New method for reducing background music

Morning all,
Ever noticed how when you watch a hollywood movie that when there is background music along with dialog that the music is just there, but also not there.

I was becoming frustrated with how simple volume reductions were not giving us the same effect. It was still sometimes difficult to hear the dialog over the music and if you turned the music down too much the impact was lost.

I set out to find a new way to reduce music but still have it present and I believe I have found it in the Graphic EQ. The plan was to reduce the dynamic range of the music so the increased range of the dialog could take over. So we applied a Graphic EQ in Vegas and gave all music we wanted to soften down a dramatic drop off for everything over 200Hz and also all low end frequencies were also dropped. This left just the middle range.

The following clip was created using this method and we would love to hear what you think;

Carly & Simon | Highlights at Great Fosters on Vimeo

[Danny O'Neill]

Hi sigmund.

I'll try and get a comparison up but the best way is to give it a go yourself.

As for time I've actually found it quicker. In Vegas I used to have to add an audio envelope, add a point, reduce volume.... Now I split the audio, extend it to crossfade and then apply my preset (as seen in the picture as 'reduce vocals'). Then, for all future drops I can just paste the attributes on.

As for if the client will notice. Probably not, they've always been happy with the volume drop method but put side by side, if you ask them which ones better I would like to think they prefer this one. If nothing else, it's sped up my workflow slightly.

[Sean Seah]

Thanks for sharing! Gonna give it a try!