The mix, first of all in film music, is a multistage process. There is not one mix. Second, as I explained before, I start mixing when I’m writing. So it is not like we record guitar, guitar is on the tape, comes to the mixing board, and then we mix it. It’s really much more interactive right now. I do a music mix mostly because I want to get a second perspective of an engineer that I trust. And it’s another collaborative step that I’m taking and saying okay, I’m delivering this music in this shape and form.
And what happens in film is there’s another mix, a so-called dub mix happening after that, when actually all audio components, meaning dialogue, sound effects, and music, will get mixed together for a final film mix. So this is a mix after the mix. And part of my challenge in the music mix is to predict what’s gonna happen in the final mix so that the music will happily co-exist with dialogue and with sound effects. Sound effects being by far the more difficult challenge because sound effects now bleed into music and music bleeds into sound effects. So this is part of our job.
In an ideal world, you would get together and plan this as one creative project. Because that’s what sound for picture is. In the end, you’re gonna hear everything at the same time. And if there’s a good concept and if there’s a good complimentary effect between the elements, it’s gonna benefit the movie more. And if there’s not good coherence, then it’s gonna be less effective for all elements involved.
Unfortunately, egos, of course, play into that scene. And I’ve started many projects with everybody clapping themselves on the shoulder saying we’re gonna work together on this and sound effects and music are gonna talk. But months later, when you hit the dub stage for the final mix, it’s a different picture. And there are egos and people will pull little tricks just so that the sound effects are a little louder or that the music is a little louder. I guess it’s just part of human nature to be competitive at times. I wish it to be collaborative all the times, but the truth is sometimes it’s collaborative and sometimes it’s competitive. You have to be prepared for both.
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