Adobe Premiere Pro is a deep program with numerous features that give it an editing edge. But if you don’t take the time to learn them, you might be missing out on some great time-savers. Here’s a Baker’s Dozen list of tips to improve your editing experience.
Audio Dissolves – When you cut dialogue, it helps to smooth out the edit points between clips by adding short audio dissolves. Set the default audio dissolve length in your application Settings (Timeline section) to four frames. Hold down the command key (Mac) and swipe across all cuts on a track to select the edit points. Apply the default audio dissolve. Play through the track and shorten or lengthen any dissolve to get the perfect sounding transition between adjacent clips.
Fade Handles – Recent Premiere Pro updates added audio fade handles, similar to those found in most DAW applications. If you add an audio dissolve, it automatically becomes a fade or crossfade. Or you can go to the edge of the audio clip and drag the fade handle icon inward to create a fade. Dragging left or right changes the length of the fade. But, dragging up or down changes the curve or “power” of the fade.
FX Badges – With the addition of fade handles, Adobe also added FX Badges and Audio Type Badges to the clips on a timeline track. Click the FX Badge icon to quickly access certain control panels. Unfortunately, I’ve found that when you have relatively small track heights, it’s too easy to inadvertently click an FX Badge or Audio Type Badge when you meant to adjust a fade. When you do that your interface may reconfigure itself in order to open certain panels. My recommendation is to uncheck “FX Badges” and “Audio Type Badges” in your timeline tools settings (wrench icon).
Adjustment Layer Effects – I will add an Adjustment Layer to the topmost track of nearly every sequence sent out for final delivery. I’ll add one or two effects to that clip. The essential clip for me is a video limiter set to the SMPTE standard. This keeps all video levels legal by clipping luminance that exceeds 100 ire. In some cases, I will also apply a Lumetri effect (below the limiter) and pull down the midpoint of the curve slightly. This will adjust for any gamma differences between what I see in the Premiere Pro viewers and the QuickTime player. Although that issue has largely ben solved, I still find some sequences where it’s beneficial to make this adjustment.
Frame Rate Change – Almost every project I work on has camera original media shot at different frame rates. Most of the DSLR cameras do not have slomo record-vs-playback frame rate settings (“over cranking”), like a higher-end video camera. Therefore, you have to correct this in post. For example, if the base rate for the sequence is 23.98fps, then any clip recorded at 29.97fps will need to be slowed to 80% of its recorded speed, otherwise you’ll see dropped frames. This change yields slomo with a 1:1 frame correlation and no motion artifacts. Obviously, you would do this with clips where sync sound is not a factor. Another approach is to alter the clip’s source setting (Modify>Interpret Footage) so that the default playback is 23.98 instead of 29.97. This lets you skip the need to add a slomo effect to the clip in the timeline. However, be careful if you need to move the project between different applications, because such a change may not translate correctly to a different NLE. It can also cause problems if you work with proxy media.
Transcoding – Since I work with a mix of media formats from various camera types, I am always weighing system performance using native media versus the time to transcode to an edit-friendly format. Transcoding is often the better solution, especially for H.265 media, iPhone clips, and if you work with NAS storage. Adobe Media Encoder is your friend for this task, but other options include Apple Compressor or a free tool, like Shutter Encoder or even DaVinci Resolve. Convert to ProRes or DNxHD at a matching frame size and rate and then use that media as your “original” footage within the Premiere Pro project. Often you can batch clips overnight, so the time to transcode never impacts your overall edit schedule. The result is a much smoother edit session, especially if you are working from slower drive arrays. Although this increases the amount of media, I find this workflow to be preferable to using edit proxies, because it means I am always prepared to deliver a finished master file.
Project Templates – Every one of my Premiere Pro (or Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve) edits starts with a project template. The template includes the project folders as they are to appear on the hard drive and a blank, default Premiere Pro project. That project is already organized internally with my default bin structure. I use Digital Rebellion’s Post Haste application to generate new projects from this template. However, you can also just save this set of blank folders to your local “Movies” folder. Then when a new project comes along, copy the template folders/project to your external edit drive, update the name and start the edit.
Adobe Podcast / Dialogue Enhancement – Adobe has put a lot of effort behind AI-based speech enhancement. This includes the development of a web-based application called Adobe Podcast, which is part of a full Creative Cloud account. Podcast’s speech enhancement feature is also available within Premiere Pro and is located in the Essential Sound panel. Both require cloud-based processing, although Premiere does this in the background. I prefer to upload and process raw tracks using the web-based Podcast site and then import the newly enhanced files into Premiere Pro. This keeps the sequence simplified. Unless you have an extremely noisy track, setting the enhancement level to the 50-65% range yields natural-sounding results. Note that this tool uses AI. If something is barely (or poorly) audible, the words may come out as gibberish. This is often the case with interviews, where the interviewer’s off-mic questions become unintelligible, even while the clean interviewee’s mic audio sounds great.
Remix – This “auto-magic” music editing tool started life in Adobe’s short-lived Soundbooth application. It is now available in Premiere Pro’s Essential Sound panel, as well as in Adobe Audition. I prefer to deal with it in Audition as a first step. Bring the file into Audition, set a target duration for the track, and then Remix will create edits to increase or decrease the length of the track. You can adjust several variables to change the number and location of the edits that it makes, but otherwise it’s automatic. The length won’t be perfect, but it’s as close to that target as works musically. Bounce (export) the track out from Audition and import it into Premiere Pro. Then make additional manual edits to fitness the length. You can also edit what Remix has done back into your timeline. It’s a good tool for beds, but manual editing is still better when you really want the timing of certain musical “hits” to land at the right spot in your sequence.
Stretch – This Adobe Audition feature is good for when you need to change the length of audio, especially voice-over dialogue. For example, let’s say you have an ADR recording to replace some on-camera dialogue and it needs slight adjustments to be in better sync with the picture. Bring the new dialogue into Audition, cut it up by words or phrases, and then use Stretch on each portion of the clip to expand or contract its duration. To do this, enable real-time stretch and then hover over the top half of the clip until a stopwatch icon with directional arrows appears. Then drag the clip edge left or right. Slight adjustments by a few percent won’t generate noticeable artifacts. However, large changes, such as from :10 to :15 might introduce some artifacts. The results will be better with human, high-bit-depth recordings than AI-generated voices often used for voice-overs.
Free Video Plugins – There are many plugins and plugin packs available for Premiere Pro, including some free offerings. One that I’ve found invaluable is right inside the Creative Cloud Marketplace. That’s Film Impact’s free Essential Transition Pack Lite. It includes four transition effects (Blur to Color, Flash, Push, Roll). These drop in like native transitions (no multi-layered nests) and can be modified for creative options. Push is my go-to effect to slide in clips and lower thirds. Film Impact also offers a larger paid bundle of effects that are all optimized for Premiere Pro.
Free Audio Plugins – Premiere Pro and Audition both support a wide range of AU/VST/VST3 audio plugins. There are plenty of options on the market that go far beyond the native tools, including numerous free ones. A Patreon donation may be suggested for some and activation methods vary by developer. Some of the free audio plugins worth investigating include those from Analog Obsession, iZotope, KIT Plugins, Kiive Audio, Native Instruments, Sonimus, Tokyo Dawn Records, UAD, and Venn Audio. Any time you add third-party audio plugins, you will need to rescan and enable the audio plugins in Premiere Pro’s preferences and the audio plugin manager in Audition.
Loudness – If you deliver for broadcast, streaming, or even social media, then maintaining the proper loudness level is important. This typically means a sustained average of -23 or -24 LUFS/LKFS, depending on the standard used. Premiere Pro offers two measurement tools to make sure you are compliant with your mixes – the native Loudness Meter and Loudness Radar, developed by TC Electronics. Both include presets for various international standards. If neither of these fit your fancy, another option is Youlean’s Loudness Meter 2, available in a free or Pro (paid) version. Place any of these onto the mix bus as the last effect in the chain and then adjust mix levels until you meet the desired target specs.
What more Premiere tips? Check out Tool Tip Tuesday for Adobe Premiere Pro, now running every Tuesday on ProVideo Coalition.