Why is the score always so intrusive?

[pethenis]

It's like an addictive drug: you start with a little, but soon that won't be enough to deliver that same rush. So you do a bit more...

Note the difference between shows mixed for "public broadcasters" and commercial ones. Here in Holland I'll bet that in most shows on commercial networks, the music is 3/5 dB hotter under spoken word compared to the public broadcasters. Combine this with very very compressed VO's ( yes, also in the R128 era) and you get to the point where I honestly don't understand how you could mix a show like that: the sheer "in your face-ness" must be so exhausting. If I had to do that, i would be on my avantones 95% of the mixtime.

[brandoncross]

I think the directors and producers and using music to make the audience feel emotion instead of what the show should use, story. The absence of a good plot or writing can be masked by music and it is getting worse all the time. I miss the day when a tv show actually brought something to the table besides bash bash bash

[SonicAlchemist]

2 large factors: 1) temp music and 2) budgets.

re: temp music; more often than not obscure underscore scenes are not chosen as temp - it is the memorable cues that were originally the climax of some other score. So you get no arc - every cue is based on temp that was the most exciting cue of its film, or that is the tendency in general.

re: budget, drums can be done well with samples. combined with the epic temp score . . . you get epic drums.

[Henchman]

Don't blame the mixers.
It's not their final decision.

[Murasamee]

Originally Posted by Henchman

Don't blame the mixers.
It's not their final decision.

This.

I have had to mix scores at much higher levels than what I think is appropriate, but at the end of the day, its not my final call. I respectfully say something about the levels, but they want what they want.

[Henchman]

Also, I know they guys who mix Terra Nova. And had to do two separate mixes. One that was in spec. And one that was loud, for DVD.
Guess who's call that was.

[ReaperUser]

The loud scores wouldn't be so bad if they all didn't suffer from such a bad case of hanszimmeritus

[TheGolfer]

I mix mostly for tv. I agree that there is generally too much music in both TV drama and feature films. I know most TV composers won't admit it but I suspect one of the the reason the score is so omnipresent these days is "music Royalties". The more music in a show the bigger the pay check. I miss the power of silence, you know, those little 2 or 3 seconds gaps between the music...

[Henchman]

I have found that its network execs who want to stuff a show full of music, not the composer.

[DrummerMan]

Yeah, I don't think us composers GENERALLY are pushing to use too much music, or to make it too loud (at least not in my circle of friends, which honestly doesn't include a lot of people doing well known stuff, including myself). I know that I almost always am advocating for as little music as possible, but that can be a hard fight with directors and/or producers who are trying to make up for something they didn't feel they were able to achieve on their own.

It also seems to be very in style these days to make everything both epic/anthemic/huge as well as very personal and up close at the same time, which can be a dangerous combination. It's the "soundtrack of the life I wish I had" syndrome (I tend to see this in the poppy-er soundtrack stuff but that influences what most everybody else is doing as well because it's what producers seem to want). Obviously bands and musicians and composers have picked up on this and can get a bit carried away.

All that being said, there is a problem with many inexperienced composers who don't really understand about writing out of the way (register and dynamics-wise) of the dialog and SFX (if we're lucky enough to ever get SFX in the cut we're working with). OR...some of us don't mix that well ourselves, OR...there's not enough of a budget to hire a good mixer, OR...

Anyway, lots if possible causes contributing to your woes.

[Brent_in_Sydney]

Exactly - if you're writing stereo score for TV for pity's sake leave a hole for the dialogue. Any compression you then slam that mix into is going to make keeping that hole open that much harder.

[cinimage21]

In my opinion directors and producer wants more audience towards his movie.So they use emotional music tracks to attrack.......

[ReaperUser]

I think it's just a common trend with so much these days, you could say the same things about food or pretty much everything else, more is MORE (usually more crappy).

I remember reading something a long time ago, something to the effect of: the type of people who become politicians are the very type of people you DON'T want as politicians, and the type of people you would want as politicians have no interest in it.

The directors and network execs are the very people you wouldn't want directing movies or running a network, as they usually make stupid decisions based on "what everyone else is doing"..........the bottom line.

[ReaperUser]

Originally Posted by SonicAlchemist

2 large factors: 1) temp music and 2) budgets.

re: temp music; more often than not obscure underscore scenes are not chosen as temp - it is the memorable cues that were originally the climax of some other score. So you get no arc - every cue is based on temp that was the most exciting cue of its film, or that is the tendency in general.

re: budget, drums can be done well with samples. combined with the epic temp score . . . you get epic drums.

I'm really starting to hate the big epic drum driving scores, I don't know why but whenever I hear it I think that's what Rammstein would sound like if they ever did film/game music, basic 4/4, reppetatvie pounding drum line with some basic string ostinato for 4 minutes (maybe some choir chants for true "epicness")

I recently did music for a game, I decided to hanszimmer it out and they loved it, I hated it.......go figure.

"Familiarity is a magician that is cruel to beauty but kind to ugliness."

“We often find ourselves at ease with that with which we are most familiar, regardless of whether or not the trait serves us well in the end. Is that not yet another example of how we enslave ourselves?”

“(What makes his world so hard to see clearly is not its strangeness but its usualness).Familiarity can blind you too.”

[UnderTow]

Originally Posted by neilwilkes

A classic example is that Spielberg series "Terra Nova", which we tried to watch the first episode of the other night and turned off after 15 minutes of straining to hear anything except the constant "bash, bash, bash" of the same tired sampled boomy reverb laden drums all the time.....appalling. It was absolutely impossible to hear what anyone was saying as it was literally drowned out. Stupid.

I just checked the first 15 minutes of episode one of Terra Nova. Even though the music is quite present (and relentless) I understood every line of dialogue without any difficulty whatsoever. Not that what I heard or saw compelled me to watch any further...

Alistair

[Bill@AudioVision]

It might also have something to do with how trailers and promos are mixed. The audience is expecting the trailer/promo to represent the film or tv show, and when it doesn't - they don't watch or buy a ticket. It's Art vs. Business dukeing it out, again...

[olamo]

Originally Posted by ReaperUser

I'm really starting to hate the big epic drum driving scores

You are not the only one