Roaring engines and slamming doors: A look at the work of a re-recording mixer
Film Features Expert Witness
Sound re-recording is a post-production job that often goes under-appreciated by moviegoing audiences. The process involves taking sounds that were recorded separately, or in different locations, blending them together, and then re-recording those sounds into a Printmaster to heighten the auditory experience for the moviegoer. We recently sat down with James Parnell, re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor at Monkeyland Audio, about his work.
3 Comments
People will forgive bad video, but will not forgive bad audio. Now, if only sound mixers in general would actually mix films so the dialogue is audible throughout the film. Too often they get caught up in the little details no one other than a sound person is ever gonna care about or notice. Then to make sure those details pop, they screw-up the parts of the audio people actually care about.
Also when doing mixes for Netflix and other streaming they need to do better on the stereo mix as more people are listening through stereo devices (laptops, phones, built in speakers, etc.) than proper audio gear.
I think a lot of the audio problems I encounter on Netflix are the results of streaming/compression issues. Add Bluetooth headphones to that chain and anything can happen. I have found myself pulling out some old DVDs lately (after a steady diet of streaming video for the past few months) and while the picture is usually an upgrade, over the typical online video stream, it’s the sound that improves exponentially. The depth and stereo separation is so much better.
Would have been far cooler to show the before and after.