Auto-match volume is simply lowering volume, not matching volume.

[BQSH]

The last few weeks when I've been using Auto-Match in essential sound, it hasn't been doing its job. It will lower the overall volume of all my selected clips, but not match their loudness at all.

Here's an example of a clip that is selected and Auto-Matched, as shown below:

Here is a video clip showing that Auto-Matched clip playing:

It peaks at -8 near the start but the rest of the clip averages at -19. I thought the purpose of the feature was to close that gap, so this confused me. I checked before and after of what it was doing to the audio and found this.

BEFORE AUTO-MATCH:

 AFTER AUTO-MATCH:

 It just turned the volume down, and I swear it used to level out the waveforms. Am I going crazy or is this a bug?

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello @BQSH,

Thanks for the bug report. The team would appreciate any further information about your system and media. See How do I write a bug report?

Perhaps @mstegner might have a comment.

Thanks,
Kevin

[mstegner]

Auto-Match works by scanning the in point to out point of the clip’s audio, determining the LUFS level, then adjusting the clip to the a known level (-23 LUFS in this case for dialog).  If you do this to multiple clips, they will all be “Matched” to roughly the same value (again, -23 LUFS).

All it does it adjust the overall clip gain, and does not do anything inter-clip adjustments at all.  So, from what I can tell from your explanation, it is working correctly.

What you seem to be describing is more of an audio compressor, which is designed to “compress” dynamic range of audio.  The closest that Premiere has to an automatic compressor is also in the Essential Sound panel.  With a clip tagged as Dialog, open the “Clarity” section, and turn on the “Dynamics” slider.  Play the audio and move the slider to hear how it is affecting the output.  This effect is an audio compressor, with some intelligence built in, and will achieve move closely what you were describing.