Adobe Premiere Pro CC: Separate Audio Channels

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Larry

Recently, I wrote an article discussing the new audio types in Premiere Pro CC (you can read it here). The problem with the new Standard audio type is that it works too well.

If you edit a stereo or mono clip into the track, the track automatically conforms to the number of channels in the clip. But… what if you don’t want it to conform the channels? For example, almost every interview I shoot is recorded “dual-channel mono,” where the host is on channel 1 and the guest is on channel 2 and both channels are supposed to be panned center.

From the point of view of Premiere, this looks like a 2-channel stereo clip which would get placed into one track. But it isn’t. I need separate control over each channel But, how?

NOTE: In this example, I have audio on channel 1, with no audio on channel 2. This type of clip is treated the same as a two-person interview clip where I need separate control over each channel.

MODIFY CHANNELS TO THE RESCUE

Piece of cake. But you need to make these changes before you edit a clip into the Timeline. Once it’s in the Timeline, it’s too late.

In the Project panel, select the clip, or clips, you want to modify. (Yes, you can apply this setting to multiple clips at once!)

Then, choose Clip > Modify > Audio Channels (shortcut Shift+G).

This opens the Modify Clip dialog. Note that both audio channels (Left and Right) are assigned to the same audio track (Track 1).

To convert this stereo clip to a dual-channel mono clip, change the Number of Audio Tracks to match the number of audio channels in the clip. In my case, this is 2.

Next, set the Channel Format to Mono. What this does is tell Premiere that there are two channels of mono audio in the clip, rather than a single stereo pair.

Notice that the track assignments at the bottom have now altered from indicating a stereo pair to assigning each channel to its own track in the Timeline.

When you click OK, Premiere warns you that this setting will not affect any clips already edited into the Timeline. Click Yes.

Now, when you edit the clip into the Timeline, even though it may appear as a stereo clip, Premiere is smart enough to assign each channel to its own track so you can edit and adjust each speaker independently. Here, the Left channel is assigned to A1 and the Right channel (which is silent) is assigned to A2.

EXTRA CREDIT

While, normally, an interview would have audio on both A1 and A1, in the case of this example, I have audio only on one channel and silence on the other. I would like to get rid of that second channel to avoid cluttering up the Timeline. (In point of fact, having a silent channel isn’t hurting anything, but it does take up space.) Because both channels are linked, clicking either audio channel in the clip selects both tracks of that clip in the Timeline.

To solve this, Option-click the channel you want to delete. This selects just the one channel, then press the Delete key.

Gone.

Bookmark the permalink.

55 Responses to Adobe Premiere Pro CC: Separate Audio Channels

← Older Comments Newer Comments →

Julius says:

June 12, 2015 at 4:47 pm

Thanks Larry

As I am making the switch from FCP (7) to Adobe Prem CC this is invaluable.

Is it possible to make a sequence preset that forces the clips to have this ‘dual mono’ type of audio track or do you need to manually change the video clips themselves each time before you add them to a sequence?

Thanks

Julius
Larry says:

June 12, 2015 at 5:21 pm

Julius:

You need to do this manually.

Larry
Julius says:

June 12, 2015 at 5:49 pm

Thanks!

Mental note – “Change clips audio properties before inserting into timeline”
Tate says:

August 19, 2015 at 12:51 pm

Perfect explanation – thanks, from an FCP7 refugee trying to figure this aspect out.
Andry says:

December 10, 2015 at 2:26 am

This article was really useful. I spent almost one hour trying this before reading this page. Thank you very much! 🙂
Paul says:

December 15, 2015 at 10:16 am

I have a clip that contains stereo audio. Track 1 is left panned, track 2 is right panned. I would like to bring this into a Premiere sequence as two tracks with the panning remaining the same. I can bring the audio in as two tracks but it pans audio down the center. Can someone help me?

Thanks,
Paul
Larry says:

December 15, 2015 at 10:20 am

Paul:

Easy. Select each clip, one at a time. Go to the Effect Controls panel and twirl down the audio arrow to reveal the audio controls.

Slide the Pan slider to the left, or right, as needed for each clip.

Larry
Paul says:

December 16, 2015 at 1:31 pm

Thanks for the quick reply Larry. I have been able to take two mono tracks and pan them left and right using both your method and a couple of others. And I can hear that the panning has worked. But when I export an OMF to my ProTools mixer (including checking the “include pan” box the mixer does not get the panning info on his end. I’ve tried a number of tests and the results have always been the same. The audio mixer is getting my two tracks panned down the middle rather than left and right.

I’m using PP CC 2015 and my mixer is using Pro Tools 11.

Any help you can suggest would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Paul
Larry says:

December 16, 2015 at 2:30 pm

Paul:

Hmmm… no suggestions. Most mixers would prefer to control the pans themselves within ProTools.

My guess is that Premiere is exporting the OMFs to match the track setting, rather than the clip setting. But I don’t know if it is possible to override that.

Larry
Paul says:

December 16, 2015 at 2:40 pm

Thanks for the quick reply Larry. Your solution works fine when I’m working in Premiere. I can hear that the two tracks have been panned left and right. But when I export an OMF (and have checked “include pan”) and my audio mixer imports the OMF into Pro Tools the panning info is gone. The track appear in Pro Tools as mono (panned down the middle). Is this a bug or am I or my mixer doing something wrong?
Thanks,
Paul