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Premiere Pro Audio Levels
Hi all,
I’ve filmed some interviews and I’m editing them together in Premiere Pro CS6.
I used my DSLR with Magic Lantern, and adjusted the volume input nicely so that the levels were in the green on my DSLR screen.
I’ve added some background music, but to hear the interviews clearly I need to turn it down to about -22dB.
With the interview audio boosted to 6dB (the max you can in Premiere), the whole thing still sounds like it’s very quiet when I export it.
I nested the sequence a few times and cranked the audio right up, but it maxes out and sounds terrible. What other options are there?
Many thanks in advance.
Jonnie.
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6 Replies
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Use audio gain to bring the overall level up. Select the clip and right click on it. Select audio gain. There you can adjust the gain. I created a keyboard shortcut to bring up this window which makes things quicker.
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Great, thanks.
What’s the difference between adjusting the gain and using the levels control in the effects pallet? Other than audio gain can be cranked up more obviously…
Cheers again.
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Gain raises or lowers the overall level/loudness of the audio. You then fine tune/mix with the levels control which can also be keyframed. Look at your waveform in the timeline. Next adjust the gain of a clip and watch waveforms adjust.
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Wow, learn something new everyday. Been using CS5.5 for over a year, and always used the levels (hated that you could only raise it 6dB).
Thanks for the tip!
btw, to the OP, almost all of my background music needs to be lowered by a good -18dB. This also happened in FCP, so I think it’s just the way our audio catalog was mastered.
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Great, thanks for the helpful tips. Really appreciated.
On another note, what’s the best way of ensuring “friendly” audio? By that I mean a level that ensures viewers don’t have to crank up their volume to be able to hear it properly. I’ve been adjusting the gain so that it’s about as loud as it can be without maxing out and becoming distorted, using levels to adjust little sections where the speakers voice becomes too loud.
Is that a good approach to audio or is there something else that I should keep in mind?
Thanks again.
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I try to keep normal dialog between -12dB and -10dB, and any loud sounds (yelling, explosions, etc) at no more than -6dB. As we all know, you can always raise the audio, but once it’s distorted, there is little to do that can fix it.
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