Steven Saltzman is author of the Routledge book, Music Editing for Film and Television. He has been editing music for film and television for the past nineteen years and his recent credits include The Revenant, Queen Of The Desert, Brick Mansions, Priest and Straw Dogs.

Music Editing for Film and Television:
The Art and the Process
By Steven Saltzman

Picture by Flickr user by Charlie Chaplin: du muet au parlant.

First, it is important to note that because these cue sheets become legal documents, the music editor should title the music cue sheet as Preliminary Music Cue Sheet—the music editor is not an attorney and should not be responsible for claiming the information in the cue sheet as legally binding. The music editor simply gives their information to the legal department, which in turn compiles the legal music cue sheet. This is then distributed to all the pertinent performance rights organizations (PROs), such as BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, and many others around the world. Many of these organizations have a web presence describing their individual style of collections, payments, and cue sheet information. The cue sheet can be delivered to the film’s postproduction company and directed specifically to their attorney or legal affairs agent. Common document formats are created as Microsoft Word or Excel documents, or possibly a PDF file. Each film company may have its own template that it requests the music editor fill in with pertinent information. It is a good idea for the music editor to retain copies of the music cue sheets, in both paper form and digitally, for any future questions. In addition, it is a good idea to keep the master Pro Tools sessions.

On the final dub, the music re-recording mixer often fades in and fades out music, occasionally editing as needed in the movie. In this case, the music editor acquires the mixer’s final session with the music, and uses that material, comparing it to the final printmaster stems to determine the correct information for the music cue sheet. If the music editor cannot gain access to the mixer’s session, they must still use the final music printmaster stems, along with their music “stage” session, to determine individual cue information, such as accurate length, usage, and timing of all the music. The music editor is actually one of the few and sometimes the only person with access to the Pro Tools session containing the final usages and lengths of the music cues, these being the two major parts of the cue sheet that determine the amount of money paid to the composers and publishers.

Excerpt from Music Editing for Film and Television by Steven Saltzman © 2014 Taylor & Francis Group. All Rights Reserved.

About the Author

Steven Saltzman, MPSE is a music editor and composer based in Los Angeles, CA. He received his Bachelors of Music in composition and film scoring from Berklee College of Music and is a certified Avid Pro Tools instructor. He has been editing music for film and television for the past eighteen years. In addition, Steven has lectured nationally, and he has created and taught numerous music editing courses. A recipient of a Golden Reel Award for music editing, Saltzman is also a member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, the Society of Composers and Lyricists, and he sits on the board of the Motion Picture Sound Editors Guild.

Picture from Flickr user Sound Weavers.

Because the physical characteristics of analog recordings relate closely to the sound waveform, replaying them is a relatively simple matter. Variations in the recorded signal can be converted directly into variations in sound pressure using a suitable collection of transducers and amplifiers. The replay system, however, is unable to tell the difference between wanted signals and unwanted signals. Unwanted signals might be distortions, noise and other forms of interference introduced by the recording process. For example, a record player cannot distinguish between the stylus movement it experiences because of a scratch on a record (unwanted) and that caused by a loud transient in the music (wanted). Imperfections in the recording medium are reproduced as clicks, crackles and other noises.

Digital recording, on the other hand, converts the electrical waveform from a microphone into a series of binary numbers, each of which represents the amplitude of the signal at a unique point in time, recording these numbers in a coded form which allows the system to detect whether the replayed signal is correct or not. A reproducing device is then able to distinguish between the wanted and the unwanted signals introduced above, and is thus able to reject all but the wanted original information in most cases. Digital audio can be engineered to be more tolerant of a poor recording channel than analog audio. Distortions and imperfections in the storage or transmission process need not affect the sound quality of the signal provided that they remain within the design limits of the system and that timing and data errors are corrected.

Digital audio has made it possible for sound engineers to take advantage of developments in the computer industry, and this is particularly beneficial because the size of that industry results in mass production (and therefore cost savings) on a scale not possible for audio products alone. Today it is common for sound to be recorded, processed and edited on relatively low-cost desktop computer equipment, and this is a trend likely to continue.

Excerpt from Sound and Recording: Applications and Theory, 7th Edition by Francis Rumsey and Tim McCormick © 2014 Taylor & Francis Group. All Rights Reserved.

About the Authors

Francis Rumsey is Consultant Editor and Technical Writer for the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, and runs his own consultancy company, Logophon Ltd. Until 2009 he was a Professor at the University of Surrey (UK), specialising in audio engineering and psychoacoustics. He is chair of the AES Technical Council, a Fellow of the AES, and a busy organist.

Tim McCormick is aformer Deputy Head of sound at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester (UK), has extensive experience in design and manufacture of audio electronics, and has worked at Klark Teknik and with the RSC at Stratford (UK) where he plotted and operated the sound for many shows as well as designing and building audio equipment when the need arose. Also interested in medieval architecture, The Cathedrals, Abbeys and Priories of Wales was published on 2010.

Picture by Flickr user Brian A Petersen.

To write new data into the selected pattern, switch the Edit mode to ‘Pattern Edit’, hit the Play button to start the sequence running, click on any instrument name button, such as kick or snare, to select the instrument you want to work with, and this instrument’s channel strip will become highlighted—confirming that it has been selected.

To enter beats onto any of the 16 (or 12) beat subdivisions in the sequence, just click on the appropriate Event switch in the event bar below the instrument section. If you pick the wrong beat or change your mind, just click again to deselect this and choose another beat.

By default the pattern sequencer is divided into one bar of 16th notes at the sessions tempo. You can easily halve or double this value by adjusting the speed selector in the transport section. For example, if you wanted two bars of 8th notes at the session’s tempo you could choose ‘X 1/2’; you can even set the matrix to triplets. Unfortunately the speed settings affect all 16 patterns, so if you wanted to mix patterns with triplets and patterns without you would need to use two separate instances of the Boom plug-in.

When you have the first instrument playing the rhythm you like (fours on the kick drum, perhaps), choose the next instrument that you want to work with, such as the snare, and add beats to this in the same way. When you have the snare playing what you want, you can continue to add other instruments, such as toms or claps, or go back to the kick or any other instrument to change this.

When you have created Pattern 1, you can create up to 15 more patterns in the same way, selecting these using the other 15 Event switches in Pattern Select mode.

There is also a Pattern Chain feature that lets you chain these patterns together in any order you like, using the mouse and computer keyboard or using MIDI notes. You can turn the Pattern Chain function on or off from the Setup page that you can access by clicking on the ‘spanner’ icon at the bottom of the plugin’s window.

Excerpt from In the Box Music Production: Advanced Tools and Techniques for Pro Tools by Mike Collins © 2014 Taylor & Francis Group. All Rights Reserved.

About the Author

Mike Collins is a studio musician, recording engineer, and producer with more than thirty years’ experience making records. He has many credits on UK chart singles and albums, for radio and TV broadcasts, advertising jingles, and movie scores. Mike has regularly reviewed music and audio software and hardware and written about a variety of audio and music production topics, with more than 2500 articles and reviews published in Future Music, Macworld, MacUser, Personal Computer World, Sound On Sound, AudioMedia, Studio Sound, Electronic Musician, EQ, MIX, Pro Sound News Europe, and others.

Picture from Flickr user hrajko.

Of the many possibilities, the recordist may be functioning to capture the music as closely dictated by the composer. They may be functioning to capture, as realistically as possible, the performance of an ensemble, as precisely directed by the conductor; they may be functioning to capture the interactions and individual nuances of a group of performers, without altering the performance through the recording process; or the recordist may be functioning to precisely execute a recording producer’s instructions (often in ways that transform performances). In all of these cases and many others, the recordist is allowing the artistic vision and decisions of others to be most accurately represented in the recording. The recordist’s role then is to facilitate and realize the artistic ideas of others, and not to directly impose their ideas onto the project.

The recordist’s role sometimes might be to offer suggestions to the creative artists or even to take an active role in the artistic decisionmaking processes. The role of the recordist might be active in shaping a performance of an existing work, or in creating a new piece of music. The recordist might be active in determining the sound qualities of the instruments of the recording, or in determining the sound sources themselves. Vastly different levels of participation in the artistic process are often required from one project to the next.

Among the things that are consistent, is that the recordist must be mindful of their place in the process. Their contributions may be needed, but are often not sought. Their ideas may be helpful, but might get in the way of the artist’s creativity. Even when the recordist is asked what they think, the client may not really want to know. It is a delicate dance.

The process of writing a piece of music for a recording is often a collaborative effort, and this process can become even more complicated. Such songwriting may take place with many people (composer, per – formers, producer) or just a few (performer/composer and recordist/ composer). When it takes place in the studio it can be a laborious process that seems never-ending, and is sometimes incredibly gratifying and exciting. The need for creativity is always present, but the spark can be illusive.

In many ways, the recordist functions as a creative artist and can serve the traditional roles of a composer, a conductor, and/or a performer. The recordist also shapes sounds in nontraditional ways. Recordists have unique controls over sound and live performances that allow for an additional musical voice. It is possible to compose with the equipment (instruments) of the recording studio, to shape sounds or performances through the use of recording and mixing techniques, or to create a new musical environment for someone else’s musical ideas and performances.

The recording studio can be thought of as a musical instrument or a collection of musical instruments. In this way, the recordist may conduct all of the available sound sources (for example, bringing sounds into and out of the musical texture through mixing); may “perform” the musical ideas through the recording process; may alter or reshape the sounds of the sources, or “interpret” the musical ideas, in ways that are not possible acoustically; and may create (compose) new musical ideas or sounds.

Excerpt from Understanding and Crafting the Mix by William Moylan © 2014 Taylor & Francis Group. All Rights Reserved.

About the Author

Dr. William Moylan has worked with leading artists across the full spectrum of jazz, popular, and classical genres. His recordings have been released by major and independent record labels, resulting in wide recognition, including several GRAMMY award nominations. A leading educator and an active recording engineer and producer for over 30 years, he is a Professor and Coordinator of Sound Recording Technology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.