The ‘Polaroid’ (before mix):
Finished Music Cue (after mix):
If a music cue is labelled as ‘Polaroid’, then it’s a musical sketch, for demonstration purposes only.
Music cues are made initially as these computer-rendered ‘Polaroids’, until all have been completed to the director’s satisfaction. The music recording & mixing session then happens afterwards, to bring all music cues to cinematic life.
Some composers waste much time making ‘Polaroids’ sound like the finished product, early in music production. While doing this may delight a director temporarily, it impinges on composition time which can be spent more fruitfully making the score better in the long-term for your film. (- Architects’ plans are not made with cement!)
A ‘Polaroid’ music track may necessarily use slightly weaker-sounding ‘place-holder’ sounds, before the music mixing session. (E.g. an electronic sound instead of a live musician.) Rest assured: without wasting time, the composer will take steps to make the demo music cue resemble the final mix as far as possible at that longer, early stage. Leaving the recording and mixing stages to the end in this way, optimizes music production time.
Once music is recorded and mixed, it becomes ‘locked’ to an extent, and more laborious to change. Music mixes can also be tweaked during the mix after all ‘polaroids’ have been approved.
How Does a Polaroid Sound Different?
1. Synchronization of String Sounds – During the polaroid phase the strings might sound slightly out of time. The orchestral string sound library being used may be big. This means that sometimes, even a powerful computer can have difficulty keeping those large string samples in sync with the other instruments playing. There can be a slight delay which can make the ‘players’ sound as if they are dragging. If the strings sound like they’re playing slightly out of time, please don’t worry. They’ve been composed accurately. Before the final mix, all the agreed strings are ‘printed’ to the recording. That print is then aligned perfectly with the rest of the music, to render a perfect, synchronized sound.
2. Reverb – We tend not to use any reverb (or echo) in polaroids, – this gets left until the mix. This means that many of the sounds might sound artificially ‘dry’ and exposed in the polaroid. Adding reverb ‘puts them in a room’ that conveys a live and exciting atmosphere. Where reverb (and echo) effects are essential for a music cue to work, a temporary reverb may have been added to the polaroid (even though it might have to be taken off and replaced with something even better during the mix).
3. Balance – Some of the instruments may sound too loud whilst others are too quiet. A polaroid will present a very rough balance of sound. The fine balance gets done during the mixing stage when all comes together. From experience, the composer knows what this will sound like, before the mix.
4. Equalization – This is to do with the beefiness and brightness of the sound – more or less bass & treble. These tone controls get set at the mix stage, so if a sound sounds weak, or does not seem to fit, don’t worry, it will be tone-controlled in.
5. Tightness – Sometimes a polaroid might sound a little wishy-washy. During the mix, processors called ‘compressors’ are brought in to help one sound to get out of the way of another, or to sound more powerful.
6. Distortion – Sometimes levels will play too high and this will cause distortion (grittiness) in the sound. Levels gets balanced at the mix stage so that there is no distortion.
7. Format – Polaroids are presented in ‘lossy’ mp3 format, as these small files are easier to transfer. The final mix is done at a minimum 48KHz sample rate in full-quality WAV (or aiff) format.
