In multimedia design, music is a vital aspect to take into consideration, no matter the subject. This will define the atmosphere and tone of your piece. Using music wisely can be the difference in capturing your audience’s attention or confusing them.
What Do You Want?
Use your reasoning to pick the exact type of music genre that reflects your video. The Timeframe can work to your advantage to show time period and information that is important in understanding your message.
If you pinpoint this idea early on it will give you time to change your mind, or develop it further. Even just imagining a music style as you work can help inspire you to create a better product. Remember, your video will be representing you or your company. Know exactly what message you are trying to portray. This idea must be set in stone to develop music on top of it.
Tone
Think of the overarching theme of your video. Make sure the tempo of the music can highlight the motion being seen. An upbeat party song may not be the correct choice for sensitive topics, thrilling chase music can project importance or adventure, and upbeat tunes are perfect for modern advertising to convey intractability.
The correct music can add to suspense to a tense scene, or emotion into a more sensitive scene. However, inappropriately toned music can have its place when it comes to genres like comedy and horror. It can be a shocking aspect to mix up genres, but must be done carefully.
Vocals
A decision to be made is whether you would like to include the vocals in the music you select. You can pick a song that has no words, or remove the overlaying text beforehand. This can be achieved in most editing programs, which are vital to making the music accompaniment unique. Looking through different music editing softwares can show you ways to warp and distorts songs.
Keep in mind, vocals often become distracting and inappropriate if there is another overlapping dialogue. Also, even if music feels appropriate, it may include actual wording that does not correlate to the video, so this is something you will want to pay close attention to before presenting your work.
Duration of Music
If the music is only for a short scene, you will need to loop it. Depending on the song this can be challenging and you will need to find the correct spots at the beginning and end to match together when the loop restarts so the audience won’t notice. Looping can also be done with sound snippets, or just pieces of the songs you particularly want to showcase or repeat.
A song that is too long can also be an issue because it is choppy for it to drag over into parts of your video where it’s irrelevant. Just starting at the beginning and cutting or fading when you’re done with it won’t always do. You may need to edit the music to include only the parts that are most appropriate or best fit the action of the video.
Volume
This comes down mostly to the editing process. Quiet music can help grab a viewer’s attention by getting them on the edge of their seats to pay close attention. You wouldn’t want your music to crescendo at the wrong moment and ruin the anticipation build-up. Music that builds or softens in just the right spots can heighten climactic moments.
Remember that silence also makes a statement. Using music at the appropriate times can give an impactful effect that keep eyes turning back to your video. It is also important to take note of any dialogue where the music may need to be lowered to hear.
Famous Songs
It is easy to remember a famous song and feel it is the perfect match for the vibe of your video at first. However, there are some things you may want to consider first. Is the song associated with something else famous that will distract from your video? Will you need to pay for rights to the song? Will the song actually fit the scene for the audience or just for you?
The price that comes along with the famous song, may not be ideal, but many popular marketing videos can afford to buy the rights and use the song’s popularity to catch attention.
Consider Budget
Music is not free. If it is copyrighted, it is illegal to use music without purchasing rights. Understand this when making your selection. There are many music libraries that contain free music. Public domain music can be a highly effective tool in saving money from the production budget
Consider even making your own track with a music engineering program. These programs exist for purchase and for free and generally have extensive online instruction and tutorials. This can be a useful skill to build for future projects to cut out the search.
Composers
Having custom music made for your video is also a real possibility. This can combine the creative thinking of both parties to make a cohesive music design from scratch. An outstanding custom track for your video may be just what you need to create the unique feeling you’re searching for.
Browse Music Libraries
Online music library is a useful tool for any video designer. Many online libraries offer both free and purchasable music with previews available before committing. These libraries contain possibilities of all genres most would never be able to collect on their own.
Using a reputable site is important. These companies will guarantee quality recordings and do not break piracy laws. Downloading copyrighted music illegally may even come with computer viruses.
Music For Any Project
Picking the correct music for your videos can be essential to having a successful project which conveys exactly what you want it to. It is not as simple as choosing a song you like to accompany it. It must match them and even movement structure of the video. There are many important decisions to make during this process and it is best to consider all of the ways you can incorporate sound to elevate the meaning of your piece.