Crafting the Story Through Sound

From the script and the director’s vision to voice, sound effects, and even silence, every element in the soundtrack is designed to support seamless storytelling.

The process typically begins with reading the script and creating a sound breakdown. I prepare a preliminary sound script and discuss it with the director to align our vision. Based on these discussions, the sound plan is refined, and an initial budget is estimated. However, in many cases, I begin with a first cut of the film rather than the written script, which helps shape the sonic approach more intuitively.

The sound editing session includes Foley effects, recorded ambiences, production sync sound, and various other effects from sound libraries. Foley is recorded in a dedicated studio, with a Foley artist performing actions in sync with the visuals. These recordings are then carefully edited and aligned to the picture.

When additional Foley textures are required, I use sound design tools like Reformer Pro to create unique effects that enhance realism. I also capture ambient recordings on location, either before or after the shoot, as they help ground the scenes in a believable space and add depth to the soundtrack. These recordings, along with library elements, are layered and edited to form the sonic foundation of the film.

Once the initial edit is complete, a reference is sent to the music composer, and likewise, I receive musical references from the score team. This collaborative process helps align sound design with the rhythm and tone of the music, ensuring cohesion across all audio elements.

Dialogue, Music & Pre-Mixing

A pre-mix of dialogues, music, and effects is done before the final mix. For projects using sync (location) sound, dialogue tracks are cleaned and ambience-matched using professional tools such as iZotope RX. The processed files are then imported into the session, where boom and lapel mic tracks are aligned for phase coherence, and production effects are placed on separate tracks.

For dubbed voices, I use a different approach to match the tonal and spatial characteristics of the original environment. Dialogues are then balanced, EQ'd, panned, and processed to sit naturally within the mix.

Music and effects pre-mixes are crafted to match the emotion and perspective of the scenes, ensuring that each element complements the overall narrative flow.

Final Mixing – Where It All Comes Together

The final mix focuses on narrative clarity and emotional impact. Dialogues are prioritised and balanced against music and effects to ensure intelligibility, as they remain the core of the story. Music often plays the next most important role, adding emotion, tension, or mood, and helping to define the film’s genre and pacing.

Throughout the mix, the director’s vision remains central. Every sound is shaped to support the picture, so much so that the audio disappears into the visual storytelling. In the end, the film comes to life as the sound merges with the image, creating a unified cinematic experience.

Music Mixing & Mastering

Music mixing involves combining multi-tracks or stems by balancing volume levels, placing elements across the stereo panorama, and applying effects processors, such as EQ, compression, reverb, and delay, to evoke the desired emotion and achieve a professional production feel.

Typically, the music producer or artist provides a rough mix as a reference to help estimate the budget and direction. Once I receive the tracks for mixing, I begin the mix preparation phase: carefully reviewing each track, organising them by naming and colour-coding, and placing markers or creating regions that outline the sections of the composition. This structured approach helps streamline navigation during the mixing stage.

If any recordings are of suboptimal quality, I use industry-standard tools like iZotope RX, Cedar Audio, or Waves plugins to clean them while preserving tonal character. When needed, vocal tuning is done using Melodyne or Auto-Tune, depending on the creative direction. All tracks are then routed into folder structures for better session management.

At this early stage, and throughout the process, I invest time in understanding the artist’s vision. Conversations with the composer help me grasp the emotional journey behind the piece, reference tracks (if any), and descriptive terms like warm, mellow, crunchy, or airy, which guide my creative decisions. Clear communication is crucial in reducing revisions and achieving a mix that resonates.

Mixing Workflow

Although mixing doesn’t follow a rigid formula, I approach it with a consistent workflow:

1. Listen to the reference mix (if available) to understand the intent.

2. Gain-stage all tracks to provide enough headroom for processing, adjusting both clip gain and track faders.

3. Balance and pan elements across the stereo field.

4. Apply EQ and dynamics processing to shape tone and control transients.

5. Use effects like reverb and delay to create space, depth, and atmosphere.

6. Automate parameters: volume, panning, FX sends, etc., to create movement and interaction among elements.

The exact approach is always tailored to the genre and production style, ensuring each mix serves the song’s purpose.

Mastering

Mastering is the final polish, where the mixed track is brought to commercial loudness levels, tonal balance is fine-tuned, and cohesion is ensured across multiple songs (if part of an EP or album). This stage also sets the playback order, silence duration between tracks, and overall flow.

Using mastering-grade EQs, compressors, stereo imaging tools, and final limiters, I enhance the track while preserving its dynamics and emotional integrity. The end result is a clean, powerful, and broadcast-ready sound that translates well across all playback systems and platforms.

Background Score Editing & Mixing

Music has the power to transform visuals, shape emotional dynamics, follow the story’s arc, and elevate the cinematic experience, ultimately leaving the audience in the intended emotional state.

The first step in background score editing is to carefully watch the video and understand the rhythm and pacing of the edit. As I go through the footage, I insert markers and make notes on the desired emotion, tone, and genre for each section. This groundwork sets the direction for the score.

Using licensed platforms such as Envato Elements, I source high-quality royalty-free music that fits the creative vision without copyright concerns. Once selected, the tracks are pitch- and tempo-matched as needed, ensuring smooth transitions and seamless musical flow across different segments of the film. The final music edit is crafted to be in sync with the visual rhythm, evoking the right emotion, enhancing cuts with rhythmic energy, and supporting the visual storytelling without distraction.

When working with original compositions, music composers usually provide multi-tracks along with a rough mix or a beep-synced reference with timecode for synchronisation. During mix preparation, I organise these tracks by naming, colour-coding, arranging, and grouping them appropriately.

The mixing stage involves balancing levels, panning, applying EQ, dynamics processing, effects like reverb and delay, and detailed automation, all done in reference to the picture. The goal is to make the music support the visual narrative and emotional tone while maintaining technical clarity.

The mixed background score is delivered with enough headroom to allow the final re-recording mixer (or mix engineer) to apply further processing. Even if I’ve already automated volume and effects, it is common for the re-recording mixer to apply additional volume automation on the full mix to create space for dialogue and sound effects. In many cases, mix engineers request stems or mixed multi-tracks instead of a single stereo bounce to retain flexibility in adjusting individual musical elements during the final mix.