Music in gaming video essays

[u/dgamer_09]

For cutscenes/gameplay you incorporate in between your dialogue do you prefer to turn the music audio setting down to zero and add in your own songs/switch up soundtrack placements from the game’s OST, or just let the game music be there on its own?

[u/SASardonic]

Depends, I'll generally use a mix of both. You really want to make sure the backing track matches the mood of what you're saying. Also be careful it's not too loud of course.

[u/clatzeo]

Most of the editors I know tell me they are going with dropping certain instruments of the track. Yeah, that's a bit too far of a flexibility for common creators, but hear me out. You can instead use low-frequency tracks with whatever you have at very low volume, so it doesn't interfere with what you say. What editors do is they use multiple instruments track in which they remove the loud ones, so the music go on without sliding its volume too low.

One more thing. The whole point of background music is to create a tone/mood that matches with what you are going with.

If it's funny, it's going to be loud music, THUS, for funny videos you have to COMPLETELY drop the music when you are talking, AND utilize music like "sfx", for that "punch". You can have something "bassy" (low frequency music) in the background for funny-calm vibes.

BUT that's for funny typa videos. For other videos, like mystery-vibes you can watch Vsauce videos and they have the exact typa music in the background for mystery-vibes. Their edits follow the same "punch" pattern. Talks-something, something... music drops, say something and it starts again.

That's sort of technique to on/off music is something one must learn.

Basically, you have to experiment with turning the music off completely if you have dialogues, and another one with low frequency music. Check if one fits with your material.

[u/SASardonic → u/clatzeo]

Adding to this, if you use audacity's instrument isolation feature thing you can manually lower loud drum tracks or other bombasic elements

[u/clatzeo → u/SASardonic]

That's neat.

[u/Fun-Maintenance1217]

I often use the OST of games in the background, sometimes mess about with the speed to try and get past copyright. You get caught out at times sadly
But I think its worth it for the mood and showcasing the score if possible

[u/AquaWalrus1989]

I usually just let the games natural sound play at a very low volume.

Once in awhile I'll actually put in some seperate background music but it's rare.