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Editing Audio with Adobe Premiere CS%
Hello All. I am editing a short film with Adobe Premiere CS5. How do I assure that the audio specs are set so that the volume is set at the right specs for theater projectors; as well as for Youtube and for iphones?
1.) Are there any specs to follow to set audio volume, for DVDs, which will then be shown on theater projectors?
2.) What is the best resolution setting for digital video that will be show in movie theaters
3.) (another subject) Are there any steps to make sure I render my movie correctly, so I can later transmit to a DVD (I know that there are auto settings, but just wondering if there’s more I need to know).
Thanks in advance for your help.
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3 Replies
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Mixes are prepared in terms of dialnorm, a measurement over time of an average section of human dialog. External meters (Dolby makes one for instance, these are not peak or RMS meters) are best but you can export bits of your mix and measure it properly with tools like Audio Leak for mac.
Full theatrical has a dial norm of -31db, this allows massive headroom for things like explosions or other dynamic sounds.
Broadcast will vary by station, but is usually -27db or -24db.
Most theatrical mixes are remixed to -27db for DVD/BluRay.
For Youtube, all is fair. I would try a dialnorm of -18. Why? most people are just blasting levels as high as possible, but -18 gives you some headroom for background tracks and still makes the dynamic range of the mix small enough to sound good through cheap computer speakers, laptop speakers, headphones, and phone speakers.
In terms of #2, if it’s larger than DVD, then you need to follow some level of compliance. DCI has a few 2K based sizes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Cinema_Package
You may need to have a mastering house prepare a DCP file if theaters don’t take DVD or Bluray.
In terms of your last question, it’s content dependent. The presets will get you there but you can’t crank up the quality too far beyond. DVD has an encoding bitrate limit around 8mbps – 10mbps so you can improve things by using two pass encoding on your master.
Angelo Lorenzo
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks -
In simplified terms,
for TV/DVD/Broadcast, the levels shouldn’t peak/bounce much beyond -10db
for youtube/phones (unamplified sources) it could peak to zero
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Angelo is right on all fronts. More information than I could’ve given you. For #2 you could do 1920×1080 and get away with it as that is extremely close to 2K. As for #3, just be sure it is DVD-compliant. And doing a 2nd pass will ensure better quality. If that still doesn’t get the quality you want, you could first try to output with a different codec (uncompressed is best but will eat up gigs like nothing!). From there, you could convert the file to a MPEG2 (while making sure all settings are DVD-compliant), and possibly keep your quality looking good.
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