Is it possible to level audio within different sequences?

Report · May 25, 2022

I am currently editing seven videos, they're part of an e-learning program that my company is developing. I want to ensure that the audio is consistent across all the videos. I've been searching for methods to do this, however, I've only been able to find tutorials and answers concerning leveling the audio of multiple clips within a single sequence.

As I mentioned, I have multiple sequences each with its own audio, and some of those sequences have multiple clips within them.

Any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Report · May 26, 2022

I believe I found a solution. Should anyone reading this be in a similar situation of needing to level audio across multiple sequences here it is. You'll need Adobe Audition (part of the creative cloud).

In Premiere, open one of your sequences. Select the audio that you want to level.
Right click on the selected audio and choose "Edit Clip in Adobe Audition"
This will export and open Adobe Audition with the audio you had selected.

Return to Premiere and repeated these steps for every Sequence you want to level volume for.

In Adobe Audition, you'll find all the files from every sequence you've opened listed in the Files pallet.
Click on Window / Match Loudness (Alt + 5), this will open a new pallet called Match Loudness
Next, drag all the files from the Files Pallet into the Match Loudness pallet.
In the Match Loudness pallet click on the Match Loudness Settings button, you can adjust the settings for Target Loudness, Tolerance, and Max True Peak Level, among others, or just leave them at default (worked well for me)
Click the Run button in the lower right corner of the pallet to apply your settings to every file you've dragged into the Match Loudness pallet window.
Double click on each file and play the audio to inspect the changes.
When satisfied, save all your files individually or all at once by clicking File / Save All (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S).
Close Audition and return to Premiere. The audio for all your clips will update and have matched audio volumes.

And there you have it. This method worked well for me. I hope it helps anyone else out that is trying to do the same.

Report · May 26, 2022

Audition will give you more controls than Premiere Pro but don't forget there is an 'auto-match' loudness tool in Essential Sound inside of Premiere Pro. This may work for you and avoid the round trip to Audition.

Report · May 26, 2022

Can you explain that further? When I look at matching loudness in essential audio, I do not see a method for matching across sequences. I only see a method for matching clips within a single sequence.

If there is a way to match across multiple sequences I'd love to hear it as that is what my post is about.

Report · May 26, 2022

Applying Auto-Match to your dialogue tracks within one sequence will bring them all up to standard Broadcast 'loudness' levels. You would have to apply the effect to each sequence separately, but the result should be matching levels across all sequences.

Essential Sound in Premiere is pretty basic in comparison to a fully fledged Audio app ... so you may get better results the way you were already doing it in Audition ... certainly with more control.

Is it just dialogue you are dealing with?

Report · May 26, 2022

Thanks for the extra information. I had been searching all over for a solution and that piece of information didn't ever stand out to me anywhere. I'll have to experiment with it.

Yes. For this project everything is dialog. Most of the projects we have are dialog. A few receive background music, but most do not.

Report · May 27, 2022

The information available for Essential Sound in Premiere Pro is not exactly abundant.

I went looking to check before I answered and only found this in Adobe Help documentation:

"Assign Dialogue as the audio type and apply an auto-level adjustment in the Essential Sound panel. This applies levels based on the International Broadcast Loudness scale for dialogue."

... illuminating eh!

Once you've experimented I'd be interested to know if it ends up working OK for you over multiple sequences!

What I've done for endless e-learning programs is used the 'balanced male voice' preset in Essential Audio as the starting point. Kept the standard preset levels (which includes Auto-Match Loudness) - except for 'subtle male voice boost' - pulled that EQ back to '4.0' and turned off 'deEss' under the 'Repair' tab. And then saved that a new preset.