Roles And Workflows In The Music & Multimedia Industry.
Within the music and multimedia industry there is a range of roles and workflows that are suitable for and applied to the variations of music production in different settings and context. Within music production specifically there are usually the three core aspects of audio recording, audio mixing and post-production in any given project, these roles in professional settings are usually filled by different individuals so that they can focus on the specifics of that area of the production. Reaching then into the multimedia industry which audio sits alongside, there is of course a range of different mediums through which music and audio is integrated and produced in a context away from the more typical music production format. With the addition of extra visual content presented with multimedia productions in the form of either video, performance, art installations or even separate dialogue, there is audio content to accompany what is being taken in by the audience’s eyes and it is a crucial aspect to get the sound accompaniment right to create a wholly quality piece.
This then is why there are a number of professional roles found in various industries that focus on the interplay between music and medium. Within these multimedia roles there are :
Sound Designers - Responsible for the sounds which accompany action in the medium, as well as providing spot effects / atmosphere effects which help to build on the effect which the medium is aiming to accomplish, sound design having a very broad area to cover can range from the production of sounds to accompany visual settings such as ambient noise, or can range to the design of new sounds to fill a specific purpose or which create a particular tone (both digitally through software patches or physically) suited to its contextual accompaniment. An example of this could be the lightsaber sound designed by Ben Burtt [1] using hums from two different sources - a projector and interference picked up by a microphone behind a CRT Tv - mixed together and then suitably fit to the visual element of a saber in motion by recording this combined hum tone output with another microphone on a stand pole help by the designer and moved across and around the output, creating the motion aspect to the sound by moving this mic in an action like a saber which created the immersive and distinctive audio / visual experience they were aiming for which.
Supervising Sound Editors - This role will usually work in the post-production scope of a project and are responsible for the soundtrack typically whether for a piece of film / play / radio-play. This role will coordinate the creative contributions of the sound staff involved in the project, and will supervise and orchestrate the production’s audio aspects to ensure that all the various sections which separate roles create can be brought together in cohesion successfully.
ADR Editor - Focused on the dialogue accompaniment to the auditory aspect of a project, and ADR editor will check through and scrutinise the original sound recordings of say an actors lines when performing the act within a film / play / radio-play, even going so far as to monitor specifically the speech pronunciation and enunciation within the performance to ensure that it fits to the visual act, scene atmosphere and director's vision. ADR stands for automatic dialogue replacement, and within the role they will then take any audio sections in need of re-recording and will follow through to reproduce and replace said sections as they see fit.
Within multimedia projects there are a large range of roles which oversee different aspects of the production similarly to those specified above, these further consist of : Post Production Engineer, Music Editor, Foley Artist, Re-recording Mixer. In the music industry there are also specified roles which cover different production aspects from the recording, mixing and mastering stages including : Record Producers, Recording Engineer, Mix Engineer, Mastering Engineer, as well as the musicians themselves.
[1] Ben Burtt Interview: The Sound of Lightsabers, 2014 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJQ3_tipGEY - Star Wars
