KOLKATA

8/1/2020

SOUND MIXING

▪ What is Sound Mixing today?

➢ A process of balancing and finalization, to ensure that the

Audio-Visual content is communicated in the best possible way
aurally for a defined format, with the given layers of audio
placed in a session of a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).
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ROLES AND THEIR DIFFERENTIATION

sample
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BEST OBSERVER IN A CRICKET MATCH

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BEST OBSERVER IN A CRICKET MATCH

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SALIENT CHECKPOINTS PRIOR TO MIXING

✓ CALIBRATION – Weighted Curves, Noises & Tones

✓ METERS – VU vs PEAK, Leq

✓ SESSION PARAMETERS

✓ SYNC-CHECKS and ROUTING-CHECKS

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HUMAN HEARING & WEIGHTING CURVES

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HUMAN HEARING & WEIGHTING CURVES

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VU METER vs PEAK METER

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SAMPLING FREQUENCY & BIT DEPTH

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MAJOR PROCESSING CATEGORIES

DYNAMICS processing - altering the dynamic range of an audio source

(ratio between the loudest and the lowest possible audio level ) -
compressor, expander

EQUALIZATION - the process used to alter the frequency response of an

audio source

REVERB/DELAY - the process used to generate sense of space where the

audio source is
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PROCESS FLOW TYPES

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ANALOG MIXING CONSOLE

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ROOM REFLECTIONS
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ROOM REFLECTIONS

amp
DIRECT

ASW
Very
LEV (REVERBERANT ZONE)
Early
Reflec Early Reflection
tion Late Reflection

time
20 ms 80 – 100 ms
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DESIGN ASPECTS TO BE ENSURED

Frequency Bandwidth & Dynamic Range Utilization

Optimal Usage of Temporal Spanning

Fidelity (Timbre/Presence/Space/Character)

Continuity & Perspectives

Balanced use of Non-Diegetic/Diegetic-Sync/Diegetic-NonSync

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HUMAN EAR – A MIXING CONSOLE

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AUDIO COMPRESSION

Perceptual encoding is a lossy compression technique for audio signals that

is based on imperfections of the human ear. It is based on two related
characteristics of the human ear:

➢ the sensitivity of the human ear is not the same for all frequencies

➢ a loud tone or noise can make a weaker tone inaudible

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PHASE & NOISE CANCELLATION

➢ more the gadgets used to capture sound from same source, more the
out-of-phase; bring them in-sync before mixing

➢ the noise reduction process initiates at the time of recording; during post
production in a DAW, profile and eliminate the same
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SIGNAL ROUTING FOR FILM SESSIONS

Dialog1 Foley/SFX1 Amb1 BGM1

Dialog2 Foley/SFX2 Amb2 BGM2 Reverbs

Dialog3 Foley/SFX3 Amb3 BGM3

Delays
DialogM Foley/SFXM AmbM BGMM

MASTER
HARDWARE OUTPUT
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MIXING THROUGH A CONTROL SURFACE

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MIXING WINDOW IN A DAW

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NEW DELIVERY FORMATS - OTT

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K-WEIGHTING
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LKFS STANDARD
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PEAK NORMALIZATION vs LOUDNESS NORMALIZATION

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PEAK NORMALIZATION vs LOUDNESS NORMALIZATION

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PEAK NORMALIZATION vs LOUDNESS NORMALIZATION

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PEAK NORMALIZATION vs LOUDNESS NORMALIZATION

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7.1.4 SPEAKER LAYOUT FOR HOME ENTERTAINMENT

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