.
There are many cases where added extra music might be desired, whether from an isolated score to help smooth transitions or just music from another source. The problem is often times the audio on a soundtrack release will be mastered very differently than how it is mixed in the films sound mix. Often the soundtrack version will sound fuller and brighter, while in the film it will be somewhat scaled back. Less bright and full, not thin sounding or anything but just a little subdued. This is to allow it to be loud enough in the mix without clashing with the sound effects and dialog. Frequencies will be cut a little bit, giving it a tone that mixes easier with other elements to be clearly audible but not get in the way.
This can make it difficult to drop in music from a sountrack or isolated score without it sticking out or sounding out of place or getting in the way. I've gotten around this problem using AI audio matching.
I use izotope ozone for this and imo it is the best, although it is expensive (but they do have generous sales regularly) and I already have it for music. But there are other tools.
Basically you have it analyze a section of audio from the film where it is only music playing (title reveals, credits, or whatever) and it makes a 'reference'. Basically it takes notes of how the eq is setup, how much of each frequency is present, dynamic range etc. It saves this reference and you can pull it whenever you like. Then you take the music you want to add to the edit, you can have it analyze it as well, and then you can have it automatically adjust it to match the reference. And viola! It's now much easier to drop it into the film smoothly. You can tinker with the settings and how strong you want it to be, if the recordings are made with very different acoustics or design, like if it's score from a different film or you are dropping contemporary music in it can sound off but you can just turn the effect down until it sounds 'normal' but will still mix better with the films audio.
This could also be helpful for more than just the score, say if you want to use a different sound mix for certain scenes of a movie that has multiple mixes or incorporate deleted scenes or what have you. Or if you have dubbed over a character you could use it to further match the acoustics and mixing of the other actors. (although izotope neutron might be better for that)
Might not be something many find useful but I'm sitting here bored this morning and thought I would share. I've used it to an extent on most of my edits.
There are many cases where added extra music might be desired, whether from an isolated score to help smooth transitions or just music from another source. The problem is often times the audio on a soundtrack release will be mastered very differently than how it is mixed in the films sound mix. Often the soundtrack version will sound fuller and brighter, while in the film it will be somewhat scaled back. Less bright and full, not thin sounding or anything but just a little subdued. This is to allow it to be loud enough in the mix without clashing with the sound effects and dialog. Frequencies will be cut a little bit, giving it a tone that mixes easier with other elements to be clearly audible but not get in the way.
This can make it difficult to drop in music from a sountrack or isolated score without it sticking out or sounding out of place or getting in the way. I've gotten around this problem using AI audio matching.
I use izotope ozone for this and imo it is the best, although it is expensive (but they do have generous sales regularly) and I already have it for music. But there are other tools.
Basically you have it analyze a section of audio from the film where it is only music playing (title reveals, credits, or whatever) and it makes a 'reference'. Basically it takes notes of how the eq is setup, how much of each frequency is present, dynamic range etc. It saves this reference and you can pull it whenever you like. Then you take the music you want to add to the edit, you can have it analyze it as well, and then you can have it automatically adjust it to match the reference. And viola! It's now much easier to drop it into the film smoothly. You can tinker with the settings and how strong you want it to be, if the recordings are made with very different acoustics or design, like if it's score from a different film or you are dropping contemporary music in it can sound off but you can just turn the effect down until it sounds 'normal' but will still mix better with the films audio.
This could also be helpful for more than just the score, say if you want to use a different sound mix for certain scenes of a movie that has multiple mixes or incorporate deleted scenes or what have you. Or if you have dubbed over a character you could use it to further match the acoustics and mixing of the other actors. (although izotope neutron might be better for that)
Might not be something many find useful but I'm sitting here bored this morning and thought I would share. I've used it to an extent on most of my edits.
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