For most of us, sound editing and sound mixing mean the same thing. In reality though, they are two very different and very distinct steps in the process of theatrical story telling.
SOUND EDITING
Sound editing is the process of creating all of the sound effects for a movie. It can include the special effects, like the sound of creaking floors, the rush of hurricane winds, or the roar of a mythical monster. It can also include pre recorded dialog, such as the voice over for an action scene. And of course, let us not forget the musical score which can make or brake the entire production.
In many of the better translated films, a team of translators working with a team of voice actors will translate the source language to the target language in order to create a target language script. After the translated script is produced, the wording in the target language will be adjusted to match the actors speech on the film. You can watch an old Godzilla movie if you’d like to see a bad example of this.
SOUND MIXING
Sound mixing on the other hand is taking all of these elements of sound editing and overlaying them so as to create a compelling story. This job tends to be very technical and often tedious.
Consider for example the sound track. The sound mixing artist will need to adjust the sound level to make sure the music doesn’t overpower the dialog. Just because the scene is climatic doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hear the dialog. The music also needs to match the scene to develop tension, excitement or happiness.
A bad example would be a YouTube video with interesting dialog but background music that is just too loud, or just as bad, inappropriate to the theme. Inappropriate to the theme would be playing happy music while discussing death and dying for example.
Conclusion
The difference between sound editing and sound mixing is that sound editing is the creation of sound elements, background music, special effects, prerecorded dialog such a narrator in a film. Sound mixing is taking all of these sound elements and mixing them together to create a compelling story.
If you found this helpful or something is unclear, let me know in the comments.
