Cutting Through the Sound FX with Score

An undeniable development over the last decades has been that movies have become increasingly louder. With the advent of surround sound and THX standards in cinemas in the 90s plus the general technical advancement of recording and sound reproduction the dynamic range that is being used in the movies has dramatically increased. 

From a musical standpoint this also has some consequences. While action sequences always had music occasionally drown under sound effects the competition in lesser busy scenes has become bigger. The increased dynamic range makes it generally harder to write music that stays musically cohesive and still maneuvers around these dynamics.

Of course an experienced sound mixer will try to make space for the music in the final mix but sometimes it simply is not possible. If you have a space ship wooshing over the screen or a big gun fight going on it is practically mandatory to be "naturally loud".

For us as composers all this means that we need to work with this. It definitely helps to get in contact with the sound designers as early as possible and get an idea of what they are planning in certain sequences so you know roughly what to expect. 

In some cases however, you can be assured that practically any details in the orchestration or sound choice in the music will at least temporarily be masked. Occasional masking of the music is generally not a huge problem and has been common since the beginning fo sound films. However on key moments that need the music as a narrative guide, you should make sure that it at least has a chance to cut through the sound.

If you can predict that a sequence or moment is going to be really loud and you still need or want to score it, try to find a gap in the frequency range of the sound that you can utilize for the music. Usually the higher registers of the frequency range might be suitable where you can add elements with a lot of high harmonics (for instance high trumpets, strings) and rhythmical elements. Piling more low frequencies on top of sound effects usually doesn't work that well.

Also, it might be a a good idea on "peak" moments like explosions etc. to become (almost) silent with the music rather than trying to compete with the sound.

The bottom line here is to take the sound into consideration when you write music. While it is possible to adjust levels during mix for both elements to be audible a constant need in automating the volume levels of the music just so it stays within a useable dynamic range will be noticeable and can be avoided by writing the music with such things in the back of your mind.