Why does Premiere lower the volume of clip when nesting? Any way to prevent this?

Report · Nov 30, 2019

This is a thing that's been bugging me for a really long time but I never bothered to ask about... I've noticed that the volume of a clip drops a few db if I nest it. This is really annoying because if I get the audio just right and then nest it later, I need to adjust the levels again. It's also annoying if audio has come from the same source and I want to nest one small piece of it, because then I need to manually balance it so it doesn't sound like the audio source suddently got quieter as the play head hit the nested clip. If I end up nesting something inside a nested clip, things can get extremely frustrating to work with.

Why is Premiere pro doing this? Is there a setting somewhere to make nested clips and subsequences play at full volume?

Report · Nov 30, 2019

Is there a discrepency between the audio channel configuration of the nest and the audio sources within the nest?

For example, do you have a single track of mono audio within the nest, but the nest itself has been configured to have stereo audio? If so, then instances like that would probably account for the difference.

Report · Dec 09, 2019

There's no discrepancy whatsoever. In fact, if I duplicate a sequence, delete the contents of one, and nest the other inside of the cleared one, the overall volume will be lower.

Or I can right click an individal audio track and `Nest...` it, and it's also quieter.

Report · Jul 08, 2025

I also have this problem and can't find a solution yet.

Report · Jul 09, 2025

Since the audio is getting lower it seems that the Mix track on the sequence you put into a new sequence, iow nest, is set to Multichannel. If you nest a sequence that has the Mix set to Multichannel into a sequence that has its Mix set to Stereo the result is always lower audio.

Look at the icons in the images. The one with a red circle has the Mix set to Multichannel while the one with the green circle has its Mix set to Stereo.

This is all due to the pan law and if you Google it you will find out why and how it works. All apps that work with audio behave the same.

The solution is to avoid Multichannel sequences unless you really need it and work with Stereo sequences only. Or, raise the audio for the sequence you nest in the sequence you nest to.

I also have this problem and can't find a solution yet.

By @Pat_N

Report · Jul 10, 2025

Certainly not. I have never worked in multichannel audio in premiere pro. I am just an amateur so almost all of my audio sources are mono, and I don't do any kind of mixing to add any spacial depth to my videos. I have encountered this problem when copy-pasting a sequence and then nesting one inside the other, just to make sure they were identical. Please see my other reply from 2019. As far as I can tell it's simply a bug.

Report · Jul 10, 2025

Could you please show screengrabs of the audio track headers for both results ... the normal, and the lowered volume? And if waveforms are set to show, including those.

Report · Jul 11, 2025

Can you do a simple project with one sequence with the audio (mono files) and nest it into a new sequence so you can hear the issue and then save it and upload just the Premiere Pro project file here, or send it via the forum to me? I want to take a look at the project to hopefully find a solution.

I don´t need the original audio, i can replace it with audio files i have.

...so almost all of my audio sources are mono...

By @Mr. Wallet

Report · Jul 13, 2025

I fiddled around for 15 minutes and wasn't able to repro; my case may have been fixed in the 5 years since (I've been avoiding nesting audio simply out of habit all this time).

I could check the original project, but it's archived separately and may not even migrate accurately to the latest version (I've had an entire project trashed just trying to jump 2 versions).

Report · Jul 14, 2025

Usually projects migrate really good. The best way is to create a new project and then import the old one into the new one.

I could check the original project, but it's archived separately and may not even migrate accurately to the latest version (I've had an entire project trashed just trying to jump 2 versions).

By @Mr. Wallet