freudianflips/breakout-launch-videos

Launch mix

Tool manual under launch-film. Start at skills/launch-film/SKILL.md: it holds the core, the hook-plus-body template and the lessons. Where this page differs, launch-film wins.

A mix is a set of relationships, not a stack of effects. The voice owns intelligibility, the effects own the moments, the music owns momentum and gives way to both. HyperFrames renders the picture; it has no master bus, so the finished mix is made here, outside the composition, and laid onto the render.

In the film template, film/audio.py writes the mix file and runs this script for you. Use this page to understand and change the moves.

Inputs

• the music take (launch-score)
• sfx.wav (launch-sound)
• vo.wav and the word times (launch-voice), when narrated
• the picture: the HyperFrames render, rendered silent

Procedure

1. Write mix.json. The full format is in the header of skills/launch-mix/scripts/mixdown.py.
2. Run python3 skills/launch-mix/scripts/mixdown.py mix.json from your venv (numpy, soundfile, pedalboard, pyloudnorm).
3. Read the printed ebur128 summary. Integrated must be -14 ± 0.5 LUFS, true peak at or under -1.0 dBFS.
4. With video set, the script muxes the master onto the picture (video_out). Hand that file to launch-review.

The moves and why

Move	Setting	Why
Voice bus	high-pass 80 Hz, 3:1 compression at -20 dB, +1 dB at 3.2 kHz	steady level, consonants forward
Duck	music down 8 to 10 dB following the voice envelope, attack 80 ms, release 350 ms	the bed breathes with speech instead of sitting at a fixed low level
Presence carve	-4 dB at 2.5 kHz on the bed, blended by the same envelope	makes room where speech lives, only while it speaks
Music tone	high-pass 28 Hz, gentle low and high shelves	removes rumble, keeps the bed soft behind the product
SFX bus	high-pass 40 Hz, 2.5:1 at -18 dB, fast attack	glues the palette so events feel like 1 family
Drop-out	music to silence about 0.1 s before the logo, 80 ms ramp	the logo and its sting land in near silence, as strong launch films do
Master	1.8:1 glue compression, then up to 3 passes of gain to target and a look-ahead brickwall at the ceiling	loud enough for YouTube without pumping

Starting balance with no voice: music -2 to -4 dB, SFX 0 dB. With a voice: voice 0 dB, music -6 dB before ducking, SFX -3 dB.

Targets

• YouTube, LinkedIn, X: -14 LUFS integrated, -1 dBTP. Loudness range 1.5 to 6 LU (a strong reference launch measured 1.6).
• Keep a WAV master (48 kHz, 24-bit) next to the muxed MP4 (AAC 256 kbps).

Rules

• Do not use pedalboard's Limiter as a ceiling: it behaves like a maximiser (the output level barely follows the input; a 33 s test came out at -10.8 LUFS). mixdown.py has its own look-ahead brickwall for that reason.
• Never raise the whole mix to fix a quiet voice. Fix the voice bus or duck deeper.
• Never limit more than 3 dB on the master; if you must, the balance is wrong.
• The logo lands in near silence: a drop-out or a fade, never the full bed.
• A mix is not done until launch-review has measured it and someone has listened on laptop speakers and on headphones.