URGENT: Making music "SAFE" for TV

[Matt R.]

Need help before Saturday 14th!

I've just signed up to write the music for a team competing in the "48hour film festival" here in New Zealand. I will have a day or less to compose/record & master the soundtrack. Composing & recording no worries...however...


Q. How do I make the music SAFE for television broadcast?

I have Cakewalk Homestudio 2004 XL and Sonar 1 - What do I need to do? I may not have time for pretty - hack and slash is likely.

If someone has ideas on how to do Pretty AND Safe on 7-8 minutes of music in less than an hour, I'm all ears.


Thankyou all.

[banquo]

At the root of safety is familiarity.

SO:

1. steal from Vivaldi. No one'll know.

2. keep it moving in 4ths and 5ths [Dm -> Gmaj -> Cmaj in key of C]. Basis of millions of songs.

3. Rehash [for the millionth time] Canon in D [chords = D, A, Bm, F#, G, D, G, A]. Basis of millions of TV commercials.

4. Failing these 3, the minor cycle of 5ths is always fun. [chords = Am, Dm, Gmaj, Cmaj, Fmaj, Bdim, Emaj, Am] Basis of millions of songs.

good luck!

[Bosco Adama]

If someone has ideas on how to do Pretty AND Safe on 7-8 minutes of music in less than an hour, I'm all ears.


Thankyou all.

for TV :
safe - make sure it's mono compatible and crisp! ( watch out for muddiness! )

pretty - I don't know pretty ;)

[JonFairhurst]

for TV :
safe - make sure it's mono compatible and crisp! ( what out for muddiness! )

Yes. Mono compatibility is required. Also make sure that it sounds okay through a cheap three inch speaker - midrange only. Yep. No muddiness.

Maybe the most important aspects are that is has a consistent style, and that it captures one's interest. TV is about "branding" and keeping the audience glued to the set. So don't make any transitions from classical to bluegrass, and keep a clear point of focus at all times, be it the melody, countermelody, rhythm or effects.

-JD

[kitekrazy]

I guess this is a situation where I would use a bunch of Acid loops.

[Matt R.]

OK, Got me all wrong.

SAFE meaning - Frequency ranges, et al - don't want programmers yelling at me because the bass frequencies blew up somone's sub, etc...

As I said, I have no problems with the composing/recording, I've got a whole day for that :) , just less than an hour to master it.

Thank's about the "mono" compatable and crispness though...good thought! If only I had some cheep 3" speakers to test it out with...hehe.

So, Should there be bass and treble frequency cuts? Certain frequencies which should not be above y db, etc?

Cheers all again.

[Bosco Adama]

OK, Got me all wrong.

SAFE meaning - Frequency ranges, et al - don't want programmers yelling at me because the bass frequencies blew up somone's sub, etc...

As I said, I have no problems with the composing/recording, I've got a whole day for that :) , just less than an hour to master it.

Thank's about the "mono" compatable and crispness though...good thought! If only I had some cheep 3" speakers to test it out with...hehe.

So, Should there be bass and treble frequency cuts? Certain frequencies which should not be above y db, etc?

Cheers all again.

If you are the audio mixer for the final delivery for the broadcast-
peak at -10dbfs
rms constant level about -22dbfs (not too wide of a dynamic range though)
reference tone at -20dbfs
if stereo, just make sure it's mono compatible
frequency range is very subjective .
Just avoid muddiness 150hz to 700hz
the low end 20hz to 150hz won't be heard on small speakers but will be missed on home theatre systems.

I use my PC speakers sometimes as a reference.
Good luck!

[Fun Ghoul]

Does your software come with any sort of multiband/compressor/mastering plugins? Maybe there are some stock settings that you could use on these, just to get yourself by for now. I'm no expert, I run everything I do through a piece of hardware by TC electronics called the FINALIZER. I use a stock setting. Seems to clear things up pretty nice for me. I see many of the features in that device are now available in countless audio processing plugins. You should post this question on the Cakewalk boards...

Sounds like these producers are expecting miracles ( in terms of product turn around ) as usual. I'd really like to know how it turns out for you.

Bon chance.

[Matt R.]

Sounds like these producers are expecting miracles ( in terms of product turn around ) as usual. I'd really like to know how it turns out for you.

I expect miracles of me :)

It's a really good team of people I'm working with - The whole aim of the 48 hour film festival is to go nuts, and work your backsides off until you have a film finished. No one knows what they are making until the beginning of the 48 hours when they draw their genre, etc, out of a hat. From then they have to write a script, film it, edit it, score it, deliver it...within 48 hours.

I've created @9 minutes of music in a day and a half before for a project...this is just another level of insanity ;)

[BlueMax]

I use my PC speakers sometimes as a reference.
Good luck!
Commander Adama has a good point. :) Get yourself a pair of $2 PC speakers - if the output is acceptable on that, it'll sound good on TV. :D

[Markleford]

I've done two 48 Hour Film contests thus far for my brother's film group (http://www.platovision.com). Here's how we've handled it:

1) He goes to the launch meet and receives the requirements of the film: a character name, line of dialog, prop, and genre. He calls me up (since I'm long-distance from his team) and tells me the genre so I can wrap my head around it and get in the right frame of mind.

2) Their writing teams bashes ideas around and a script starts forming. When something shapes up and they have a direction and idea of basic plot, Mike gives me another call and outlines it. This helps further refine the genre choice and dictates tone and mood.

3) At this point I can start messing with sounds and themes. Often times there will be different themes for different (sets of) characters. I sketch out a few ideas as mp3 files and put them on my site for him to download if he finds time. (Which he generally doesn't at this point: heck, he probably gets 4 hours of sleep the whole weekend!).

4) Then I go to bed! (a luxury the cast and crew does not have)

5) By the time I get up in the morning, he's emailed me the shooting script. I read it and refine my themes and add new ones. Then I give him a call and tell him how I'm approaching it, and sometimes he has ideas of what else to add.

6) Then it's down to work. I think most teams would be fine with getting title and credit music, but I think that's a cop-out! So I do more. One easy thing to add is an ambient bed for "tension" scenes. Could just be low pedal-tone stuff and cymbal FX. Make it a long section that they can fade in and out as needed: unfortunately, you're *not* going to get a "locked", finished, edited copy of the movie to thru-score cues against. As such, you should mostly be making a "toolkit" for the editor to drop textures and scene transition themes into.

7) After I polish themes to where I'm happy, I put them up for download and wait for more comments from my brother. Often times, the script has been changed or added to while shooting, and he might have more ideas.

8) Then I go to bed! (as the cast and crew continues to burn the midnight oil)

9) But next morning, hopefully they're in editing. I call to get the final word on whether I'm done, or if something last-minute is needed.

10) Finally, I just have to kick back and have faith that the editor can make it work.

They've actually missed the deadline the past two times, once from a Mac crapping out while printing to tape (which takes a considerable amount of time in its own right) and once from losing power in the apartment where they were editing (packed up everything and moved to someone else's apartment!). Luckily, the contest board will still take them for screening, but they're no longer eligible for winning. Still, the screening is the most rewarding part, and they always get good audience response from it, which is very rewarding.

So far as mastering and mixing the music, I'm not too paranoid about mono compat, but give it a check just to be sure it's not *totally* hosed. More importantly, I'd say that you should be somewhat aggressive with using compression: often times your music will be pushed into the background by the editor, which means your meticulously balanced dynamics could possibly make it inaudible at times! So it's better to maintain a more consistent overall volume level.

I'd say don't worry about frequency ranges more than normal. Of course, if you have an important theme that can only be heard in sub-bass frequencies, then it won't be heard on many systems. But keep in mind that the most important output will be at judging and screening, so they'll have decent output such that you don't have to worry about mono, etc.

Also, since the editor has the last-say on your music (since he's mixing it with sound and dialog), all you can really do is make sure it sounds right when it leaves your hands and hope for the best! And remember: if it sounds questionable after editing, your team will likely be polishing everything up for DVD release after the contest, anyway. Just make sure it's good enough for judging and screening: focus your time to that end, and keep all the fine-tuning for after the contest.

Good luck, and have fun. It's challenging, sometimes frustrating, but I think it's very rewarding.

- m