[Now released] New Simplify Sequence feature available in Premiere Pro (Beta)

[mattchristensen]

This feature is now shipping in the October 2022 release of Premiere Pro. Questions or comment about it should be posted to the main Premiere Pro forum: https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/ct-p/ct-premiere-pro. 

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Use Simplify Sequence — new in today's Premiere Pro (Beta) build — to make a copy of your sequence that has been simplified based on options you choose. Simplify Sequence is perfect for when you want to clean up your timeline to focus on your story. It’s also great for sharing your sequence with another editor or preparing it for export via EDL, XML, or AAF.

Simplify Sequence can be found in the Sequence menu, by right-clicking on a sequence, or by assigning and using the keyboard shortcut.

Locked tracks and the clips on them are always preserved. When using the “Close vertical gaps on video tracks” option your clips will not skip over a locked track. For complex sequences with many video tracks, you can use locked tracks to keep vertical sections separate while still benefiting from closing vertical gaps.

We’re excited to get Simplify Sequence out to our beta community and hear your feedback. Let us know how you’re using it and if there are other capabilities you’d like to see. Thank you!

[Kes Akalaonu]

Any chance you can have the simplified sequence move to a new bin called "Simplified"?

[EuanWilliamson]

Yes!!, looking forward to trying it 🙂

[Jonah Lee Walker]

This would be an amazing place to un-merge clips as well as multi-cam clips. There needs to be a better way to un-merge clios than exporting an xml and re-impirting it. Otherwise just fix the merge clips audio metadata thing so a mixer can link back to the correct original footage!

[Wedelski]

O my yes! I've been waiting years and years - years - for Merged Clips to be fixed regarding sound metadata. Haven't used Merged Clips since discovering the problem after a feature edit in 2017. 

And I tell every single new assistant editor coming through my firm to never use Merge Clips due to this issue.

Will it be fixed in 2021? Only a few months left.

[Bruce Bullis]

Our Simplify Sequence work is completely distinct from redesigning merged clips' handling of sound metadata.

[Lift0101]

Than simplify our everyday lives and focus on existing fixes users really need, not implementing new features no one wants

[Bruce Bullis]

The predominance of our team's work is already on improving/refining existing workflows.

Simplify Sequence's usage in the beta makes it clear that it's "wanted". 

[Lift0101]

Happy for you and whole marketing divison

[Bruce Bullis]

The feature didn't come from Marketing; it came from our Innovation Week, where development team members (including those with real-world experience with VFX and audio turnovers, for film production) are given broad latitude to make PPro better. Simplify Sequence is the result of three different teams collaborating on creating some awesome functionality. 

As previously mentioned, most of the team remains focused on fixing bugs and improving existing workflows.

[Lift0101]

Thanks for your input, but I get a feeling you just don't get it. Innovation weeks, hackatons, etc all are coming from marketing oriented mindset a such. From drive to sell more (profit), but not to help people (design). Not to fix things at core, but to create impression of innovation. The piont is - why Premiere needs simplifying something? Is it too complicated? Are people doing things too complicated or app is designed the way it will turn your project into a complicated mess. So address that, but don't patch it with buzz words like innovation, AI or anything Pro

[Bruce Bullis]

> Innovation weeks, hackatons, etc all are coming from marketing oriented mindset a such.

By that assertion, every developer or tester I've ever met has a marketing oriented mindset.

As previously mentioned, Marketing had nothing to with innovation week; the ideas explored came directly from our team's developers and testers, being given free reign to make PPro better. 

We understand that you don't see the point of Simplify Sequence. Perhaps you haven't had occasion to perform turnovers to audio, color, or VFX specialists, on a professional production. Had you had occasion to do so, simplify sequence might seem vital, instead of superfluous.

> Is it too complicated? 

PPro? Perhaps. It's a deep, vast, professional product.

You'll note that, in this case, PPro is helping to simplify the sequence the user has created; if we constrained the complexity users could introduce into the sequence in the first place, we'd be limiting the editing options available to professionals. Instead, we've added functionality that improves the 'hand-off' from one functional area, to another. That's what Simplify Sequence was made to do.

While no AI (Sensei or otherwise) is involved in Simplify Sequence, there is plenty of innovation, targeted directly at PPro's professional users.

Sorry if you don't find it useful, but we will definitely continue working on other such innovations, while we go about the majority of our work, which is (as you say) fixing things at the core.

[Lift0101]

Your time spent defending corporate stance is the exact example of wasted resources I talking about. I wish Adobe could hire promising junior engineers instead of your kind. We wouldn't have this embarising conversation and smth. would actually been fixed instead.

[Rag and Bone]

Hey, Lift0101:

You may have noticed that most of the comments about this feature have been positive. It may not be of use to you, but it appears that many people welcome it.

If you're anxious to save time and conserve resources, I suggest you move on from this discussion. It seems to have reached an impasse.

[Bruce Bullis]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdahZv8_xiE

[Lift0101]

Hi, Bruce Willis, sorry I didn't watched sponsored content from A-corp and
I didn't needed too because you wouldn't believe, but I tried Simp Seq
myself and now I'm a changed man. I upgraded to v22 (Premiere Slow jumped
over few iterations like a miracle, but don't worry, new version is sooo
goood it need to be v22, next will be v66) Its really good I can't believe
I lived without it for all these years. After the big upgrade and after I
manually set back all my preferences, keyboard shortcuts, labels, export
settings, workspaces and Project panel, I tried simplifying my latest
project. Now after every 5 minutes I not only manually save (because
auto-save doesn't sync with cloud) I also simp seq too to keep things clean
and tidy. I must admit, sometimes I create some empty tracks just to see
simpseq in motion. So satisfying. Thank you! A-corp is a cult for me now
too, Bruce. Premiere now feels simple just like that. May I suggest the
next feature to call Fast? Like Fast Track or Fast View or smth? Or even
better "Fast Close" so I don't have to close every time Pr manually via
Task Manager

[wondtacular]

I think they could be related if you let us un-merge all clips as part of the Simplify Sequence feature. Esp since Sim Seq is ostensibly a feature designed for easier sharing down the line of post workflow. Un-merging clips is the only way to send to a sound mixer. 

[wondtacular]

YES, this inability to un-merge clips threw a big wrench into my last narrative edit because the asst. merged clips and made an assembly, Assembly had to be completely recreated to prevent loss of metadata for sound mixing worlflow. The inability to use merged clips on a narrative short or feature is a dealbreaker for Adobe on those types of edits. 

I think we all realize that this feature is completely different from Simplify Sequence, but for editors who have been asking for this fundamental and crucial ability, I can see how "look, you can clean up a mess faster" feels like a really low priority when it comes to cleaning up a sequence for workflow purposes. 

[Jonah Lee Walker]

Off the total topic, but you can "unmerge clips" by exporting and XML and re-importing it, then cut that audio back into your sequence and the clips are "unmerged." So the unmerge data is still there.

And I do see that it could be in the simplify sequence, as it is prepping the sequence to export, it is just prepping the audio for export (though really they should just fix how the merge clip functions and not break the original audio timecode.

[Rag and Bone]

Looks very handy.

[Jonno the fusspot]

great feature!

Can it sort mono from stereo audio clips into separate mono tracks and stereo tracks?

i.e. put all the monos in the top tracks (but keep mono clips already there in the same layout - add the stray monos to tracks below and push the stereos down) and if there are any stereos hidden in there, they can drop down to where the stereos are hanging out. 

or better still (sorry, this is a different function), because some cameras default to stereo, if you hadn't noticed at first and already cut them into your sequence, even if you modify the original clip to have 2 track mono instead of stereo, there is no way that I've found so far that lets me convert them to two track mono on the timeline.  This would be a really handy feature. 

woukd also be good if you could make some tracks only accept mono and others only accept stereo. Not for me personally but when I work with a director who also likes to edit, they throw stereo and mono clips every where and you have no idea until you either hear them or turn waveforms on and look a little closer. Then you have to go through and re assign them to their appropriate tracks (production mono = A1-A4, music stereo = A5 & A6, SFX stereo = A7-A# etc). 

just a thought, but would be super handy. : )

[parenteswagking]

Not really an answer to your overall suggestion - but when you say 'there is no way to convert them to two track mono on the timeline', I wanted to share the 'solution' I've found (aka quick way of doing it manually)

You might already be doing this!

Once you've updated the clip in the project bin to be 2 track mono:

Find the clip on the timeline, select the audio

Hit 'f' (or whatever you've mapped 'match frame' to), to open the clip in the source window with the correct in/out points

Drag the audio icon over-the-top of the current stereo audio clip


Hope that makes sense!
It only takes 2 seconds, though obviously if you have a ton of clips already in use then it's not super helpful

[Nicolas from Autokroma]

Hello, 

Are you planning to add a control on this feature in the cep Premiere Pro panels ? So it could be possible to launch it from a script !

Best,

Nicolas from Autokroma

[Bruce Bullis · Accepted solution]

I was wrong, we are putting an ExtendScript API around SimplifySequence; details forthcoming.

No new ExtendScript APIs are planned; a public API around Simplify Sequence will need to wait until PPro exposes new APIs, for use with UXP extensions...er, "plug-ins" (they're extensions).

[Cameron32379781nphk]

Any news on this. I'm working on something where this would save me a lot of time. I'm looking at manually implementing something like this but feeling like it would be a waste if this is at all availible.