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  • Mixing Film Scores

    M
    M
    Would you pan instruments to their positions for a film score?

    I've been listening to some film music from big hollywood films, and they don't appear to have much real orchestral "placement" going on. Everything is mixed close to the centre. (eg www.kingkongmovie.com)

    Live classical/orchestral music, on the other hand (eg a Naxos CD containing Beethoven) , tends to have the instruments panned out into their respective positions a lot more.

    Has anyone else noticed this?
  • F
    F
    I always thought positioning the instruments in a mix is also a creative process! [[;)]]

    Well I work as a theatre composer, and pit orchestras just never follow the seating plan of a symphonic orchestra anyway [:P] It's actually more about how to balance the sounds, left and right, so as to bring out the mood/style of the music better.

    Some European orchestras still have their double basses next to percussions and 2nd violins to the right side of the conductor.

    For me, if my track is full of brass with very minimal strings and winds, I might actually stagger all the brass instruments everywhere in the mix, or just have everything close in the centre. Or else the audience will be hearing mostly from only the right speaker, which will cause an unwanted localization of sound which is quite irrelevant to the play (or movie).

    Cheers,
    Frankie
  • J
    J
    There are quite a few film composers on the forum so I'm sure you'll get a good answer shortly. My thoughts are that if the music is intended as backing, then the director might want it tightly placed so that it doesn't interfere with sound effects etc., particularly if they are using surround sound. I listened to the audio clips on on the website however, and they seemed well separated on my equipment.
  • P
    P
    Perhaps not widely spread as an orchestral peromance recording, but definately spread. It helps to get room for the ususally dead center dialog and also helps getting the instruments some room to breathe that is always a fight. In surround settings the center speaker is usually avoided for music for that reason and only left right and back speakers used. Sometimes wild panning is also used as an effect to emphasize things.

    The violin spread to left and right is quite common in filmsoundtracks, as it allows for some effects. Good thing about a soundtrack instead of a live performance is that you can vary the seating from track to track, maybe you even go to the extreme and vary it for every note... [;)]

    PolarBear