Mixing is crucial to any music project, both in the studio and on your laptop. Many people discount how a few adjustments can affect the overall sound and quality of a delivered final project. In most video game projects, the music is premixed and the composer will not hear their music against other sfx (sound effects) right away. They will hear this after the fact, and may have to adapt their score and mix so it fits better in context with other sounds. In some cases, the composer has a rough mix to base their’s on. Either way, it is a process of trial and error and is something that unfortunately can be very rushed at the end of post production. It is crazy how fast some deadlines come up and then one may find themselves scrambling at the very end to make a finished product. I feel like it is best to mix with some ideas already in mind, leaving space for the obvious sounds that will be there.
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It is only recently that newer middleware (ELIAS, FMOD, WWISE) software have allowed for real time monitoring and mixing of all sounds that are present. These newer technologies will change in how helpful they are from game to game. No two game’s mixes will ever be the same. Each time you mix, you may notice something you never noticed before. If you are writing music for a 3D environment it may be important to talk with the game programmers and those who will implement sound, how the music will be filtered or how the sound will placed in an environment. This may change what you are writing or the instrumentation present. For example, if the sound is on a record player or radio behind a closed door, maybe you want more high frequencies present when the LP filter is added to hide frequencies blocked by the door; all if the game programmers implant that sense of realism.
No matter what the end product is, what is crucial is that you save all the master files and keep things at a high quality for your own sake. This serves as a safety/backup in case something needs to be redone or restored to a previous version. It is important to be very clear with all labels and naming and knowing what is where. You don’t want to send the producer or team a set of files that are for something else or an incorrect cue. With the naming responsibility, comes the one of being accurate with files types both pre and post compression. You need to make sure you are delivering exactly to specification. You also need to account for any changes that could happen during conversion that will be problematic down the road.
