How do you match your video sound to your vision with audio engineers and composers?

1 Understand your goals and genre

Before you start working with audio professionals, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your video sound. What is the tone, mood, and style of your video? What is the genre and audience of your video? What are the key messages and emotions you want to convey? These questions will help you define your sound vision and guide your audio choices.

2 Communicate your vision and feedback

Once you have your sound vision, you need to communicate it effectively to your audio team. You can use different tools and methods to share your expectations, such as mood boards, references, scripts, storyboards, or temp tracks. You should also provide constructive and specific feedback throughout the audio production process, using terms that are clear and relevant to the audio domain. For example, instead of saying "make it louder", you could say "increase the volume of the dialogue by 3dB".

3 Review the audio work in context

When you receive the audio work from your audio team, you should review it in context with your video. This will help you assess how well the sound matches your vision and how it enhances or distracts from the visual elements. You should also pay attention to the technical aspects of the sound, such as the quality, balance, clarity, and consistency. You can use tools like headphones, speakers, or monitors to check the sound in different environments and devices.

4 Fine-tune the final mix

After you have reviewed the audio work and provided feedback, you should work with your audio team to fine-tune the final mix. This is the stage where you can make minor adjustments and polish the sound to achieve the best possible result. You should focus on the details that matter most to your video, such as the transitions, effects, levels, or panning. You should also test the final mix in different formats and platforms to ensure that it works well across different media.

5 Collaborate and respect

The last tip for matching your video sound to your vision is to collaborate and respect your audio team. Remember that they are experts in their field and they can offer valuable insights and suggestions for your video sound. You should also respect their time, budget, and creative input, and avoid making unnecessary or unrealistic changes. By establishing a good rapport and trust with your audio team, you can create a productive and enjoyable working relationship that will benefit your video project.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?