Learn to master the art of "ducking" in Premiere Pro, a technique that generates automatic keyframes from one audio type to another. This skill is incredibly useful in scenarios where you need to balance dialogue with a music track.
Key Insights
- Ducking is a technique in Premiere Pro that automatically creates keyframes from one audio type to another, allowing for a seamless transition between two audio tracks.
- The process involves adjusting the Premiere Pro Preferences Audio to a higher setting, which instructs Premiere Pro on how to balance the two audio types.
- By selecting the audio and then the words "dialogue" and "music" in the Essential Sound Panel, you can make the ducking option available.
- The sensitivity, duck amount, and fades can be adjusted to fine-tune the process. This helps you control how quickly or gradually the volume shifts from one type to another.
- Generating keyframes allows you to define the ramping of the keyframes, which affects how the volume changes over time.
- Noble Desktop provides an in-depth tutorial on ducking, a useful tool for anyone looking to create a harmonious balance between dialogue and music in their video projects.
Common Editing Shortcuts
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J K L
Reverse, stop, forward. Multiple presses for faster shuttle.
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Q / W
Trim from playhead to clip start (Q) or end (W).
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I / O
In and out point markers — fundamental to source-side editing.
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V / C / B
Selection, Razor, Slip — most-used tools.
Video Transcription
Hi, this is Margaret with Noble Desktop. Today, we're looking at ducking in Premiere Pro. Ducking is automatically generated keyframes from one audio type to another. We are going to duck music against dialogue, so when there is no dialogue (like right here), the music plays. When there is dialogue, the music will lower.
The first thing to do when you are working with ducking is to adjust the Premiere Pro Preferences Audio, setting a higher number. This tells Premiere Pro what audio type is being ducked against what other audio type.
We can select the whole audio or just the audio, and click on the word "dialogue" in the Essential Sound Panel. Then, select the word "music". Now, we see the word ducking ready for us to use. We can check ducking and adjust the sensitivity, duck amount, or fades.
Generating keyframes defines how much of a ramping of the keyframes you are looking at. It can go from low volume to higher volume gradually or less gradually. The duck amount can be increased for less or more.
Ducking can be a great solution, particularly if you have a lot of dialogue that you need to deliver quickly with music. I hope you've enjoyed this lesson in ducking in Premiere Pro Audio. This has been Margaret with Noble Desktop.
Video Transcription:
Full Video Transcript
Hi, this is Margaret with Noble Desktop and today we're going to be looking at ducking in Premiere Pro. Ducking is automatically generated keyframes from one audio type to another, and in this sample we are going to duck music against dialogue. So when there's no dialogue like right here, the music raises. When there is dialogue, the music will lower.
Setting Up Preferences for Ducking
The first thing to do when you are working with ducking is for the Premiere Pro preferences audio, you have minimum time milliseconds. Yours might say 30 or something along those lines. Make it a higher number. The reason is because if you don't change that, you're going to have so many keyframes when you create your ducking keyframes.
Assigning Audio Types in the Essential Sound Panel
You have to tell Premiere Pro what you're working with so that it knows what audio type is being ducked against what other audio type. So this is dialogue. You can select all of it or just the audio, it doesn't matter, and just click on the word dialogue. This is in your Essential Sound panel. Just click on the word, you're not doing anything else at all, just telling Premiere Pro hey, that's dialogue. And now you're going to click on the music and you're just going to click on the word music.
Generating Ducking Keyframes
So we'll stay on this page. We already see the word ducking here ready for us to use. I'm going to check ducking. Before I get into sensitivity, duck amount, or fades, I'm going to say generate keyframes. So this is generated exactly what you would think. When it starts and there's nothing there, it's louder. After Effects is for animating many things.
Adjusting Sensitivity, Duck Amount, and Fades
Now what are these about? What sensitivity, duck amount, and fades? Let's start with fades. How much of a ramping of your keyframes you're looking at. So is it going to go from low volume to higher volume gradually or less gradually?
The duck amount, let me increase that. There's less or more. If I say generate keyframes again, evolving with this industry, I made it lower that you barely hear it. So again, that maybe in the other direction. Let's try that. So this is much more subtle, it barely gets lower. It's more about your personal taste how far you would like it to lower.
Your sensitivity, I'm having a keyframe happening here which is a little absurd, but now I'm going to increase the sensitivity a bit more and that's gone away.
Wrapping Up
Ducking can be a great solution, particularly if you have a lot of dialogue that you need to deliver quickly with music. I hope you've enjoyed this lesson in ducking in Premiere Pro Audio. This has been Margaret with Noble Desktop.
