Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Working with the Audio Mixer: Lesson 12-3

There is a big difference in how Premiere Pro handles layered audio tracks and layered video tracks.

Clips in higher-numbered video tracks cover what's below them on the Timeline. You need to do something to those higher video track clipsadjust opacity, create PiPs, or use specialized keying effects (I cover them later in the book)to let clips below them show through.

Clips in audio tracks all play together. If you have ten layered audio tracks loaded up with a variety of audio clips and do nothing to them in terms of adjusting volume levels and stereo panning, they'll all play as one grand symphony or cacophonous mess.

While you can adjust volume levels using each clip's volume graph in the Timeline or Volume effect in the Effect Controls panel, it's much easier to adjust volume levels and other characteristics for multiple audio tracks using the Audio Mixer.

Using a panel that looks a lot like production studio mixing hardware, you move track sliders to change volume, turn knobs to set left/right panning, add effects to entire tracks, and create submixes. Submixes let you direct multiple audio tracks to a single track so you can apply the same effects, volume and panning to a group of tracks without having to change each of the tracks individually.

In this mini-lesson you will mix a song recorded by a choir in a studio (see following sidebar for more information).

Note

For this studio recording, the clarinet and flute players were in separate isolation booths. They wore headsets so they could hear each other and us. The recording engineer set their mic levels to full volume knowing we'd reduce those levels during mixing. The bass player was in a separate booth but his door was left ajar so the choir could hear him. We could have closed his door and all worn headsets, but connecting up 44 singers, musicians and a conductor would have been too much of a headache.

Note

You want to avoid setting the volume too high (the VU meter line will turn red). That leads to distortion.

Note

It's best to pan a choir recorded with left and right mics all the way to the left and right to fill both channels. But there's no need to spread the instruments out that much. They should sound like an ensemble. And in general a bass should be centered because listeners do not perceive low frequencies as directional.

Keep tabs on Mute and Solo settings

After working in the audio mixer for a while, then returning to the Timeline, you might not hear anything. Audio Mixer Mute and Solo settings do not show up in the Timeline but still are in effect when you play a clip in the Timeline, even if the Audio Mixer is closed. So check those Mutes and Solos before shutting down the Audio Mixer.

Note

It's easier to apply effect parameters in the Effect Controls panel but you can only edit clips there, not audio or video tracks. In this case you could apply this effect to the clip instead of the track because there is only one clip on the track. But I want you to see how track-based effects work.

Automating changes in audio tracks

In Lesson 12-3 you set volume and panning values for entire tracks while listening to the audio. Premiere Pro also lets you apply volume and panning values that change over time, and you can apply them as you play your sequence.

To do that, use Automation modes accessed via drop-down menus at the top of each track in the Audio Mixer. Using one of the automation modes creates a series of track (as opposed to clip) keyframes for volume and panning, saving you from adding them one at a time.

Briefly, here's what each setting means (you can read more about this in Premiere Pro Help):

• Off Ignores any changes you apply. Lets you test some adjustments without recording them.

• Read Adjusting a track option (such as volume) affects the entire track uniformly. This is the default setting you used when setting the mix volume in step 7.

• Write Records adjustments you make as you listen to a sequence.

• Latch Works like Write but won't apply changes until you move the volume slider or panning knob. The initial property settings are from the previous adjustment.

• Touch Works like Latch except when you stop adjusting a property, its option settings return to their previous state before the current automated changes were recorded.