Making music sound like it's background in a restaurant

you could put on an equalizer filter and knock down the bottom and a tad off the top end.

But more important is how you combine it with any additional walla and china clink ambience. That's what will sell it.

Stuart,
First, a disclaimer: I am a self-admittedly bad audio guy. I know virtually nothing. That being said:

My guess is that the speakers used in a public place will be of a lower quality, thereby not giving out as much range of the music. So, I would go into SoundTrack Pro and drop a Channel EQ into your Realtime Effects. Then, click on the little "roll off" buttons for both the low and high end. With the file playing, tweak the amount of highs and lows you cut off. I'm guessing that this will deliever at least a starting point for the poor quality sound you're looking for. Once you've got it set, make sure to "Bound Realtime to Action" which is in the Process menu bar.

Hope that helps!

~Luke

Aside from playing with frequencies, depending on the hardness of the surfaces and the density of the crowd, you may want to add a subtle bit of reverb/echo.

Also, if it makes sense in the scene, you can locate of the source of the music. For example, if the source of the music is from the bar on camera right, pan the music towards the right.

Have fun.

x

Also, remove any stereo effect from your original (stereo, I assume?) recording, by panning the L+R tracks to the centre.