What Volume Level for Background Music?

[Kevin Muldoon]

Up until now, I have not added any background music to my videos. It was always something I planned on adding later, but since I am a beginner, I wanted to focus on getting more practice in front of the camera first and add more features and edits to my videos over time (i.e. rather than overwhelm myself in the beginning).

I have reached a point where I feel I should start adding background music to my videos. I am keen on knowing how YTTalk members handle background music.

I have looked at a lot of videos on YouTube and I feel many users are doing it all wrong. Specifically, their background music is too loud. I have seen music so loud that it was difficult to hear what the person was saying.

• What decibel/gain level do you set your background music during your video?
• How do you initiate your background music i.e. do you fade in from nothing or do you start it at a defined volume right from the start of the video and then keep it at that level throughout the video?
• Do you increase the volume of your background music at the end of the video when you finish your closing comments?

Also, I am curious as to whether you add background music to all of your videos, or whether you only use them with specific types of videos.

If you have any examples of your videos where you do play background music, I would love to see them

Kevin

 

[Munchito696]

Up until now, I have not added any background music to my videos. It was always something I planned on adding later, but since I am a beginner, I wanted to focus on getting more practice in front of the camera first and add more features and edits to my videos over time (i.e. rather than overwhelm myself in the beginning).

I have reached a point where I feel I should start adding background music to my videos. I am keen on knowing how YTTalk members handle background music.

I have looked at a lot of videos on YouTube and I feel many users are doing it all wrong. Specifically, their background music is too loud. I have seen music so loud that it was difficult to hear what the person was saying.

• What decibel/gain level do you set your background music during your video?
• How do you initiate your background music i.e. do you fade in from nothing or do you start it at a defined volume right from the start of the video and then keep it at that level throughout the video?
• Do you increase the volume of your background music at the end of the video when you finish your closing comments?

Also, I am curious as to whether you add background music to all of your videos, or whether you only use them with specific types of videos.

If you have any examples of your videos where you do play background music, I would love to see them

Kevin

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.

 

[Kevin Muldoon]

Thanks Munchito. My brother is a musician and could record some music for me. Though I'm out of the country just now so will probably use a free track or one from Audio Jungle.

I need to get the fade in and fade out right so it looks good.

 

[Munchito696]

Thanks Munchito. My brother is a musician and could record some music for me. Though I'm out of the country just now so will probably use a free track or one from Audio Jungle.

I need to get the fade in and fade out right so it looks good.

I do try to fade the music out at the tail end of my videos, especially if the song is longer than my video. I edited my ski video to fit the exact length of the song.

 

[Caber]

Here's what I'd recommend:

• -15/-20 DB when you're talking.
• Set it to normal if you're doing something like a tour without talking.
• Fade it slowly to normal near the end if you're cutting to an outro.

Hope that helps.

 

[Kevin Muldoon]

I do try to fade the music out at the tail end of my videos, especially if the song is longer than my video. I edited my ski video to fit the exact length of the song.

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

Here's what I'd recommend:

• -15/-20 DB when you're talking.
• Set it to normal if you're doing something like a tour without talking.
• Fade it slowly to normal near the end if you're cutting to an outro.

Hope that helps.

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?

 

[Caber]

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?

Depending on what kind of music, I'd fade it in. If it's music that does a decent job of fading in on it's own, let it be. If it's something that starts abruptly, though, I would fade it in.

 

[Andy J. Valer]

If I am talking I level my voice mail to -9. I put that background music at -28, which to me sounds better in playback so it doesn't drown out my voice. But that may be just me.

 

[Kevin Muldoon]

Thanks Dino. Appreciate it. That does make sense.

Now I just need to find some good background music.[DOUBLEPOST=1429045914,1429045777][/DOUBLEPOST]

If I am talking I level my voice mail to -9. I put that background music at -28, which to me sounds better in playback so it doesn't drown out my voice. But that may be just me.

Thanks Andy. Once I find the right music, I will start playing around with it and see what level fits.

 

[JTMulcahy]

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.