Recently, I wrote an article discussing the new audio types in Premiere Pro CC (you can read it here). The problem with the new Standard audio type is that it works too well.
If you edit a stereo or mono clip into the track, the track automatically conforms to the number of channels in the clip. But… what if you don’t want it to conform the channels? For example, almost every interview I shoot is recorded “dual-channel mono,” where the host is on channel 1 and the guest is on channel 2 and both channels are supposed to be panned center.
From the point of view of Premiere, this looks like a 2-channel stereo clip which would get placed into one track. But it isn’t. I need separate control over each channel But, how?
NOTE: In this example, I have audio on channel 1, with no audio on channel 2. This type of clip is treated the same as a two-person interview clip where I need separate control over each channel.
MODIFY CHANNELS TO THE RESCUE
Piece of cake. But you need to make these changes before you edit a clip into the Timeline. Once it’s in the Timeline, it’s too late.
In the Project panel, select the clip, or clips, you want to modify. (Yes, you can apply this setting to multiple clips at once!)
Then, choose Clip > Modify > Audio Channels (shortcut Shift+G).
This opens the Modify Clip dialog. Note that both audio channels (Left and Right) are assigned to the same audio track (Track 1).
To convert this stereo clip to a dual-channel mono clip, change the Number of Audio Tracks to match the number of audio channels in the clip. In my case, this is 2.
Next, set the Channel Format to Mono. What this does is tell Premiere that there are two channels of mono audio in the clip, rather than a single stereo pair.
Notice that the track assignments at the bottom have now altered from indicating a stereo pair to assigning each channel to its own track in the Timeline.
When you click OK, Premiere warns you that this setting will not affect any clips already edited into the Timeline. Click Yes.
Now, when you edit the clip into the Timeline, even though it may appear as a stereo clip, Premiere is smart enough to assign each channel to its own track so you can edit and adjust each speaker independently. Here, the Left channel is assigned to A1 and the Right channel (which is silent) is assigned to A2.
EXTRA CREDIT
While, normally, an interview would have audio on both A1 and A1, in the case of this example, I have audio only on one channel and silence on the other. I would like to get rid of that second channel to avoid cluttering up the Timeline. (In point of fact, having a silent channel isn’t hurting anything, but it does take up space.) Because both channels are linked, clicking either audio channel in the clip selects both tracks of that clip in the Timeline.
To solve this, Option-click the channel you want to delete. This selects just the one channel, then press the Delete key.
Gone.
55 Responses to Adobe Premiere Pro CC: Separate Audio Channels
← Older Comments Newer Comments →-
amanda says:
May 12, 2015 at 12:39 pm
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Larry says:
May 12, 2015 at 1:33 pm
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Emily says:
May 18, 2015 at 11:14 pm
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Pelle says:
June 7, 2015 at 2:35 am
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Larry says:
June 7, 2015 at 3:11 pm
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Julius says:
June 12, 2015 at 4:47 pm
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Larry says:
June 12, 2015 at 5:21 pm
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Julius says:
June 12, 2015 at 5:49 pm
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Tate says:
August 19, 2015 at 12:51 pm
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Andry says:
December 10, 2015 at 2:26 am
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Paul says:
December 15, 2015 at 10:16 am
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Larry says:
December 15, 2015 at 10:20 am
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Paul says:
December 16, 2015 at 1:31 pm
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Larry says:
December 16, 2015 at 2:30 pm
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Paul says:
December 16, 2015 at 2:45 pm
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Paul says:
December 16, 2015 at 2:40 pm
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PremiereGuySG says:
August 9, 2016 at 9:28 pm
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Rojapathi says:
December 8, 2016 at 3:34 am
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Larry says:
December 8, 2016 at 8:40 am
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John Raedeke says:
November 15, 2016 at 9:45 am
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Lara says:
April 11, 2017 at 4:03 am
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Larry says:
April 11, 2017 at 5:05 am
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Lara says:
April 12, 2017 at 5:27 am
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Larry says:
April 12, 2017 at 6:39 am
← Older Comments Newer Comments →Thanks for saving the day yet again Larry! As a home based professional documentary filmmaker and editor, I can’t thank you enough for all the scrapes you’ve got me out of over the years. Your advice, knowledge and endless generosity, in my opinion makes you a living legend. Thank you!
Happy to help.
Thanks!
Larry
Thank you so much Larry. If it were not for yourself and other lovely people who have posted tutorials on forums I would have thrown in the towel on Adobe PP CC. I wish I could go back to FCP 7, but thanks to you at least I can attempt the transition! You are a gem. Also, this page (not sure about others) is formatted perfectly so I can save this info as a PDF if ever I need to go offline. Brilliant.
Hi Larry,
Thanks for the tutorial. One thing I couldn’t find is:
What if you have 100 clips, some with 2 audio tracks (for inserts or wide shots) and some with up to 6 audiotracks (for interviews with multiple people). If I modify them at the same time with ‘number of audio tracks: 2’ it will delete the rest of the tracks in the clips that have more channels.
How can I approach this problem? In FCP7 I would just dump it in a sequence and al the tracks would be (dual)mono.
Another question that raised: why would’t you always use mono tracks? Except for music and/or sound fx I wouldn’t know why the rest would be stereo. Is it only for cleaning up track space?
Hope to hear from you. (I’m on PP CC 8.2.0)
Best, Pelle from Amsterdam
Pelle:
Yup. This is a problem. Premiere assumes all 2-channel clips are stereo, which is why we need to change them before editing them to the Timeline, because once they are edited, the tracks can’t be changed.
The only solution is to group your clips into two bins: one for 2-channel and one for 6-channel. Then, you can quickly fix all the clips in each bin, without losing any audio channels.
larry
Thanks Larry
As I am making the switch from FCP (7) to Adobe Prem CC this is invaluable.
Is it possible to make a sequence preset that forces the clips to have this ‘dual mono’ type of audio track or do you need to manually change the video clips themselves each time before you add them to a sequence?
Thanks
Julius
Julius:
You need to do this manually.
Larry
Thanks!
Mental note – “Change clips audio properties before inserting into timeline”
Perfect explanation – thanks, from an FCP7 refugee trying to figure this aspect out.
This article was really useful. I spent almost one hour trying this before reading this page. Thank you very much! 🙂
I have a clip that contains stereo audio. Track 1 is left panned, track 2 is right panned. I would like to bring this into a Premiere sequence as two tracks with the panning remaining the same. I can bring the audio in as two tracks but it pans audio down the center. Can someone help me?
Thanks,
Paul
Paul:
Easy. Select each clip, one at a time. Go to the Effect Controls panel and twirl down the audio arrow to reveal the audio controls.
Slide the Pan slider to the left, or right, as needed for each clip.
Larry
Thanks for the quick reply Larry. I have been able to take two mono tracks and pan them left and right using both your method and a couple of others. And I can hear that the panning has worked. But when I export an OMF to my ProTools mixer (including checking the “include pan” box the mixer does not get the panning info on his end. I’ve tried a number of tests and the results have always been the same. The audio mixer is getting my two tracks panned down the middle rather than left and right.
I’m using PP CC 2015 and my mixer is using Pro Tools 11.
Any help you can suggest would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Paul
Paul:
Hmmm… no suggestions. Most mixers would prefer to control the pans themselves within ProTools.
My guess is that Premiere is exporting the OMFs to match the track setting, rather than the clip setting. But I don’t know if it is possible to override that.
Larry
Well when I export a stereo track out of Premiere Pro Tools sees it as 2 tracks panned left and right. I just wish I could work with two separate mono tracks in Premiere that I can pan left and right.
One other oddity is that when I export an OMF including an audio dissolve on a stereo track Pro Tools sees the duration of the dissolve as mono while the rest of the track is stereo. Weird stuff.
Thanks for the quick reply Larry. Your solution works fine when I’m working in Premiere. I can hear that the two tracks have been panned left and right. But when I export an OMF (and have checked “include pan”) and my audio mixer imports the OMF into Pro Tools the panning info is gone. The track appear in Pro Tools as mono (panned down the middle). Is this a bug or am I or my mixer doing something wrong?
Thanks,
Paul
Has anyone encountered this issue: working on PC on a project -HD video with multichannel audio (10ch) , one of the track is stereo before export.
After exporting the project in to mxf with 10ch audio, when brought back to premiere i can see the stereo track was split in to two mono tracks.
any work around?
Same Problem i am facing with 8 channel audio export and after i import its playing as 2 track stereo and i wan to import my audio as it is with Track panes …. please help
Rojapathi:
Hmmm… I suggest contacting Adobe Support.
Larry
Thanks a ton! I am moving from FCP and do this very task all the time in FCP. Being able to do this in PP is so helpful. I imaging myself adding this to the very beginning of my project workflow so I have all the editing capabilities once i start the cut.
Cheers!
Hi Larry,
I’m still relatively new to filming and audio so I do apologise if this is a redundant question. I’m going to be recording a two person interview into my h5 zoom and DSLR (so audio will be separate). Due to budget constraints, we have one radio mic which will be in channel 1 and then a wired lapel mic which will come in through the L/R input on the top of the zoom. When I have tested this, I receive a WAVE file Zoom0001_Tr1 (for the xlr channel 1) and a Zoom001_TRLR for the L/R input. So far so good. I then import to premiere and I now have two audio files in there. If I follow your steps to covert each to mono I end up with 4 tracks – is this correct? Is there a better way to link these two files in premiere first before converting to mono? Appreciate your advice. Lara
Lara:
I haven’t used the Zoom 5, but I use the H4N regularly. I suspect your audio recording settings are incorrect. You should set it to Stereo.
Put the Host on Channel 1 (left) and the Guest on Channel 2 (right), then separate this stereo clip into two mono clips inside Premiere.
You only need two channels, not four.
Larry
Hi Larry,
Thanks for your reply. The problem is that I have a wired mic to mini jack for one mic. So I’m running that into the H5 zoom through the top which disables the L/R (X/Y) built in mic on top – rather than it going in channel 2 (which is an xlr input). Do I need a xlr to jack converter so I can run this into channel 2?
Thank in advance for your help!
Lara
Lara:
I can’t say for sure, because I don’t know that unit, however, if an XLR converter will put that second mike on Channel 2, I would recommend that option.
You really want to end up with a stereo recording, where each mic is on its own channel.
larry