How to Mix Dialogue or a Voiceover with Music 

Thank you for your kind and encouraging words!

So glad you found this helpful! The was my goal, to help! And thank you for your encouraging words. Hoping to put more out in the near future!

Thank you so very much for your kind and encouraging words! More videos will definitely be on the way soon :)

Ryan Monette looking forward to it! :)

Ryan Monette Still learning so excuse a noob question :)... I see that you apply denoise quite late in the chain, whereas I have seen many recommendations that it should be done somewhere at the beginning of the chain. Is there a reason that you use it so late? Are there situations where you would use it earlier in the chain? Tnx. P.S. yes, I am rewatching this :D

@@ekredel I honestly go back and forth with it. Just like "do you EQ before or after compression?" To my thought process, if I'm compressing a signal, basically pushing the louder parts down, and bringing the quieter parts up, I would imagine that makes the de-noising easier to separate between voice and noise. But hey, I could be wrong too! haha Recently, especially with the use of headsets, I've been rendering out the dialogue track with an Izotope spectral de-noise, before any plugins. Another thought to de-noising late in the chain, if I have an EQ on before de-noising, with a hard high-pass filter, and low-pass filter, that makes the work of the de-noiser easier and maybe even more natural sounding. At the end of the day, I don't think there is an exact right or wrong method to do this, just whatever sounds and translates best :)

What amazing words of encouragement! Thank you so much! So glad this has been a helpful resource for you!

haha, well thank you!

Aww thanks so much! Glad to hear you appreciated it :) Means a lot!

So glad you enjoyed this and found it helpful! Your words of encouragement mean a lot!

Thank you so very much! It's definitely one of those topics people don't go too much into detail about. I remember searching all over RU-vid for something like this when I was newer to mixing dialogue. I'm extremely glad it can be a useful resource to you and others.

@@RyanMonette really helped, you should make some other videos!

@@OppositeOfReality Definitely on the to-do list ;-)

You're exactly the niche of people I was hoping this would be most helpful for! I'm so glad you enjoyed it and got a lot out of it! Let me know how else I can help you!

I'm glad it was helpful for you! Thank you for your kind words.

@@RyanMonette Hi Ryan, I have just started voice over (Psalms) project for Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi speaking people and been looking for some help. I must say it has been extremely helpful.

@@learningessential9261 Wow! That's amazing! I'm so happy this has been a helpful resource for you!

I'm so glad to hear you found this helpful! I have handful of ideas for more videos in the future! Thank you for the encouragement!

So glad you enjoy!

Haha I definitely do care about those details :) I'm very glad you found the video helpful. Thank you for your kind words!

So happy to hear that! You are most welcome!

Wow! Thank you for such kind words! Very glad you enjoyed it!

You are so very correct! A blanket of de-crackle/de-click absolutely can/will dull the tonal qualities of dialogue. 5 years later, I've for sure grown and refined my workflow with thanks to much much more professional experience. There's actually a lot that has changed in my personal workflow and is pretty much completely different now than the process in this video. Much of which is what you have pointed out. Much more rendering involved, less plugins, different signal flow, etc. I appreciate your valuable feedback! They are great tips that I hope anyone who comes to view this video sees and adopts. One of these days I'll get around to making an updated version of this video that'll include these things :)

@@RyanMonette What a testiment to you as a person and as a professional to frame my comment as constructive advice for people watching this video rather than a retort or criticism. Im sure an updated version would benefit many people. Best from Berlin

@@GingerDrums :) I appreciate you! The intent of this and any videos I make has always been and will always be to help others. I'm just a hopefully helpful steward of knowledge and experience for others.

@@RyanMonette any beginner watching this is lightyears ahead compared to many "engineers" earning money with this stuff. I'd give my thumbs to your stewardship for what it's worth up as a fellow industry professional.

@@GingerDrums Your words and encouragement mean a lot! Thank you so much!

Haha, you are most welcome!

That is so encouraging! Thank you so much! I'm really glad you found this helpful AND inspiring!

So happy to hear you found this helpful! You are so welcome!

Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words! I'm so glad this was helpful for you!

I'm so glad to hear this was helpful for you! You are most welcome!

So happy to hear that! You are most welcome!

Glad you enjoyed the video! I might eventually, but I've changed locations, my office, and gear. So I'm still in transition at the moment.

Thank you so much! Glad to hear you learned a lot!

Thank you so incredibly much for the kind words! I'm hoping to make more in the future and potentially updating this one as well.

I'm so very glad that this was helpful for you!

Thank you so much! I'm glad you found it helpful!

So happy to hear you found this helpful! I'm glad I could be of assistance to you!

So glad this has been both helpful and enjoyable for you! I appreciate your words of encouragement! Audacity has been a widely used free DAW for many years. If you are on a mac computer, GarageBand is also a great choice.

Oh! That was a fast response! Yeah I currently use Garage Band. Also, don't think that you're getting to complicated when you say "One more step" some people will find it complicated but there are people like me that benefit from your explanations! Keep making more videos! I love both of your videos that you have!

@@josuethefilmaker Thank you again for the wonderful encouragement! Means a lot! I have more videos I'd love to make, just a matter of carving out the time :)

Thank you for your kind words! Here's to a great 2024!

Thank you so very much! I'm really glad you found it to be helpful. I appreciate your kind words :) More to come eventually!

Thank you so much for the kind words. I'm so happy to hear that this was helpful for you and in an easy to understand way.

Thank you for your kind words! So glad you found this helpful and easy to understand/apply. That was the goal! I'm hoping to make more content in the future for you!

You are most welcome! So glad you found it helpful!

So happy to hear this was helpful for you!!!

Thank you! I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed this and found it helpful.

You are most welcome!

Haha, well you are most welcome!

Thank YOU for reaching out and sharing how much it helped you! Your words are very encouraging. I'm very glad to hear that you found this helpful!

@@RyanMonette Absolutely, and I'll continue to follow your channel for sure :) thank you again for sharing and for your kind words!

@@nicolaspandolfi94 Thank you so much! Hopefully I'll get some new helpful content up in the near future!

I'm so glad to hear this was helpful for you!

Thank you so much for your kind words and encouragement, Brett! Means a lot! My aim was definitely to have this be as helpful as possible to anyone and everyone. I used a Sony A7 iii when I filmed this.

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much! Glad you found it helpful.

You are most welcome! Thank YOU for reaching out! Glad you found this helpful!

Thank you for such kind words! I appreciate your feedback and am so happy you found this helpful!

Most welcome! So glad it was helpful for you!

Thank you very much! I'm so glad you found this helpful!

Most welcome! Glad you found this helpful!

I love hearing that! Thank you so much for letting me know you enjoyed it and got a lot out of it!

Thank you! I'm glad you found this helpful!

Thank YOU!

Thank you so much for the kind words! I hope to be producing more content soon! Thank you for your support!!

@@RyanMonette you're very welcome!

You're very welcome!

The same principles still apply in any DAW. Understanding the thought process behind each step, will help you translate it to whatever specific tool you use. Take a look at this for a simplified process on the subject... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DoH7v9kociM.html

Ryan Monette thank you 👍

You are so very welcome! I'm so glad you found it helpful!

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

So happy to hear that this was helpful for you!

Happy this was helpful for you!

Love that you asked that! The main reason I'm using the loudness meter in the context of this mix is mainly for reference that everything (VO and music) is perceived the same in regards to loudness. So basically the loudness meter is used only for reference, and not to meet a specific specification for final delivery. It's just a helpful visual representation to ensure everything is balanced for how the listener will perceive loudness. However when I mix TV episodes or commercials, then I absolutely export according to the loudness meter with no further gain staging.

@@RyanMonette Aha , Got it . Thank you so much for taking the time to answer me. Great channel. Best of luck

@@Citizen-Shayn You're more than welcome! I'm happy to help!

Great idea! I'll add it to the to-do list!

@@RyanMonette Appreciate it. What's the piece of equipment above the white keyboard? I've learned so much from this video.

@@dspoet1 Avid Artist Control and Artist Mix. You can see my other video to answer some of your questions.

You are most welcome! Thank you for the kind words!

You are so welcome!

You are very welcome! Glad you found it helpful!

@@RyanMonette Is there somewhere I can donate to you? This was one of the most amazing game changing videos I've watched on this subject. Honestly it almost feels wrong to have received this information for free because of how well made the video was and how long the duration is. I really do appreciate that you put the time into this for randoms.

@@ThickFreedom Wow! Thank you for such an amazing compliment! I'm considering making a store on my website to sell some of my templates. Working on that soon. Maybe I'll add a donate option on the site as well? I appreciate your spirit of kindness and generosity. If you are interested in more, I hope to be producing more content in the coming weeks. I also have an online course at classes.productiononline.com/p/post-production-mixing Thank you again for the encouraging words :)

You are most welcome! I'm so glad you enjoyed it and found it helpful!

Have you tried applying these effects in real time through something like audio hijack and loopback, or would it introduce too much latency when streaming concurrently with video?

By the way your intro was art. I was blown away.

@@ThomasPosen Haha, thank you very much!

@@ThomasPosen That's kind of a long answer. In short, there are ways to do this live with very little latency. My preferred method would be using Waves SoundGrid Studio and a Waves SoundGrid server.

You're most welcome! I'm so glad to hear you found this helpful!

So glad it was helpful for you!

I love this comment so much. I have plans and more is on the list for sure! I’m thinking an updated version of this video and my sermon/live broadcast along with a few new ideas. I appreciate your patience!

@@RyanMonette and I have reasons for that. I'm working on a post in Ukraine, but we're in our immigration process to Canada, and your videos just show me something I have to apply there. I'd like to DM

@@4efam Go for it! You can always hit me up via the contact page on my website.

@@RyanMonette Hello Ryan. Write to you on Instagram

@@4efam I’m not active on Instagram for the foreseeable future. If you have any inquiries, please contact me via my website, www.RyanMonette.com

Thank you so very much! I'm so glad it could help you!

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm so glad you found it helpful! I've got more in mind to hopefully post in the near future!

@@RyanMonette dont stop making content like this, it shows great quality bro keep it coming

Cristian Fozzatti I really appreciate the feedback! Very encouraging and definitely inspires me to do just as you suggest!

Great recap!

@@RyanMonette There is always more to be learned from doing the thing than just observing it, so I wanted to make it easier for people (and for me) :)

@@NovelMeetsEvilPodcast Exactly! Once we stop learning we're dead. I'm always a fan of continuing educating oneself. And it's definitely way better to learn by doing than just listening for sure. To your point, in the past 5 years I've learned and grown a lot more, which has resulted in my process looking much different now than this video. I'm hoping to make an updated video for how my current (thought) process is now. Thanks again for your support!

I have it but haven't dabbled too much in it. I have though been using Neutron 3 Sculptor a bit lately, and that really helps when multiple voices re involved, gluing them together tonally.

So glad you enjoyed it and found it helpful! Thank you for the feedback!

Thank YOU! I'm glad you found this helpful!

You are most welcome! Glad you found it helpful!

Glad you enjoyed the video and found it helpful. Just simply import whatever audio or music track into the DAW you use on a new track.

Thanks for the kind words! It's all circumstantial. Regardless, the principles in this video still apply to whatever channel count you are mixing for. If you want to get into the nitty-gritty, feel free to reach out via the contact page on my website. I'm happy to help out however I can. www.ryanmonette.com/contact

@@RyanMonette Thanks Ryan! Turns out my Pro-Tools (not HD) doesn't have 5.1 capability, so no big deal there. Again, great video and enjoyable presentation!

Glad you found it informative!

@@RyanMonette Really

Glad you found this helpful! To answer your question, that's just the art of capturing location audio for film. I encourage you to do some research on boom/shotgun mics for film. You'll find a lot out there.

that is for sure very helpful if it is a track that is already had a final mix/mastered. Keep in mind though, you're not compressing the music based off of what the music is doing, but based what the vocal is doing via side-chaining, so if done properly, shouldn't be noticed.

Hi! I'm so glad you found this video helpful! I do the same basic process with SFX as music. All SFX tracks go to a bus, and on that bus I have processing that is side-chained by the dialogue. Tweaking the settings appropriately for where the dialogue would sit in comparison with the SFX.

But I do not side-chain the music to be triggered from any SFX. If I want a particular SFX to stand out, I'll just automate that.

Hey Todd, thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you found this video helpful. It depends where the final piece is going. I use loudness before the master to make sure my dynamics, in regards to loudness, are kept in check. Since this mix would be for web or podcast, my target level is at 0 dBFS on the L2 on my master. But if this were a commercial, I would have it hard limited at -10 dBFS and have the loudness meter AFTER the L2 limiter to make sure the overall mix stayed constantly at -24 LKFS. I hope that makes sense.

Genetics. haha, but in all seriousness, that is a topic more on the characteristics of the human voice. What Don does is unique to him and how he controls the tone and resonance of his voice. The engineers who mix him would do very similar processing to most voice overs. In short with that mixing, is very similar to how I mixed my voice in this except they might allow for a little more low end in the EQ. In terms of recording, just close proximity to a nice microphone with proper microphone technique (use of a pop-filter, etc.)

I'm so glad you found this helpful! Thank you for your kind words. They are actually photos I took myself :)

@@RyanMonette Wow, that's awesome! I didn't realize that you are a photographer too.

@@patrickdail3508 Yes indeed!

You are welcome! I'm so glad you enjoyed it and found it helpful! Thank you for the feedback!

So glad you found this helpful! LUFS is just a measurement of loudness and can be set to whatever the desired target. If you're hitting around -15 LUFS, that doesn't mean you are over-compressed. Using this video as an example, I use -24, but if my target were to be 15, I'd just raise the faders appropriately. Does that makes sense how that doesn't add any more compression? If -16 LUFS is the target, RU-vid might compress it to make your -15 meet their standards, but that shouldn't really make a difference. For example, this video that I uploaded, I uploaded at 0 dB.

@@RyanMonette amazing thank you. So If the whole project sounds quite balanced (0db -10rms) and around -15 lufs I don't have to worry about the platform used to play the video.

@@animattialeleo7231 Happy to help! If you feel you have a good balance and you're hitting the target level of your loudness meter that matches the target of the platform (RU-vid, Spotify, Apple Music, Netflix, TV stations... they are all different standards) you are going to be delivering to, then you should be good to go.

Haha what do you mean?

Hello! I'm glad you found this video helpful. Mouth DeClick is a plugin from iZotope. It can be found in their RX series plugins, which you would have to purchase from iZotope on their website.

The entire mix is leveled at -24 LKFS before the L2. Doubt not. That was volume automation is for. The WLM doesn't do that for you. It's just a meter. As mentioned in the video, it's more of a reference so that perceived loudness is consistent. L2 was just to boost the entire signal. So whatever the loudness is after the L2, would still be consistent, just perceived louder. If this were a mix for TV or a commercial and had a strict loudness requirement, the use of the L2 for boosting after the WLM wouldn't be used. The process is exactly the same for what you are asking. Just set the WLM for the target you want to hit and mix to that. Or have the WLM after the L2 or whatever limiter you use (WLM Plus has one built in) and mix at a consistent loudness reference and use the limiter to raise or lower the overall mix to whatever loudness reference.

@@RyanMonette thank you so much for the information.

@@yathirajuppoor9612 sure thing!

Absolutely! A lot has changed in 5 years, and dynamic EQ is now a crucial part of my workflow. I utilize Fab Filter's Pro-Q3 EQ with dynamic EQ engaged, as well as using Waves' F6 instead of the C6. Your mind is in the right place! I'll hopefully be making an updated video on this topic later this year!

@@RyanMonette Brilliant 👌🏾. Great video by the way, please do more of this stuff… tv commercials etc.

@@hadedafx Thank you for your kind words! The goal is to absolutely have more on the way!

We not going to use C6 side chain mentioned in this video? @@RyanMonette

@@hightide1500 I use the F6 instead of the C6 now for when I side chain dialogue into music. I have more control with it.

They're all slightly different, wether it's Spotify or Apple. Podcasts in general are around -16 LUFS. There should be a podcast preset on the WLM. You can also look into Playlist Rider from Waves as well. Super helpful for maintaining loudness.

AT-AT Chat no need to move to avid if you are comfortable with what you are using. The principles apply as long has you are using similar/relatable plugins.

@@RyanMonette appreciate the reply!

I do not have any more videos at this moment in time. This video was intended for those who have at least already dabbled in this topic. There are probably hundreds of videos on RU-vid that can help for a more beginner level.

In this video, Schoeps CMIT 5 U

@@RyanMonette thanks for responding. I just found your channel today. Looking forward to more videos from you.

@@tronmoses Absolutely! I'm happy to help!

I'm so glad to hear you found this tutorial helpful! Every project is unique and will call for whatever is best for that project and the vibe it is wanting to convey. If I were to be mixing a project like the one you are describing, with so much space between VO portions, I would want to maintain the energy of the piece, so I would automate the music EQ frequencies, the center information, and the volume back up, and then when the next portion of VO comes back, I would then automate back down that information. That's if it were a commercial type project. If there was though some sound design elements between VO moments, I might just automate the music volume and keep the EQ and center information the same so the sound design pokes out. But again, every project is unique to itself. Hopefully this helps. At the end of the day, trust the best tool you have... your ear.

@@RyanMonette Thanks so much!

@@charlie6464 Most welcome!

I will add that to the to-do list! Great idea!

You indeed can make an audio bus track in Premiere Pro (called a submix track in Premiere Pro). From there, you can use Waves or any audio VST (and AU) plugins within Premiere as well. So you most definitely can do all this in Premiere Pro :)

@@RyanMonette Thank you again, Ryan. Have a nice week!

The DAW I work in, and that's most widely used, is Pro Tools. But like I said in the video, the specific "what" doesn't matter, it's the principles that matter, the "how" and "why." Audition is great. They have stock plugins that can do the same sort of things, but you can also see buy and use Waves and many other 3rd party plugins and use them as VSTs in Audition.

@@RyanMonette Thank you so much Ryan!! great work

@@samy.filmmaker Most welcome!

You are most welcome! Yes, you most certainly can apply the same principles to a SFX bus, which is what I do with subtle differences in frequencies and various tweaks.