I am currently working on the animation short of a fellow IT-er. Very, very nice work. I also really like the score. However, the audio of the score track itself is highly compressed, as if it were a pop music single.
Film/video requires a different approach to audio mixing. As sound designers, sound editors, composers and rerecording mixers we do not take front and center. (None of the other crafts should either, but we'll delay that discussion for another time...) The sound track is a part of an integrated whole. The sound track - dialog, Foley, sound effects and score/source music - needs room to breathe. By overly compressing the score you don't leave any room for the rest of the sound track. This leaves the rerecording mixer with two very opposite but equally bad choices. Either the score is front and center sonically, and the dialog, Foley and sound effects remain faint sonic impressions, or the sound design takes the acoustic lead and the score is faded into the aural background.
An uncompressed score, however, has lots of "air," or room for other sounds to occupy. All of the sonic elements have a chance to work together instead of competing for sonic space.
Something else that composers should do is to record stems. For a sound team a stem means all of the members of a sound group are isolated onto individual sub-mixes, and even subsequently recorded separately. For instance, there would be a separate stem for dialog, Foley, sound effects, ambient backgrounds and score/music (yes, there will be sub-mixes inside the sub-mixes). There is also the standard "M&E" (Music and Effects) mix, which is all of the audio except for the dialog so the dialog can be dubbed in another language. The composer should record separate stems as well - strings, brass, reeds, percussion, etc. as well as synths, drums, guitars and the like. Rerecording mixers are control freaks, and they really don't want to mess with your mix, they want to use it to every best advantage to enhance the visuals, the story and the characters.
As an example... It is very important that the audience understand that the character is walking away from a situation in a very angry state of mind, although s/he (for the purpose of the story) has not been able to let it show on his/her face. However, the Foley team did a wonderful job with making angry footsteps, and the sound effects team selected and edited in a terrific sound of a door being opened and bashed against the wall. The score, however, is full of percussive elements that do not blend well with the Foley and sound effects. If the rerecording mixer has the stems s/he and either eliminate the percussion from the score track altogether, or work magic with EQ, processing and effects so that the "angry" footsteps and door are able to do their job of informing the audience of the characters state of mind.
So, to sum up...
Composers, please DO NOT compress your score. And please record stems.
Our job is to support a story and characters, not be stars in our own right. If you want your music to be the star then become a pop star or write symphonies where the music is the star.
Film/video requires a different approach to audio mixing. As sound designers, sound editors, composers and rerecording mixers we do not take front and center. (None of the other crafts should either, but we'll delay that discussion for another time...) The sound track is a part of an integrated whole. The sound track - dialog, Foley, sound effects and score/source music - needs room to breathe. By overly compressing the score you don't leave any room for the rest of the sound track. This leaves the rerecording mixer with two very opposite but equally bad choices. Either the score is front and center sonically, and the dialog, Foley and sound effects remain faint sonic impressions, or the sound design takes the acoustic lead and the score is faded into the aural background.
An uncompressed score, however, has lots of "air," or room for other sounds to occupy. All of the sonic elements have a chance to work together instead of competing for sonic space.
Something else that composers should do is to record stems. For a sound team a stem means all of the members of a sound group are isolated onto individual sub-mixes, and even subsequently recorded separately. For instance, there would be a separate stem for dialog, Foley, sound effects, ambient backgrounds and score/music (yes, there will be sub-mixes inside the sub-mixes). There is also the standard "M&E" (Music and Effects) mix, which is all of the audio except for the dialog so the dialog can be dubbed in another language. The composer should record separate stems as well - strings, brass, reeds, percussion, etc. as well as synths, drums, guitars and the like. Rerecording mixers are control freaks, and they really don't want to mess with your mix, they want to use it to every best advantage to enhance the visuals, the story and the characters.
As an example... It is very important that the audience understand that the character is walking away from a situation in a very angry state of mind, although s/he (for the purpose of the story) has not been able to let it show on his/her face. However, the Foley team did a wonderful job with making angry footsteps, and the sound effects team selected and edited in a terrific sound of a door being opened and bashed against the wall. The score, however, is full of percussive elements that do not blend well with the Foley and sound effects. If the rerecording mixer has the stems s/he and either eliminate the percussion from the score track altogether, or work magic with EQ, processing and effects so that the "angry" footsteps and door are able to do their job of informing the audience of the characters state of mind.
So, to sum up...
Composers, please DO NOT compress your score. And please record stems.
Our job is to support a story and characters, not be stars in our own right. If you want your music to be the star then become a pop star or write symphonies where the music is the star.