Music beds

What it does

Any audio in your library can sit under the video, with its level, fade in, fade out, and whether it ducks.

The standard behind it

• Ducking is sidechain compression against the narration itself, not a fixed level change on a schedule. The bed drops when somebody speaks and returns when they stop, which is what "under the dialogue" actually means.
• One bed for the whole programme. A lane of audio clips would imply cutting and placing that nothing in the render plane can do, and an editor that implies an edit it cannot make is worse than one that says plainly what exists.

When to use it

Use a bed when a piece is carried by narration and needs something underneath it — an explainer, a listing walkthrough, a weekly recap. Pick any audio track from your library, then set its level, its fade in and fade out, and whether it ducks.

With ducking on, the bed drops while somebody speaks and returns in the gaps, measured against the narration itself, so a pause gets music and a dense passage does not fight the voice. With little or no narration, leave ducking off and let the bed carry the piece at the level you set.

There is one bed per programme. A different track for each section is not something the editor can do, and it does not pretend otherwise. If you would rather not choose, the assistant director can propose a bed from your own audio, or none, when it arranges a script; it arrives as a proposal you approve. The voice on the narration is set separately, under voices.