Automatic beat detection

[defaultqoq9m8640sv9]

Premiere pro needs a feature to automatically place markers on beats of audio tracks such as 1bar, 1/2 beat, 1/4 beat etc. Elements had this yet now it's gone and is an industry standard technique. 

[R Neil Haugen]

From my understanding, it's a common feature in prosumer editing apps. Not the "broadcast" style ones though.

But something might come along, they never tell us ahead of time.

I'm someone who works for/with/teaches pro colorists, who are based in mostly Resolve but some Baselight. And besides the massive fx tools of Resolve, nearly all of them have at least one major suite of plugins, typically Boris, but many also have the full RedGiant/Maxon suites. Several hundred a year extra past the software.

And yes, Baselight has a yearly fee also.

And they tend to see editors complaining about needing to spend under a hundred bucks on a plugin and simply roll their eyes.

Yup ... we're all different ...

[Abbey5FC2]

Take my upvote for adding this. The number of plugins that do this indicates there's a healthy demand for this feature. The Audition used to have this. Bring it back.

[KnightBern]

Hi Adobe,
What are the chances of adding beats & bars was an option on the timeline rule? That way you can set a BPM and snap clips to a time signature measures (Bar/beat/note resolution), much like Avid Pro Tools allows you to snap audio clips to frames.

I understand you can use markers, but it would be so much easier to be able to snap to a predefiend beat grid, rather than having to create a beat grid using markers.

It would be amazing if you added this feature.

Kind regards,
Bernard

[Chris31343527qr6j]

Since the remix tool can detect the beat of the music, an option to have markers automatically placed at 1/4 and 1/8th notes of the beat would be really helpful.

Having an option to change the timeline to beats and bars would also be very useful for editing music videos and music-heavy content.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi @Chris31343527qr6j,
I’m Kevin from Adobe Support, one of the moderators here. Thanks for the feature request. I hope the developer team will respond shortly to your request. I up voted.
 
Cheers,

Kevin

[MyerPj]

That's a lot of markers.

[Kevin-Monahan]

I wonder if Beat Edit could do that. @Mathias Moehl, would know.

Cheers,

Kevin

[Mathias Moehl]

Yes @Kevin-Monahan , this is exactly what BeatEdit was made for 🙂

With BeatEdit you can create beat markers at every beat, or only every 4th beat or even subdivide to get markers twice as fast as the actual beat.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Thanks Doc! @Mathias Moehl 

Kevin

[efficient_person1243]

It's Feb 26 2025 and another day where automatic beat detection is needed in my current client workflow, based on client needs, for a litany of social media related deliverables that pay my rent and provide me a means to live and we still don't have automatic beat detection enabled as an Adobe internal function. Cool. CapCut was literally banned from the United States and it has beat detection but a paid software that garners over $500/yr annually from each user does not.

[MyerPj]

When you say it like that, "that pay my rent and provide me a means to live", I'm wondering why you haven't invested in a relatively inexpensive plugin to do that.

Automation Blocks does that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2jlhtsEaR0

And they have a tool specialized to do that: https://aescripts.com/beatedit-for-premiere-pro/

Check them out at least, I'm mean, if your living depends on it...

[efficient_person1243]

Forum posts dating back to 2017 and older have been asking for beat detection, showcasing a demand for this feature. There are multiple plugins available online showcasing a demand for this feature.

As PPro is utilized for a huge majority of the userbase on social media and shortform video content, a basic and fundamental feature of modern software is automatic beat detection. This is used in DaVinci Resolve, CapCut mobile, CapCut desktop, (it used to be in Adobe Audition and then removed) and I'm sure others. This needs to be implemented in Adobe Premiere Pro. It is 2025.

I personally have clients and teams working to create social media content that relies on beat-oriented cuts for efficiency; these are not cinematic masterpieces with unique arbitrary creative decisions, these are swipeable content for a social media client. For the sake of God and my team, this should have been implemented ages ago. Please implement.

[efficient_person1243]

Why is that the correct answer to a continued feature request and added feature amongst professional competitors of Premiere? Why is a paid plugin the required correction instead of an additional feature to a program that enjoys over $500 of your money every year?

[R Neil Haugen]

It's a simply practical suggestion. There are an incredible array of users needs for effects and processes. No matter which NLE is in use, there are always plug-ins needed for some things. Varying by specific NLE of course.

Yea, a built in effect would be great. No question. But I'm not holding my breath, with everything else being requested.

[MyerPj]

So the request made here is in, and has 7 upvotes to move it along. In the meantime, there are some good and available now options that could help you now.

[R Neil Haugen]

I'm always happy to upvote feature requests like this, no problem there!

I'm also always somewhat bemused at the attitude of so many editor types.

Why? Well, I work for/with/teach pro colorists. Based in Resolve and Baselight, mostly ... which both have extensive effects "natively" provided in the apps.

And a lot of my video post actual friends happen to be compositors and graphic artists ... you know, the AfterEffects/Nuke & etc. crowd. THOSE apps really have a ton of powerful, 'native' effects

And yet ... All of the people I know in both groups  ... colorists and Vfx/graphics types ... have extensive plugins, that they pay a TON of cash for every year.

But they use apps that already have nearly all of those spendy effects they par for in the app!

They mostly all have the full Boris and Continuum, many have everything Maxon/RedGiant puts out, and there are several more ... and they probably have multiple expensive stock/template/effects service subscriptions also.

And, they all just consisder that having all that is just part of having a fully stocked professional tool-set.

They find editors a weird group, in all ... and I do wonder about the vast difference in outlook by editors, against basically every other segment of video post processing.

And yes, I've got the full RedGiant, and a couple stock/graphics/audio services even for my small shop. Because they are useful tools.

But of course, everyone's mileage always varies ...

😉

[Dwight M]

What is very strange is that Adobe Premeire Elements has automatic beat detection in it and when I upgraded to Adobe Premeire Pro 25 it does not. So Adobe has this functionality in the base version and not in the Pro version by design. This is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. I have to do more work now than before.

[Ann Bens]

Elements 2025 has been completely overhauled. Its a stripped version of Premiere Pro so hence no beat detection.

[R Neil Haugen]

Really? Wow ... I used to teach Elements about 2005-2009, and it was so useful to get beginners started in because so many things that are manual in Premiere were automated, or nearly so, in Elements.

It was a great and useful tool for people to just make better family videos.

[Peru Bob]

And so almost a year later, there are only 9 upvotes (including mine) for this widely requested feature.

I guess it must not be as popular as some think.

[Warren Heaton]

I don't think this tread ever mentioned that we can use Replace with After Effects Composition in the Premiere Pro Timeline to then choose Animation > Keyframe Assistant > Convert to Audio Keyframes in the After Effects Timeline.  Any property of a Layer in After Effects can then be linked to the resulting keyframes for the Left Channel, the Right Channel or Both Channels.  Everything related to the beats needs to be done on the After Effects side, but it shows up in Premiere Pro via the linked Composition.  

[R Neil Haugen]

Thanks Warren ... a lot of us Pr users could really use some more time in That Other App ... it isn't that hard to work in, even if intimidating at first sight ...

[MyerPj]

It's pretty hard to work with Neil. I've taken at least a half-dozen LinkedIn courses on AE, and it's still daunting, but mostly cause I don't have many projects to do in it, though I wish I did.

I really like AE, it's satifying to use, it just does so much.

[R Neil Haugen]

Ae basically terrifies me at first glance, every time. But then, I only go into it a few times a year, right?

And after a few minutes, I get back into the working pattern of that app, which is so different, and it just ... works. And does amazing stuff for short bits.

[sashaburic]

Even c*pc*t has this!! I'm switching from that software to premiere pro and this is such a major shock to me! i wish that adobe had automatic beat generator as well</3