The 'Dub'
In the broadcast world, the sound mix is traditionally known as the ‘dub’, and mixers will be credited as the ‘Dubbing Mixer’. The role has always been one of those slight dark arts (such as grading) that only people in the industry really know about, and quite possibly don’t fully understand.
Re-Recording Mixer
Confusingly, in the world of film, the same role will be credited differently under the title of ‘Re-recording Mixer’. This is to acknowledge the fact that you are essentially mixing the re-recordings (or pre-mixes) for dialogue, ADR, SFX etc to create one soundtrack. (This is also somewhat confusing, as the soundtrack in this context means something altogether different to the music soundtrack..!)
Thankfully, since the proliferation of online video content, things have simplified somewhat. This has led to the more mainstream use of the term - ‘sound mix’.
The Sound Mix
A sound mix is a post-production process of combining multiple audio files, or recordings, for a film or video project. It creates one cohesive stereo track that’s clearer, smoother, crisper, and generally more balanced and professional sounding than the original raw recordings. Parts of the process include cleaning up VO recordings, removing background noise for location sound, or smoothing out overly dynamic or muffled dialogue with compression and EQ.
You might also want to add sound fx, ambience tracks and Foley (the recreation of everyday noises) to a film, through sound editing (or design) to bring extra realism to a scene or shot.
Final Mix
These elements all come together in the final mix: a cohesive balance of VO, dialogue and SFX, sitting neatly on top of any music track, which might be ‘ducked’ or ‘dipped’ to allow the dialogue to take centre stage.
The final touch is making sure your mix meets necessary loudness standards. More on this here.
While being a technical role and one that is there to solve problems, it is also creative, in the sense that the mixer is there to help tell the story through sound; creating a sonic landscape for the film to sit and convey emotions.
Check out our Recent Work to see how a sound mix can bring a film to life.
Photo by James Kovin on Unsplash
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