Mixing Voice and Music for Video

mixing voice and music with audacity

If you watch or make videos where someone is talking and there is music playing in the background, then read on.


I make video lessons to help people learn, mostly with me just talking, and mostly like never to I add music too.

That said, I do get irritated with my own pauses where I breath or make other noises, we all do. So what if some music was added to break that silence? Something nicely blended not too much high, not too low - just right.

I searched for some magic formula, quickly saw there wasn't one, then settled on a few ideas
Voice only
Audio Ducking - music rises up and then down as voice speaks and pauses
A Voice and Music with set volume (maybe at 15-20%)

Here's a two part video set on what I found out using mobile and desktop, with a variety of software like: PowerDirector, Audacity, Vegas Movie Studio

Many thanks to the wistia article, 'Video Background Music: Getting the Volume Perfect' where I offer this quote:

 "I watch a ton of videos that use ducking, where the music level comes down when someone is talking on screen, then instantly rises when they finish. This technique ensures that the music is not overpowering the voices on screen, but it fails by constantly calling attention to the music.' 

"Personally, I keep the music at a consistent volume throughout the video. For this technique to work, you really have to find the right piece of music. Unless the video is highly specialized, I look for music that's simple and free from distracting elements (for example, group "whoa"-ing). In this case, I mix the music volume as high as I can get away with while making sure it doesn't overpower the narrative.

Mini Conclusion - For me ducking looks like too much work, where carefully chosen music at a consistent volume will work if music is set at around 15-20% compared to 100% voice. But, choose music carefully as the wrong track will get annoying fast.

There is a lot of meme behaviour here too, as one chap commented on my video, 'the person that convinced youtubers to always add background music to their videos should be 'spoken to'.. if I wanted music I would play music on a separate app'.

Which is a great point, maybe we were bred into this from MTV etc with all these adrenaline fuelled action videos where everyone seemed to have a heavy metal guitar over the top. Quite alien to me as a former school teacher - I mean how many teachers stand there in class with a backing track..

Part 1 on Mobile



 Part 2 on Desktop


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