Almost every edit has two primary audio components: voice and music. Both play important roles in your productions. The voices communicate content. They impart information and tell the story. Music sets the mood and drives the pace of the edit. When music and voice are mixed properly, the latter adds and underscores emotion without competing with the content. But when your music mix is too hot and the instrumentals overpower the dialogue, your viewers will have to strain to understand what is being said and they might miss the message.
You may have invested in high quality audio monitors for your edit bay. These make your soundtracks sound fantastic at your desk, but we all need to remember that most people watching our productions will not be listening on high quality speakers. Some may be listening through the small speakers built into their TVs, others through their laptops, some in headphones and others on their phones, Kindles or iPads. If you know exactly where your edit will be played (in an auditorium, on an iPad or on TV sets in a variety of homes) you can optimize your mixes for that specific setting. If your production will play in a wide variety of settings, you need to make a mix that works well for everyone. I highly recommend auditioning your mix on a variety of different playback devices to make sure it sounds clear on the poorest device people might use. When in doubt, ride your music levels a slight bit lower than you think you should, and bump them up only in the gaps between dialogue. A mix that sounds good to the least of these will work well for everyone.
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