File format
When working with audio files in Premiere, you should utilize either WAV or AIF formats, which are the best fidelity, in the same vein as high-quality PSD or PNG image files. You could also use MP3 audio. The format is generally acceptable, but they are compressed files, just as a JPG is a compressed image file.
Project folder
Before you proceed, make sure that you place WAV files in an Audio Folder, which you should have created in your overall Project Folder (along with the Images and Video Folders) plus the Premiere Project File. This “digital suitcase” is what you use to keep everything together in one place.
Importing audio files
To import sound files, you will follow the same steps as you would when importing image files. That is, go to the Main Menu > File > Import, select the desired files, and press the Import Button. Just like image files, the sounds will gather in Premiere’s Project Window.
Editing audio clips
You can isolate small regions of a large file first and then drag the small sections onto the Timeline, to match specific visual movement on screen. To select the regions first, use the Source Window. The simplest way to do so is to locate the particular audio file in the Project Window and double-click on it. As a result, the file will open in the Source Window. Alternatively, you can click-drag-and-drop the file from the Project Window onto the Source Window. Either way, you will end up with a visual representation of the “waveform” to work with.
The next step will be to isolate audio regions to drop into the Timeline. Before so, you should know of a couple of useful features in the Source Window:
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- In and Out Marker Buttons located on the left-hand side of the lower-edge of the Window — they look like bracket shapes { and }.
- When the In and Out Markers are set, a grey Selection Region appears at the top-edge of the Window, as well as the area immediately above the Navigator / Zoom Controls and Play Features.
- You will use these to fine-tune your selections, before you drag the selected clips onto the Timeline.
To select a region, which you will subsequently edit to movement in the Timeline, simply shift the Current Time Indicator or Edit Line in the Source Window to where the specific sound begins. Then, referring to the In and Out Markers in the lower-region of the Window, click on the In Marker. Shift the Edit Line to where the sound ends and then click on the Out Marker. By taking this step, you highlight a sound clip to add to the Timeline. After that, you don’t have to be precise with the selection at this point. You can nudge and tighten the region later. Moreover, the edit is non-destructive. If you need to get the sound back, you can apply the Edit Tools to make additional fine adjustments.
Once you have made a selection, you can then add it to the Timeline. Move the curser to the middle of the lower-edge of the Source Window, and hover it over the icon with the waveform graphic. The cursor shape should then turn into a “grab glove” icon. Click and drag it onto an audio track in the Timeline. You can then align and edit the sound clip to the animation, while watching and evaluating the sequence in the Monitor Window.
If you would like to choose other regions from the audio clip in the Source Window, a quick option is to adjust the Selection Region (that is, the grey region with in/out markers at the top-edge of the Source Window, shift it around a new audio region, and then repeat the aforementioned steps).
Tidy clips with short fades
Looking at the short clips that you have selected and then added to audio tracks in the Timeline, go ahead and clean them up by adding very short fades at the heads and tails of the clips. Doing so will reduce any clicks that might occur at the head and tail of the clip, due to inherent noise in the original recording.
For the sake of accuracy, to get a better view, you might want to expand the height of the audio tracks to reveal the wave forms, which will make it easier to visualize where the strongest part of the sounds are located. To expand the height of the track, double-click on the header of the region of a given track (the lighter-grey area region where the names and icons are located). Or, move the cursor to the Track Toggle regions of the Timeline, to the “V-” or “A-” buttons, and hover until the cursor changes to “up-and-down arrows.” Then, click and drag the icon to expand or grow the track.
Additionally, you can zoom into the track by using the Navigator at the lowest-edge of the Timeline.
Here is a quick way to proceed: referring to a particular audio clip in the Timeline, make sure the Volume Level is active (that is, context-click on the clip and go to Show Clip Keyframes > Volume > Level). Then, from the Tools, select the Pen Tool, hover over the Volume Level in the audio clip, and then click on the Volume Level to set two keyframes close to each other at the head of the clip and then two adjacent keyframes near the tail. Make short fades at the head and tail by selecting each outer-most keyframe, nearest to the edge of the clip, and drag them down towards the bottom edge, to “no sound.” As a result, the clip will fade from no sound, into the file, play for its duration, and then fade down to no sound again.
Alternatively, you can use the Effects Controls Window to set audio keyframes for each clip. You would then follow the same steps as above, to fade in and out of the sounds.
After you have made short fades, you might also have to trim or extend the ins/outs for the clips. To do so, use the Selection Tool to hover over the edge of the clip until a “red arrow” appears, at which point you can click and drag to expand or decrease the length of the clip.
Editing sound to picture
Use the Selection Tool to edit / move the sound clips to the animation. Do this by moving the Current Time Marker or Edit Line forward and back along the Timeline, while viewing the animation in the Monitor Window. Move (click and drag) the audio clips left or right to align the sounds to match events on screen. That is, line up the sound to the point where a particular action or image occurs and then synchronizes in the Monitor Window.
Preview what you have edited
As you edit sound effects, you should occasionally preview the audio composition in real time. Do this by hitting the Enter / Return Key. It’s best to evaluate sound in a natural timeframe every once in a while, rather than at an animator’s precise, frame-by-frame focus.