What Volume Level for Background Music?

[Kevin Muldoon]

It really depends on the song that you're using I guess, for rock music I'll generally have it lower than like a techno song. I usually keep things around -12 though, that seems to work nicely.

-12 seems quite high if there is speech. Are you referring to videos that there is no one talking?

 

[Munchito696]

Makes sense. Think the rock music you had in that video fits the action genre well too.



Thanks Dino.

I am normalising my videos to a max volume of -9. I will try -15 and -20 to see what sounds best.

I can fade it back to normal when I am not talking. What do you recommend at the start of the video: Fade in to -15/-20 DB or just start at that level?

I wanted to use their new single in my video that's been uploading for 15 hours, but it doesn't fit the mood of the video. I'm glad they are letting me use their music, it's a lot better than some of the royalty free stuff you can get online and they are pretty bad a**! Here is their single live from last Friday, they didn't realize I was recording it like this, they were impressed when we got back to my house and I showed them. I have it as unlisted because it's their video for when they want to post it, it's just up on my channel so I could show them what effects I added. What do you think?

 

[Andrew Flint]

General rule which we are told at University is to keep voice peaks between -6 and -12. With all sound audio peaks around 10db lower than the voice. So if you're voice is peaking at -6, have your music peaking at around -16.

 

[JTMulcahy]

-12 seems quite high if there is speech. Are you referring to videos that there is no one talking?

That's usually what I use for anything with speech. It's always seemed to be a good level, it might just be the tracks I use. It seems to allow the melody to be heard, but with the voice being the main focus.

 

[Kevin Muldoon]

I wanted to use their new single in my video that's been uploading for 15 hours, but it doesn't fit the mood of the video. I'm glad they are letting me use their music, it's a lot better than some of the royalty free stuff you can get online and they are pretty bad a**! Here is their single live from last Friday, they didn't realize I was recording it like this, they were impressed when we got back to my house and I showed them. I have it as unlisted because it's their video for when they want to post it, it's just up on my channel so I could show them what effects I added. What do you think?

That's the kind of music my brother loves. Probably a bit too heavy for me

It's a good way for a band to promote themselves online. I think there's a gap in the market for bands to provide music to content creators.

General rule which we are told at University is to keep voice peaks between -6 and -12. With all sound audio peaks around 10db lower than the voice. So if you're voice is peaking at -6, have your music peaking at around -16.

Nice. Sounds like good advice. I started to normalise max peaks to -9 as I also read online to keep voice peaks between -6 and -12. I believe it is a requirement for most television networks.

That's usually what I use for anything with speech. It's always seemed to be a good level, it might just be the tracks I use. It seems to allow the melody to be heard, but with the voice being the main focus.

Cool. Yeah I suppose the type of music you are using will be a factor.

 

[Munchito696]

That's the kind of music my brother loves. Probably a bit too heavy for me

It's a good way for a band to promote themselves online. I think there's a gap in the market for bands to provide music to content creators.



Nice. Sounds like good advice. I started to normalise max peaks to -9 as I also read online to keep voice peaks between -6 and -12. I believe it is a requirement for most television networks.



Cool. Yeah I suppose the type of music you are using will be a factor.

My buddies gave me the green light on any of their songs, I told them I will wait until I do something epic that fits the music. I'm going to put some of my nightlapse footage to their new song and let them use it as a lyric video. Their logo and theme goes well with stars and stuff like this. This will be a good collab, I will have awesome music for my videos, they will get extra exposure. I hope it works out for both of us, they are too talented to not be well known. They are coming back out in May, I'm going to attach my GoPros to their drums and possibly the guitars and also film with my iPhone. This should be a nice portfolio for them to pitch themselves for live shows.

 

[kkushalbeatzz]

I don't talk in most of my videos, so I play it at normal music volume. I normally add music to sports videos and too all of my slow motion and time lapse videos. My buddies let me use their song in this one, they said I can use any of their songs because it will help get their name out there. If I talk in a video, I would lower the music if I had any while talking and then re-raise it.

I didn't know who did the music in your videos. That's some killer music. Props.

 

[Munchito696]

I didn't know who did the music in your videos. That's some killer music. Props.

I've only used one song of theirs on my ski video... The rest is stuff from Fullscreen and royalty free sites. From now on though when I do mountain bike videos or other fitting videos, I'll put their songs in it. I got into the venue for free at their live show on Friday because I was "part of the band". I just helped them bring stuff on stage. Little did they know I'm very good with the camera so I got 3 of their live songs on film. They love the first one I sent them, I'm going to edit the next two over the next week or so. I really hope I can help them go big because they play the type of music that I like and do it really well! And they are my buddies lol.

 

[kkushalbeatzz]

I've only used one song of theirs on my ski video... The rest is stuff from Fullscreen and royalty free sites. From now on though when I do mountain bike videos or other fitting videos, I'll put their songs in it. I got into the venue for free at their live show on Friday because I was "part of the band". I just helped them bring stuff on stage. Little did they know I'm very good with the camera so I got 3 of their live songs on film. They love the first one I sent them, I'm going to edit the next two over the next week or so. I really hope I can help them go big because they play the type of music that I like and do it really well! And they are my buddies lol.

Hey man, if I was closer, I'd totally be at their gigs. For now, I've got the Jersey scene

 

[Kevin Muldoon]

Got an editing question related to this topic.

I have been playing around with fading in and fading out music using keyframes in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. I have got it at a level I like.

I have been normalising the max peak of my speech/vocals to -9DB.

The question is:

1. Should I normalise the background music first and then do fade in and fade outs using keyframes?
2. Should I forget about normalising background music and reduce the volume of background music using keyframes i.e. define a keyframe at the start of the video that reduces volume and then increase the volume later on using another keyframe.

I have did both of the methods above. They both seem to produce similar results, though before I get into the habit of doing one method over another, could anyone advise whether there is any benefit of using method 1 or method 2?