With Dynamic Audio Waveforms turned off, audio gain changes are not visible anymore

[videomc74]

Premiere Vers 25.2.3

MacOS Sonoma, M1 Max, 64GB RAM

Lots of people complaining about the new Dynamic Audio Waveform feature.  I find it annoying and have it turned off like many of you.  Problem now is, when I right-click a clip to adjust the overall audio gain of a clip in the timeline, the waveform does not change to reflect the gain change.  So for instance, if you have a recording that was recorded very low and you adjust the gain +15dB to a normal level, the waveform in the timeline is still minimized.  This is not helpful at all.  If you turn Dynamic Audio Waveforms back on, you can see the gain adjustment, but now you have all the annoyances of having it turned on, which makes things like editing audio clips super frustrating for a number of reasons.  Please set this back to the way it was before the new feature was added.  Thank you.

[IanB_360]

Hi @videomc74 

and welcome to the Premiere Pro Forum community.  Thank you for taking your time to file a bug report. The team just needs a little more information to begin troubleshooting. The link here  How do I write a bug report has steps to providing more information about your bug that can help us identify the issue. 
Were here to help.

Ian

[DougS-EI]

Issue:

When an audio keyframe is set to -999, or dragged all the way down, the waveform is no longer visable.

Steps to reproduce:

Add a clip with video and audio to timeline.

Add an audio level keyframe value 0, move to the right one second in timline add a second keyframe value -999.

Waveform to the right of the second key frame is no longer visable.

Expected result:

The audio waveform remains visable so I can see where I need to add keyframes to raise the level again.

Adobe Premiere Pro version:

Version 25.2.3 (Build 4)

Operating system:

Windows 11

GPU driver version:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, Driver version 32.0.15.7602

Video format:

.mp4 video shot on Sony PXW-Z200

Same issue with audio files in .wav and .mp3

Comparative information:

Affects all projects since updating to latest version of Premiere

I have been using Premiere for over 15 years and don't ever recall seeing this behavior.

[DougS-EI]

Okay, found the fix for this issue is unchecking Dynamic Audio Waveforms.

New issue is with Dynamic Audio Waveforms unchecked, adjustments to a clipsAudio Gain are not reflected by the waveform.

[EHill]

I completely agree.

I frequently use Audio Gain to adjust under-recorded produciton sound and I also do not like working with Dynamic Audio Waveforms. It would be great to have Audio Gain changes reflected in the waveform regardless of whether or not Dynamic Audio Waveforms is enabled.

[Adolfo H.]

Hi @videomc74, thanks for your feedback! I’d love to understand which parts of this feature are annoying for you so I can pass that feedback to the team. As you might already know, dynamic waveforms are a common editing paradigm across NLEs, helping users visualize the volume changes they’re making to a clip. I’m really curious to hear which parts work for you and which ones don’t. Looking forward to your thoughts.

Cheers!

[EHill]

@Adolfo H. I'm not the OP, but happy to share my experience here. 

For the first half of my career, I worked in sound editing and mixing before transitioning to picture editing full-time ten years ago. When I'm working with audio, I rely on the waveform as a clear visual representation of the recorded track – the raw audio I have to work with in the mix. The keyframes indicate how I'm adjusting the track's signal (like volume and panning), and the meters show the final output. With Dynamic Waveforms active, this clear record of the original audio is lost because the waveform now displays the track's output rather than its input.

Another aspect I found challenging was when I significantly reduced the volume, the waveform lost all visible detail. To make timing adjustments I would have to increase the volume to see the waveform, make the adjustment, and then lower the volume back to the desired mix level.

I do however prefer that global changes via Audio Gain be reflected in the waveform, as these adjustments directly affect the input level of the signal. Sound mixers sometimes under-record dialog (either unintentionally or to maintain headroom in dynamic scenes) and Audio Gain is an incredibly useful tool for bringing under-recorded dialog to a more workable level. In earlier versions of Premiere Audio Gain adjustments were always visible in the waveform, but now they only appear when Dynamic Waveforms are enabled. 

I'd love to see Audio Gain changes reflected in the waveform regardless of whether Dynamic Waveforms are enabled. It's worth noting that this is consistent with how Pro Tools handles waveforms - clip gain changes are reflected but volume changes are not.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. Appreciate the work you all do!

[DJP2014]

Like the poster above said, there are good reasons to avoid Dynamic Waveforms when working with audio but we still need to see Clip Gain update visually even with Dynamic Waveforms switched off, just like how it worked before.

[Adolfo H.]

Completely understand. I'll take this feedback to the team. Really appreciate the comment.

[Sagar34081776kh7w]

In the latest Premiere Pro 2025 update, reducing the audio level also causes the waveform to shrink visually, making it difficult to read and edit based on the waveform. Please consider removing this change or providing an option to disable it

[title edited by mod]

[Ann Bens]

Its not a bug, its by design.

Moved to Ideas board.

[mattchristensen]

@Sagar34081776kh7w As Ann mentions, this is happening by design and was a much-requested feature for editors who prefer the visual feedback.

You can turn it off by going to View > Dynamic Audio Waveforms. You can also map it to a keyboard shortcut key if you'd like to use it sometimes and quickly toggle it.

[OMF International5E0A]

Since the recent update changing the volume also changes the visual size of the audio waveform. To visualize the volume, this is OK. However, to set keyframes or cuts, this is quite difficult to handle. One can barely recognize the volume difference when the volume is set low (see attached screenshot).

In my opinion, it would be better to change the setting how it was ever since.

[mattchristensen]

@OMF International5E0A this new behavior is on by default, but you can turn it off. Go to View > Dynamic Audio Waveforms. You can also find this in the Keyboard Shortcuts so you can assign a key to it if you wan to quickly toggle it.

[Ben Holmes Editout]

A note to Adobe - you can add a new feature without removing another one that people rely on. There was no need to remove the visible clip gain changes when adding this new dynamic feature (which I do like for a quick mix sometimes). 

[jsyboy75]

Didn't ask for this feature, didn't need it - as videomc74 says, with it switched off I can't see the gain adjustment - with it on, I can't see clips I've muted but left on the timeline as spares. Please revert back to as it was.

[DJP2014]

@mattchristensen Will Gain behavior return to how it was previously (dynamic always on) when Premiere 25.4 is realeased?

[kevinf46357138]

This answer is missing the whole point of what he is asking. We want full control of what we were able to do before. Timeline adjustments that are not changing the waveforms but Audio Gain adjustments are reflected in the waveform. 

The new feature is cool, but not at the cost of losing previous functionality. 

[DJP2014]

Yes, this is starting to become frustrating.

Having to switch it ON if I want to see a clip with poor audio but then OFF because i need to see the full waveform of a music track. Back and forth. 

[Federico-BlueFrameVisuals]

Agreeing here to what most ppl say here.

I've editing for more than 20y, and for main TV channels (NatGeo, PBS...) so very used to moving around in PP and fast. Now, this dynamic audio WF is imho not a professional addition as one needs to SEE the waveform of a clip to know where it should fade in or out.. The WF reflects the content of the clip and is used to visually cue beats, peak, etc... We can't have it disappear! Yet fine indeed if it's an option, but not at the price of losing the visual global gain of a clip... I'm quite disappointed in a few other bugs, and to keep it to the audio chapter -> the in and out marking in the monitor panel bugs by not having the in to out area darkened... Or is it a new feature..? Also, marking out with O starts the playbak now... What's that ?

Another issue that wasn't there before is that when in the FX panels and jumping to the next edit point, we now can't jump back by one frame (the next clip is "highlighted/selected) and pressing the Left arow doesn't have any effect... It's a very annoying issue as when animating, (scale, posiiton, rotation...) It's a VERY common thiing to jump to end of clip and move 1 frame back to be at the last frame of it, to place the last KF... Now one needs to Shift-3 to get the TL active again in order to be able to move back 1 frame... Really. 😞

Anyway, sorry to sound complaining, but editing needs to be practical and a lot fo attention to WORKFLOW is a must in an editing software. Please Adobe, consider.

Thanks for reading.

[jsyboy75]

@Federico-BlueFrameVisuals totally feeling your pain!

[BrianLevin]

Agree that I don't like the new behavior here. I will use Audio Gain to boost under-recorded production audio, but do not want Dynamic Waveforms to be turned on when I am dealing with other aspects of the edit. I use the size of the waveforms by Audio Gain to know if I've boosted audio or not vs. using the Volume effects. Dynamic Waveforms should work for Volume, but should always be on at all times for Audio Gain, I wish that that hadn't been touched when adding the dynamic waveforms.