Re-recording mixer

A re-recording mixer, formerly known as a dubbing mixer, is a person who is part of a post-production sound team and works specifically with dialog, music and sound effects to create the final soundtrack for a production. They are responsible for ensuring that the sound in a record single, film or television program is technically correct, and as near to the director's or sound designer's original idea.

Re-recording mixers prepare an initial film soundtrack for audience previews by performing tasks such as mixing and cross-fading the sound, and adding a temporary music soundtrack that will have been prepared by the music editor. After the previews, the film is usually re-cut and the sound is mixed once more. Once the film is given its final approval by the producer and financial backers, the re-recording mixer works towards a final surround sound mix.

A re-recording mixer is someone, or a team of two or three individuals who, working with the Director of a film or television show achieve the desired sonic balance between dialog, sound effects, and music. The first part of the traditional re-recording process is called the "premix." In the dialog premix the re-recording mixer does preliminary processing, including making initial loudness adjustments and reducing environmental noise that the on-set microphone picked up during the shooting of the scene.

In the previous phase of post production, sound editors and sound designers have assembled many sounds for each scene. During the "final mix" the re-recording mixers, guided by the director, make creative decisions from moment to moment in each scene about not only how loud each major sound element (dialog, sound effects, and music) should be relative to each other, but they also modify individual sounds when desired by adjusting their loudness and spectral content, by adding artificial reverberation, and by placing sounds in the three dimensional space of the listening environment for a variety of venues and release formats: movie theaters, home theater systems, etc. that have multi-channel (5.1 7.1, etc.) sound systems.

References

• "Re-recording mixer". Skillset. Retrieved 2007-07-09.