RECORDING August 2022 - 66

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and taking out artists' names as tags, because it's
like telling a judge and a jury, " Yeah, we
intended that this stuff sounded like Billie Eilish, "
and there's a lawsuit.
What's the most common genre that you do use?
Two years ago, I would've said hip-hop. Right
now, it's a mix of orchestral tension and pop,
and pop can cover so many different things. I
think that the variety of shows that are out
there right now are so vast, and every show is
gonna have different needs and different parts
of the show, that it's hard to say. I would actually
be curious what the libraries say that they
are getting more requests for.
What percentage of cues do you use with vocals
versus instrumental only, if you had to give it a
number?
Depending on the show. I just did a Netflix
show this year, and we tried to use only cues
that had lyrics available and then strip a lot of
lyrics out. And then we were told that we were
spending too much money, and that we had to
go back to some cheaper options. But a sound
like that really does make a show sound a little
more expensive and a little more evocative.
That was definitely an example of using music
as a score. And I love lyric-ups, because it's
that opportunity to tell the audience that this
is what people are thinking without having to
have your cast say it.
Editor's note: A " lyric up " is when a song is
used, but mostly the instrumental track until a
key lyric line in the song is popped in to [as
Laurel pointed out] " ...to tell the audience that
this is what people are thinking without having
to have your cast say it. " The part of the lyric
that tells the story or completes a thought is
the part that is " lyric up. "
I know that you were a story editor before you
became a video editor, and people are commenting
in the chatroom about what a great
communicator you are and how well you explain
things. Clearly, you were born to be a very communicative
person, but I've got to believe that
your story-editing chops not only carry over to
your video editing but your understanding of
music as well as to what music can do for the
story. It's nice that you think in those terms, not
just, " I need something up-tempo here. OK, let's
get it in and move on. "
Audience question: Do you ever make EQ adjustments,
or add compression or do any sort of
audio-post-y stuff while you are editing? Or is
that the audio mixer that does that?
Well, I think that at a very, very rudimentary
66 RECORDING August 2022
level, yes. Typically not, because I'm not very
good at it. But if I am editing a scene and
somebody is on the telephone, then I'll do
something to make it sound like it's coming
through telephone speakers. The most that I
typically do with a cue is add a De-Verb if I
need a cue to sting out and there's not a sting
in the place that I need it. A trick that we use
all the time, especially with comedy, is use
Vari-fi [she makes a funny sound. Vari-fi is a
tool in an audio suite in ProTools, that's often
used to make the sound of tape speeding up as
it flies over the playback head of a tape
machine]. Or sometimes you will build that
and then reverse it so that it slows back up into
the cue. That's about the most that we do. But
typically, it goes to a professional mixer, who is
gonna do all this.
Audience question: Laurel, you mentioned key
changes. If a cue changes key for a B-section-
kinda like a bridge-but returns to the original
key for the ending and the sting, would that
work?
I prefer not to, because as an editor I want the
flexibility to be able to use all the cues all the
time in the way that I want to. And if it's a different
key, then it means that I'm not going to
be able to move from A-section to B-section or
B-section to C-section seamlessly, and I might
not have time to be able to play the full modulation
in the act. So, I would prefer it all to be
one key, and have dynamics within that key.
People keep asking what you want to see in the
metadata.
That's a good question. I like to see the genre; I
like to see mood; I like to see instruments. You
know, sometimes I'll have a random use for a
theremin, and I search theremin. Or Jew's harp
was a search that I did this weekend, and it
brought up all cues that have that instrument.
It gets weirdly specific sometimes, so I appreci " We're
going to want the final version
of [a piece of music] so that we
know, OK, this isn't gonna have to
go back to the composer, because
once it gets to us, the ball is rolling
so quickly to get these up there. "
-Laurel Ostrander
ate that. I think you can never go wrong with
genre and mood, though. Those are two that
are hugely helpful pieces.
I like the fact that specific instruments are mentioned.
It would be tough for a musician who is
tagging their own thing, or even a library owner,
or somebody that works at a library, to know
which are the most important. And you don't
want to over-tag, but people will tend to put
everything, including the kitchen sink, in there
hoping that one of those things will result in that
music popping up in a search. But things like an
acoustic guitar matters, so you know it's an
acoustic guitar track versus a synth track. Jew's
harp is a great example, or harmonica,
bagpipe-things that are out of the ordinary for
those rare moments where you have to search for
that. That sounds like a great thing to add.
I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I could
interview Laurel every year for the rest of my life
and know that you guys are getting great information.
I've had other editors that did fine, but
you're a cut above.
Here's a question from Sonic: " Do they usually
want final mastered tracks, but is it normal or
acceptable to submit unmastered instrumentals
and stems? " So, do editors even think in terms of,
" Oh, I really like that, but it doesn't sound like it's
been mastered " ?
I would say my ear is probably not trained
enough to be able to hear that difference. I'm
sure a professional mixer when he gets a cut
might know that. I think that we're going to
want the final version of anything so that we
know, OK, this isn't gonna have to go back to
the composer, because once it gets to us, the
ball is rolling so quickly to get these up there.
I'm gonna add something sonic as a retired postmixer.
And I've got trained ears, and I'm not sure
I would know the difference in the heat of battle
if a track is mastered or if it's just a really good
mix. Really, mastering was invented to make
every cut on an album have a similar sonic personality,
if you will, so it all sounded the same.
Like this was recorded in that studio; that was
recorded in another studio, mixed by a different
person. You want a certain amount of cohesiveness,
so mastering was for that purpose as well as
not having the needle jump out of the grooves,
because if you have a super-big kick drum hit or a
bass guitar note, they would literally cause a needle
to jump out of the groove on vinyl records. I
think people confuse mastering today with... It
does add a certain amount of polish and professionalism
to it, but a good mix does that as well.
So, I wouldn't worry about that so much.
Although, we did show some software the other
day in one of the prequels. This mastering software
that is like idiot-proof, almost one-button
easy, and it's like you put it on anything and it
just sounds amazing. Like click a button and go
wow, and I've got to believe that audio-post engineers
would want to use it on shows. It doesn't
have this dramatic effect on dynamics and stuff,
but it just makes everything... You know, it's like
the button you hit on your phone's camera when
you take a shot and you hit that " enhance " thing
and it just gets the lighting a little better and
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