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Audio setup and editing Best Practices
I am a long time FCP editor, hoping Premiere Pro is viable replacement.
My main question is about audio tracks and how to set them up correctly. I’m looking for best practices. I know about how to setup the project to bring in audio in different formats, how to change how audio is interpretted, etc. Coming from FCP7, where audio tracks are treated more like clips, it was a no brainer when editing different sources of mono tracks and stereo tracks. I would drop a mono audio clip into the TL, unlink, un-stereo it, delete the empty track, duplicate the single mono track with audio (from H4N), link them and stereo them. Voila!
In Pr CS5.5, audio is treated as tracks, as it usually is. To preserve my limited knowledge of audio, I set up my sequence as all mono tracks, ie track 1 is left, track 2 is right. Bring in the mono track, duplicate it, sync and link together. These two mono tracks are panned hard left and right. I don’t “hear” any phasing issues, and the master audio is outputting stereo mixes.
Is this going to be a problem later on? The SFX/Music friend that I work with says “NO!” don’t do it that way, it will introduce phasing issues. I’m sure he’s right, but I’m not sure how to detect it, nor am I sure if this is the correct way to do this? And in FCP7, having the quick stereo keyboard shortcut just put aside any questions I had about this. I like that Pr allows me to have such control over audio, but I still have alot to learn when it comes to audio.
Please give me any pointers on how I should be handling audio tracks where some are mono (boom on ch1, silence on ch2, H4N zoom), and mono again (lav on ch1, boom on ch2, H4N zoom), and stereo mixes of songs.
And for info’s sake, I’m monitoring with to KRKs, via a mackie 4ch mixer output from my BMD Intensity Pro card. I have the master audio output to ch1 and ch2 of the mixer.
Thanks in advance
Josephhttp://www.tulpapictures.com
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3 Replies
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If you haven’t already, set Premiere to treat stereo tracks as two mono. You can bring them into track pairs, panning one left and the other right, without much hassle.
Panning left and right is, in a very basic sense, a fader between both speakers. Pan to the center and both speakers play the sound at the same volume, pan to the right and the right speaker plays more signal while the left fades out and so on.
Even though you’re panning hard left and right, your center is the audible signal that both speakers have in common. There should be no phase issues working like this… at least no phase issues out of the ordinary. You’ll have some level of phasing when you use two or more mics at the same time. https://www.uaudio.com/blog/understanding-audio-phase/ If you hear stereo issues (and, really programs like ProTools or Adobe Audition are more suited for this as they have phase tools) then it can be adjusted by slight delays or other tricks.
Premiere works similar to a mixing console. You have a master bus or mix. If you have a mono channel, it can live as mono as the bus will pump it to each speaker in equal amounts. If you pair it with another copy, not only is it redundant, you’re also mixing each side in phase which will lead to higher amplitude.
Since your lav and boom are mono I would let them live as mono sources. You can then pan your mono channels back and forth with keyframes depending on who is speaking and so on.
Angelo Lorenzo
Fallen Empire – Digital Production Services
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services. -
If you haven’t already, set Premiere to treat stereo tracks as two mono. You can bring them into track pairs, panning one left and the other right, without much hassle.
Great this makes sense for stereo tracks.
If you have a mono channel, it can live as mono as the bus will pump it to each speaker in equal amounts. If you pair it with another copy, not only is it redundant, you’re also mixing each side in phase which will lead to higher amplitude.
To be sure I understand, for those mono tracks, I shouldn’t double it up and pan L/R? I should keep it as a single mono track and pan center? For the tracks with both boom and lav I can treat each separately provided that I keep the pan center?
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Correct, keeping mono tracks centered will split them to the master stereo track evenly.
Doubling mono tracks doesn’t make sense from a workflow stand point because it’s more steps for the same result and because you’re mixing two waves into one so you’re adding amplitude to the signal… not a terrible thing, you just have to compensate for it, but still another step.
Angelo Lorenzo
Fallen Empire – Digital Production Services
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services.
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