Audio Ducking
Ducking automatically reduces a music or ambience bed while dialogue is present.
What this is about
Ducking is a mixing move, not a set decision. A compressor listens to the dialogue track and pulls music or atmosphere down by a few decibels the moment someone speaks, then lets it rise again. Corporate films, documentaries and trailers live on it, because the bed can stay loud between lines without ever fighting the voice. The amount decides whether it works: a shallow dip reads as natural, a deep one draws attention to itself. Manual fader rides still beat automation when the music has to breathe with the edit.
A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.
What runs differently here
Where this differs from the general case:
- Three to six decibels of dip usually sound natural; deeper cuts make the automation audible as pumping
- Ducking never rescues badly recorded dialogue — it only clears room around the voice in the mix
- Set attack and release slowly enough that music fades between lines instead of jumping
With TillyGen
When a review round is about the mix, TillyGen keeps timecoded comments next to the cut, so 'music too loud here' points at an exact moment.
Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.
Frequently asked
Should ducking be automatic or done by hand?
Automation is fine for interviews and long music beds. Where music carries emotion, ride the fader manually — the timing then follows the edit, not a threshold.
How long does it take to get started with TillyGen?
A first project takes under an hour to set up. There is no configuration phase in which templates and fields have to be defined before the tool produces anything.
Can the results be exported?
Yes — as PDF for the crew, CSV for downstream systems and through the API for anything automated. The plan stays the source; the exports are views of it.