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6 Quick Tips to Improve Your Audio in Premiere Pro

By Charles Yeager

Published: May 09, 2022 Last Updated: October 25, 2022

Let’s learn some basic audio tips, tricks, and advice that will instantly improve your video edits in Premiere Pro.

Let’s cover some audio tips and tricks that I use on nearly every video I edit in Premiere Pro. These tips may not be the flashiest, but they’re tips that will make your editing experience better and improve your videos!

1. How to Remove “Pops” at the End of an Audio Clip

Have you ever heard a weird “pop” sound at the end of an audio clip you’re working with? This happens in my edits all the time. I’ll be editing some audio, and there will be an odd “pop” sound at the end of the clip.

The apparent fix seems like it would be just to trim back the audio clip. But, weirdly enough, sometimes these “pops” are a result of how Premiere Pro is reading the end of the audio clip.

Screenshot of how to trim audio clip — *Trimming back audio clips doesn’t permanently remove “pop” sounds at the end of the clip.*

The simple fix is just to fade the audio out at the end quickly. Zoom-in on the end of your audio clip, hold Ctrl and click to create two keyframes on the Volume Level (hold CMD on Mac).

Then drag the second keyframe to the bottom. That will eliminate any stubborn pops at the end of your audio clips.

Screenshot of how to fix audio pop sounds — *Quickly fade out audio using **keyframes** to remove annoying “pop” sounds.*

2. How to Cut an Audio Clip More Precisely

Have you ever tried to cut an audio clip or sound effect right on a beat, but Premiere Pro will only let you cut a little before or after the beat? This is because the Current Time Indicator (the Playhead) only lets you cut a clip on a video frame by default.

Screenshot of how to cut on a video frame — *Have you ever run into a situation where Premiere Pro won’t let you cut an audio clip right on a beat?*

However, the solution to this problem is simple. Just right-click on the Time Ruler section of your Sequence and select Show Audio Time Units.

You can zoom in closer to your audio clips (using the + key at the top of the keyboard) and make more precise cuts.

Screenshot of how to select Show Audio Time Units — **Right-click** on the **Time Ruler** and select **Show Audio Time Units**.

This is because audio has a much higher sample rate, whereas video has a frame rate. After you make your audio edit, I recommend turning Show Audio Time Units back off since, in most cases, you’ll want to be editing by video frames.

Screenshot of making an audio cut — *Now, you’ll be able to make a precise cut anywhere on your audio clip.*

3. Add Bass to Improve Low-Quality Mics

Adding bass to audio in Premiere Pro is an excellent way to improve the sound of lower-quality microphones. Lavalier mics typically don’t capture a lot of bass compared to other microphones, such as shotgun mics.

Screenshot of bass effect options — *Use the **Bass** effect to improve mics that sound “shallow.”*

If you’re working with recorded audio that sounds a bit shallow, add the Bass effect to your audio and increase the Boost setting. A Boost value between 3 and 8 works best in most cases. This is also a nice way you can match audio that’s been recorded from two different microphones.

Check out our Blind Microphone Comparison video if you want to hear the differences between five different microphone types.

4. Change Stereo Audio to Mono (or Mono to Stereo)

If you need to adjust the channels of an audio clip, right-click on it in your sequence, then select Audio Channels. This will allow you to select which audio channels you want manually.

This is helpful if you want to make a stereo clip mono by setting both channels to the same audio source. Or, vice versa.

Screenshot of how to select audio channels — **Right-click** on your audio clip and select **Audio Channels**.

It also allows you to fix many other issues you might encounter. For example, if one of your audio channels is showing up blank or if a stereo clip has the audio channels swapped.

You can fix all of those issues this way.

Screenshot of audio channel settings — *Easily swap or turn off specific audio channels.*

5. Adjust Audio Balance

Sometimes, you may need to adjust the balance of your audio, like if you want a sound effect to be heard more on the right-side speaker. Or, you may want to have a sound “pan” across, from one side to the other, like if a car is passing by.

To adjust the audio balance of a clip, right-click on it in your sequence, then navigate to Show Clip Keyframes > Panner > Balance.

Screenshot of how to adjust audio balance — **Right-click** on it in your **sequence**, then navigate to **Show Clip Keyframes** > **Panner** > **Balance**.

Now, the clip keyframe line will adjust the audio balance instead of the volume. So, if you move the keyframe line upwards, it’ll shift the audio to the left speaker. If you move it downwards, it’ll shift the audio to the right speaker.

You can also keyframe the audio balance on the clip if you want a sound to pan from one side to another.

Screenshot of keyframing the audio balance — **Keyframe** the Audio Balance.

6. Noise Reduction (Removing Room Tone)

The fastest way to apply noise reduction to your audio in Premiere Pro is to send the audio clip to Adobe Audition via Dynamic Link. This process is much more straightforward than it sounds, and it works nicely for things like narrations.

First, right-click on your audio in your sequence, then select Edit Clip in Adobe Audition. (This will then Render and Replace your audio clip, so you don’t have to worry about saving over the original audio.)

Screenshot of selecting Edit Clip in Adobe Audition — **Right-click** your audio and select **Edit Clip in Adobe Audition**.

Once your clip has finished rendering, Adobe Audition will launch, and you’ll see your audio. Zoom into your audio and find an area of the audio with no sound, just the room tone. Ideally, you can find an area that is a few seconds long.

Once you’ve found an area with no sound, put an in-point at the beginning of the blank audio by using the shortcut “i.”

Next, set an out-point at the end of the blank audio area by pressing “o.”

Screenshot of setting in and out points — *Set your **in-point** and **out-point** to highlight an audio section with just the room tone.*

Now, navigate to Effects > Noise Reduction > Noise Reduction (process). You’ll see the Noise Reduction effect settings open up.

Click Capture Noise Print. This will sample the room tone area you selected on your audio. Next, click the button that says Select Entire File.

Finally, click Apply.

Screenshot of Noise Reduction settings — *In the **Noise Reduction** settings, click **Capture Noise Print**, then click **Select Entire File**.*

Now just close Audition and return to Premiere Pro. You’ll see that the de-noised version from Adobe Audition has replaced your original audio clip.

More Audio Tips and Freebies

Looking to up your audio game even more? Check out Audio Mixing Your Films in Adobe Audition if you want to expand your audio skills beyond Premiere Pro.

And, if you need some amazing sounds for your next project, check out our roundup of Over 280 Free Sound Effects for Videos, Apps, Films, and Games!