6 min read
How to edit audio in Premiere Pro: a beginner editor's guide
Premiere Pro can do more than cut picture. Here is how a beginner editor can clean dialogue, balance music, and export audio without touching a DAW.
Video editing is often where filmmakers first discover that sound is half the image. The good news is that Premiere Pro has enough audio tools for most short films, interviews, and YouTube content. You do not need to open a dedicated DAW for every edit.
Set up your timeline for sound
Start by expanding the audio tracks. Dialogue lives on tracks 1 and 2, music on tracks 3 and 4, and sound effects on tracks 5 and 6. Keeping sources separated makes level automation and export much easier. Right-click the track header to add more tracks and rename them.
Use the Essential Sound panel
The Essential Sound panel groups clips into categories: Dialogue, Music, SFX, and Ambience. Select a dialogue clip, click Dialogue, and Premiere will expose noise reduction, dynamics, EQ, and loudness tools. These are simplified presets that work well for fast edits.
Adjust levels with keyframes
The yellow line running through each clip is the volume rubber band. Click it to add keyframes, then drag the line up or down between points. The goal is to keep dialogue between -12 and -6 dBFS, with peaks never touching 0 dBFS. Music should sit around -20 dBFS when someone is speaking.
Export the audio cleanly
When it is time to deliver, export a stereo mix and a set of mono stems if the client asked for them. WAV at 48 kHz, 24 bit is the standard. For a quick upload, AAC at 320 kbps will work, but always archive a WAV version first.