5 QUESTIONS to dramatically improve my workflow!

[Touri]

Hi, I'm currently editing 10 episodes of a dramatic narration audio podcast.

FYI Notes
01. Although I'm familiar with several audio editing programs, I've chosen to edit this project in Premiere for a few personal reasons I won't get into.
02. I'm using a Mac Studio M2 Max with the latest version of Premiere Pro. 

The Big Ask
While working through the process, I've come up with a handful of questions for which answers/solutions would significantly improve my workflow, so I'm looking to you all, The Premiere experts here for guidance.  

Thank you, kindly in advance.

-T

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Question 01
How can I use the "track select forward" tool so that it also moves the timeline markers as well?

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Question 02

How can I select multiple audio clips and adjust all their volume levels and panning configureation to specific numbers at the same time, without making any adjustments to the audio track itself. 

*What I'm currently doing... To adjust the pan of an audio clip, I'm currently...

selecting an audio clip > right clicking > "show clip keyframes" > "panner" > "pan"

Then moving the horizontal line on the clip up or down to pan the clip right or left. 

But if I select multiple clips at once, I don't get the option to "show clip keyframes"

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​Question 03a

In the timeline, how can I jump the playhead from the beginning of one audio clip to the beginning of the next audio clip without it first jumping to the end of each audio clip?

​Question 30​b​

In the timeline, how can I ​j​ump the playhead​ from one clip to the next while it's playing without it stopping at each jump?

i.e. I'd like to be playing the playhead as soon as I hear something, I press shift+down arrow and it jumps to the next clip and continues to play, without stopping.

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​Question 04

​Is there a way to lock all clips exclusively on their tracks, without preventing any other editing capabilities?... Meaning all the clips are still editable in every way with the only exception being you can't accidentally drag them to different tracks. 

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For this project, I've been given a HUGE collection of audio clips and I haven't been able to come up with an efficient way to create the assemly edit with all the clips on the timeline reflecting the order of text in the PDF script.

Here's the contents I've been given

a) one audio clip per character, per scene and each episode has about 15-20 scenes. 

b) a PDF script that notates the verbiage of the narrator and dialogue of each character in each scene. 

c) Music and sound FX audio vlips labelled with their designated episode/scene. 

Question 5

My question is if anybody has any suggestions on how to assemble all these dialogue clips together in the order that reflects what's written in the script?

*The dialogue audio of each character is recorded very well in a studio, but the reference dialogue of the other character(s) in each scene is inaudible, so I'm not able to use the Alignment feature to line up the dialogue.

**I've been playing around the with new ai transcription feature, but haven't figured out a way to use it to help assemble the audio clips in the order of the dialogue written in the script.

***The only way I've been able to come up with to do this effectively is to drag all the audio clips for each scene onto the timeline, play through the clips individually and edit them manually while following along with the PDF scripts. It's not hard but extremely time consuming, so if anyone has any more time efficient methods, just for creating that first assembly cut, please spill the tea.  

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Thank you

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I'm sincerely appreciateany insight or suggestions you'd be kind enough to share with me. 

[PaulMurphy · Accepted solution]

Hi Touri,

Here's my answers to your questions:

1. Moving Clips and Markers Simultaneously:
- You can't move both clips and sequence markers with the Track Select Forward tool. However, you can use clip markers or insert something like a Transparent Video clip (New > Transparent Video) to push your clips down and move markers at the same time.

2. Applying Adjustments Across Multiple Clips:
- Set one clip the way you want it, then go to Edit > Copy, select the other clips, and go to Edit > Paste Attributes.

3a. Selecting the Start of the Next Clip:
- If there are gaps between clips, there is no built-in shortcut. I'm used to doing two quick Down Arrows to jump to the start of the next clip.

3b. Moving the Playhead:
- No, moving the playhead will stop playback.

4. Prevent clips from moving to other tracks:
- Lock the other tracks. You can quickly lock all tracks by holding Shift and clicking the lock icon, then unlock the track you want to focus on.

5. Organizing and Syncing Multiple Audio Clips:
- If each character's dialogue was recorded in sync, it may be helpful to sync them with a multi-camera source sequence. Multi-camera source sequences require video, so select any video file, even an offline one, plus your audio. Choose Clip > Create Multi-camera Source Sequence. Set your Synchronize Point to In Point or Audio Track Channel, and set your Audio Sequence Settings to Switch Audio. This will create a multi-camera sequence that you can add to your timeline and switch between audio files using your number keys. Here's more info: Creating Multi-Camera Source Sequences.

Cheers,
Paul

[Touri]

Paul, 

1. First off, thank you for taking the time to respond to these. Very much appreciated. 
   Couple quick follow-up questions for you, if I may...
   
   Hi Touri,
   
   Here's my answers to your questions:
   
   1. Moving Clips and Markers Simultaneously:
   - You can't move both clips and sequence markers with the Track Select Forward tool. However, you can use clip markers or insert something like a Transparent Video clip (New > Transparent Video) to push your clips down and move markers at the same time. 
   Thank you.  Can you clarify how to push the clips along with the markers using the transparent video? I was able to create a new Transparent video clip and drag it onto the timeline, but that's as far as I got. 
   
   2. Applying Adjustments Across Multiple Clips:
   - Set one clip the way you want it, then go to Edit > Copy, select the other clips, and go to Edit > Paste Attributes.
   This is very helpful, thank you much for this. 
   
   3a. Selecting the Start of the Next Clip:
   - If there are gaps between clips, there is no built-in shortcut. I'm used to doing two quick Down Arrows to jump to the start of the next clip. understood, thank you
   
   3b. Moving the Playhead:
   - No, moving the playhead will stop playback. ok, thank you
   
   4. Prevent clips from moving to other tracks:
   - Lock the other tracks. You can quickly lock all tracks by holding Shift and clicking the lock icon, then unlock the track you want to focus on.  lol...Not exactly the answer I was hoping for, but didn't know this was even possible to lock/unlock them all at the same time, so I'll see if this can at leaste bring me closer to a smoother workflow. Thank you.
   5. Organizing and Syncing Multiple Audio Clips:
   - If each character's dialogue was recorded in sync, it may be helpful to sync them with a multi-camera source sequence. Multi-camera source sequences require video, so select any video file, even an offline one, plus your audio. Choose Clip > Create Multi-camera Source Sequence. Set your Synchronize Point to In Point or Audio Track Channel, and set your Audio Sequence Settings to Switch Audio. This will create a multi-camera sequence that you can add to your timeline and switch between audio files using your number keys. Here's more info: Creating Multi-Camera Source Sequences.
   No dice on that, there's no video, but also each audio clip was recorded at different times with different actors and the readers audio is almost inaudible, so I haven't been able to use that as a reference to align clips,  but that would have been awesome. 
   
   Thanks again for all your insight on this. I very much appreciate it. 
   
   Cheers,
   Paul

[PaulMurphy]

Not a problem, happy to help.

1. Moving Markers:
It's the dragging that's the issue. Markers will only move when you use Insert or Ripple Delete. You can Insert the Transparent Clip by loading it into your Source Monitor, setting its in/out point, and then clicking the Insert button (or pressing the apostrophe key). If you've already set the in/out point, you can do this directly from the Project panel.

5. Text-based Editing:
I would suggest looking into Text-based Editing for this. You can now quickly delete other speakers by using the Filter and Delete buttons - delete all other speakers' lines except for one in an instant.

Cheers,
Paul

[Touri]

Thank you, Paul. I really appreciate you taking the time to share this with me. Very helpful. 

[Touri]

Hi,

Thank you, kindly for responding to my post.
I'm having some issues applying your notes. See below in red, please advise.

Hi Touri! It sounds like you have a complex project on your hands. Here are
some suggestions for your questions:

**Question 01:** To move timeline markers with the "Track Select Forward"
tool, you can use the "Select All" command (Cmd+A) after selecting the
desired clips. This will select everything on the timeline, including
markers, and allow you to move them all together.
With most of these edits, I need to move all the clips on one side of the
playhead only. Is there a way to do that?

**Question 02:** Instead of using keyframes for each clip, you can adjust
the volume and panning of multiple clips simultaneously by selecting them,
then going to the "Audio Clip Mixer" (Window > Audio Clip Mixer). Here, you
can adjust the levels and pan for all selected clips at once without
affecting the audio tracks.
This seems like a great option. I was able to bring up the window after
selecting a few clips, but I'm unclear as to which channels are for what
clips, they seem to be labelled based on the track name. And if I select a
few clips, nothing seems to change in the clip mixer window. So My question
is how do you intentionally get specific clips to appear in the clip mixer
window as corresponding channels?

**Question 03a:** To jump the playhead from one audio clip to the next
without jumping to the end first, you can use the Up and Down Arrow keys.
Make sure to set the playhead to "Clip" mode (under Sequence > Preferences
> Playback) to skip directly between clips.
I'm not seeing any "preferences" option under sequence. I DID find the
"Sequence Settings" option but this doesn't seem to have any playback
settings. I also tried "Premiere Pro" > "settings" > "PlaybacK" >
"Preferences" -- but also not finding any "clip mode options" here either.
Please advise.

**Question 03b:** To continue playing while jumping to the next clip, you
may want to create a shortcut using the "Go to Next Edit Point" command
(Shift + Right Arrow). This allows you to jump while the playhead is
playing without stopping.
I tried creating a new shortcut, by going to "Premiere Pro" > "Keyboard
shortcuts" > and adding "shift + right arrow) for "Go to Next Edit Point"
but then when I try playing on the timeline... the playhead plays as
normal, and while it's playing I press "shift + right arrow" and the
playhead jumps to the next clip end, but it stops playing like it
previously did, so no change noticed. Please advise.

**Question 04:** You can lock clips to their tracks while keeping them
editable by using the "Track Lock" feature. Just click the lock icon next
to the track name. This prevents accidental movements but allows for other
edits, like effects or volume changes.
I'm familiar with this lock icon, but when I click it, I am no longer able
to edit a clip on that track, it becomes unclickable, I can no longer right
click it or adjust the volume level on the clip or even add an effect to
it. Please advise.

**Question 05:** For assembling your dialogue clips efficiently, consider
creating a bin for each scene in the Project panel and organizing the clips
according to the PDF script. You can use the "Automate to Sequence" feature
(right-click in the Project panel and select "Automate to Sequence") to
arrange your clips based on the order you want, though you’ll need to
manually adjust them afterward to match the script accurately.
I tried right clicking on a file within the project panel, but I'm not
seeing the option "automate to sequence" am I doing that correctly? Please
advise. And what exactly does automate to sequence do? Thank you

Using AI transcription might also help by generating a text file of the
dialogue, which you can then use to match your audio clips more effectively.
I've been playing with it, but I haven't figured out a way to get the
system to arrange a collection of clips spoken by different speakers in the
order that the words appear in the script. Do you know if there's some sort
of way I can upload the pdf script and have it automatically place all the
clips on the timeline to match the script?

I hope these tips help streamline your workflow! Good luck with your
podcast episodes!
I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to share some insight with me on
all this. I apologies for my lack of ability to follow you instructions
better and I appreciate your patience with me on this. Thanks again!