Best Practices for creating consistent volume levels from different clips?

A

ajwwong

Member
So... I'm editing an SD feature... and there's about *1000* different cuts in the feature.... from one piece of footage to another...

I'm finding that the audio levels from one cut to the next often don't match. Is there a best practice in terms of getting the audio levels approximately the same?

I mean, do I go into each of the 1000 clips individually and adjust the "audio gain" until it sounds right? Or is it better to modulate the volume using track keyframes and track volume? Or is there another (better) way to do this? Like some kind of magic audio tool... (wishful thinking?) Editing clip by clip sounds like it could be pretty tedious.

I also have After Effects, in case that is helpful, tho -- I'm still very green with it all.

Thanks for your suggestions for how to create consistent audio levels.

PS. Oh... and should I be looking to peak the volume at around -6db? I'm assuming that that's about right... but let me know if otherwise... Thx...

[EDIT: Incidentally, I just discovered the audio mixer functionality of Premiere Pro and it looks promising: http://www.mediacollege.com/adobe/premiere/pro/audio/mixer.html

Also another helpful link for anyone with these same questions is here: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/attend-world-premiere/129539-what-best-audio-levels-premiere.html ]
 
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I think you can select all clips and pick Normalize to (put in what you want it to be -6db)

I have not done it this way, but have seen it in the menu.
 
Ask in the Audio Forum but..

arbitrarily or automatically making all the clips the same level is not necessarily correct even if technically correct.

In a mix, a sound engineer would match the levels appropriate to the scene. Eg a wide shot and a close up may require different levels. A shout and a whisper or Dialogue scene and a "thoughts over"scene all may need levels appropriate.

I usualy see audio guys deal with audio - clip by clip and track by track. They use submixes, compression and a vast array of audio tools to work their magic. (and it is magic)
 
Thanks for the advice, Shooter. Whew... for these small productions, like mine, it's learning to become a jack of all trades.
 
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