General Concepts

The most common myth about video is that the images are the most important aspect of the project. The truth is that people will tolerate bad filming, shaky cameras, graininess, etc., but almost no one can sit through something that sounds bad (static, wide ranges in volume, pops, clicks, etc.). The thing with audio is, if you've done it right, no one will even notice, and that is the goal. We would love to tell you that Premiere has lots of tools to deal with these various issues but that would basically require us to lie. Premiere has relatively basic editing tools, so a dedicated audio program may be needed for greater control of audio.

Objectives

• Gain an appreciation for the importance of audio
• Understand the basic use of Audio Effects on audio
• Control Levels over time

Simply Audio Effects

Just as there are effects available for video clips, there are effects for the audio components of a composition as well. After an audio track is selected in the timeline, an audio effect can be applied by selecting a effect from the Audio Effects collection and placing on the desired audio clip. There are audio effects available to clean up some basic audio problems (remove hum, clean up strong S sounds, etc) and several special effects (such as reverb). Once an effect is applied to a clip, it can be modified by double-clicking on the clip to open it in the Monitor window. That window has an Effect Controls tab that can be used to control all the special effects on a clip. This Effect Controls tab in the Monitor has a great deal of power in it, but is rather complex to use.

Changing Levels Over Time

Changing audio levels over time is one of the main tasks that people wish to perform. The basic example of this is that they want the sound track for a clip to come up from silent to full volume while another clip fades out (such as a voice over fading out while music starts up). Changing audio levels over time involves setting key frames in the audio's time line, and then setting the audio level at each key frame.

In addition to audio filters, audio transitions are also available when two audio clips butt up against each other. Not often of real use, but worth noting.