Designing Sound for Animation, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4

Music

Overview

The music stem or score is perhaps the most difficult component of the soundtrack to describe in words. Ironically, score rather than SFX often drive films that lack dialogue. Each musical entrance in a soundtrack is called a cue. A cue can underscore a scene or represent a source such as a radio or phonograph. In addition to source and underscore, many films use music for title, montage, and end credit sequences. The labeling convention for a cue is 1M1, the first number representing the reel and the last number representing the order in which it occurs. Cues are often given titles representative of the scenes they accompany. The blueprint for the score is created at the spotting session that occurs immediately after ...