Unsung but not Unheard: Audio Sweetening

The next time you watch TV, go to the movies, or view any professionally produced video close your eyes and watch it. If you are able to appreciate and see the story you rest assured the Wizards of audio sweetening had their hand in that production.

As a producer and a former audio engineer / producer one of the most fascinating phases of visual production is the Sweetening phase. The term Sweetening to a baker means the ingredients added to give their goods that yummm

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yummm flavor that brings their creation to life. It's the ingredients that make you close your eyes and smile after taking your first bite. In video production it's the same process, except this time it's a team of audio engineers and produces adding their secret ingredients to the audio portion of the video project. These are the artists / engineers responsible for adding the sweetening to the final video and bringing the project to life.

Without revealing the treasured secrets for these audio Wizards, let me walk you through the production process from my vantage point. For the sake of discussion let's say we have been contracted to produce a segment for the Science Channel's Through the Worm Hole series. After the storyboards are drafted and the basic script is accepted we begin the capture process. Several small crews are dispatched globally to capture key on-camera interviews (usually: a basic camera operators; a camera operator / DP (Director of Photography) who doubles as LD (lighting director); audio engineer; and producer.) In a local recording studio our narrator records the voice over or narration, which will be used to guide the viewer through our story. Simultaneously, an animation team gets to work on creating a visual reproduction of the universe scenes needed throughout our story. Once all these elements are completed they are loaded into the final editing system and then cut together in accordance with the script. VOILA ! We are done!

AT THIS MOMENT THE AUDIO WIZARDS WOULD HAVE ADDED A SCREECHING TIRE SOUND. That would alert you to SUDDENLY STOP whatever is being said and regroup.

The reason they would have added that sound and halted my writing is because at this point the project is far from done. In fact at this point the segment would be unwatchable by a entertainment networks' standards (yes, I said the Science Channel is an entertainment network. More on that at another time.) Lets review what our segment looks like at this point:

1. A bunch of interviews recorded at dozens of acoustically varied environments all with a wide range of sound properties.

2. A narration that was recorded in a pristine sound booth, which usually creates very a sterile and flat recording.

3. Then we add a track of music the producer selected during the edit that was just dropped in for reference.

4. Finally, we have dozens of animations and visual transitions that go past us in silence or with loops of music placed as reference.

Obviously, this would be unacceptable by anyone's standards. So this cacophony (cool word huh!) of multi tracked audio sources is then blended, mixed, colored and nudged into a beautifully sweetened 2 track final master mix. The result should be something the viewer will never notice YET always FEEL. It should create and support the producer's vision of the story's flowing emotions. It should be the secret ingredients that create a masterful desert and never let the viewer identify a single taste.

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