Music Composition for Video

Audible Choices

When adding music to your videos, one must consider a few more criteria than when just dealing with audio. Your video is likely to already have audio of some form already attached, whether it be speech, ambient audio, or both, adding music into the mix requires some special considerations. First, you have to play to your content: what is the theme and mood of your video? You want to pick or score a composition that meshes well with what the viewer is seeing. Some videos call for a driving score that helps move and inform the pace of the action, whereas others benefit from a more reserved soundscape, perhaps even ambient noise or very minimal tones. Whichever category your video is in, having the right music in place can add that special touch to an already solid visual element.

In The Mix

Mixing your music into your video again follows a slightly different process than just working with audio. It is very important to have the music “sit” in the right position in your mix – this means that the volume and spatial configuration of your sounds should be balanced and not fighting with any other sounds, especially voices, that might be happening. It is a good idea to not mix too loud initially, but for particularly dense musical compositions, one could adjust the volume to compensate or even change where the music is in the stereo mix – panning an audio element further to the left or right of the stereo field is a useful technique to give a sound it’s own space and prevent it from clashing with other sounds in the mix. When one doesn’t have too many tracks, it’s a good idea to pan them to different spaces in the stereo field – this will bring a cleaner final mix, and, depending on the content, could add an extra dimension of believability to your audio.

When and Where

It is important to remember that while music is a great tool for bringing out expression and emotion in your content, it is not good to overuse it or place music in inappropriate settings or with irrelevant themes to your content. This can detract from your video or even distract from the message or cause it to be misinterpreted entirely. When used judiciously and with good practices, music can add that final missing touch to your videos and help them take your viewers exactly where you want them to go.

Skillman Video Group LLC is a Boston video production company. Call us anytime at 1-800-784-0140.