Premiere and Audio Editing Workflows
 

Using Premiere CS4, dynamic link and Soundbooth rarely ever works well; so, I render an uncompressed Wav file from the finished timeline and import into Soundbooth to edit. Then I export another uncompressed Wav and import into Premiere.
The main function of Soundbooth for me is to equalize the levels. (plus a few other things)

What are your audio editing workflows when using Premiere?

why do you say it doesn't work well?

Instead of exporting from both programs, use dynamic link to just edit the same file. When you edit in Soundbooth, it automatically saves in Premiere. Exports create unnecessary files that are a headache to batch.

A typical project for me is sync sound, a voice over, and a music bed.

I will output an audio stem (sometimes multiple stems) for the sync sound out of the Premiere timeline. I will bring that track or tracks along with the VO and music bed files into Vegas for mixing and mastering.

I'll output the finished mix and import that back into Premiere for outputting to a master output file.

I am in the final stages of a documentary in which I shot almost 80 interviews ... and many of them were in locations with extraneous sounds, traffic, A/C, etc .... and many of the people interviewed were very emotional because of the topic of abortion ... consequently, the audio levels were all over the place. I converted stereo tracks to mono, and leveled all of the tracks in Soundbooth. No, I did not use the automatic leveler in Soundbooth, I hated the way it made the audio sound ... but I leveled the audio right on the Soundbooth timeline. I found the equalizing capabilities in Soundbooth to be satisfactory, but the elimination of extraneous noises was not good .... so I bought the Izotope software for that ($350) ... Izotope is fantastic at getting rid of A/C, car, buses, humms, etc.
iZotope RX - Complete Audio Restoration: Declipping, Declicker, Hum Removal, Denoiser, Spectral Repair, Restore, Remaster, Download

I got so frustrated with Soundboth I vented about it in one of my blog posts recently:

Why does Soundbooth CS4 suck so bad? - brian

I will wait to see what CS5 brings to the table, and if it isn't exciting enough I may just save my money and buy Pro Tools when I can afford it.

Sound booth is not a "full tool" - for that Adobe has Audition. This stands head to head with Nuendo and Pro Tools.

It would appear that Soundbooth CS5 still sucks Royally.

We also have used Audition for years and like it. Unfortunately, I see nothing of integration with CS5 or updates for Audition.

Anybody have any different info about Audition and CS5? (other than the fact they are letting it die a slow death...)

For Soundbooth CS5, it appears we will be able to edit in Soundbooth via dynamic link WITHOUT rendering in Soundbooth. At least one good step forward. But what we really need is to be able to edit an entire sequence within Soundbooth via DL.

That has been there since CS4. Basically it means that you can start a new multi track project in Soundbooth and then import it into Premiere as a single clip.

That doesnt address the problem of video editors though. We need to be able to copy a bunch of audio clips and paste them onto a Soundbooth timeline, just as you are able to do with video in After effects. Without the ability to quickly move a sequence of audio clips from Premiere to an Audio editor, the whole video editing workflow becomes an absolute nightmare. You are stuck in the bad old days of having to finalize your edit before even attempting to do your final audio edit. Either that or painstakingly export each audio clip as a soundbooth wav, and then use Premiere as your multitrack tool.

Personally I'd like to know what the Soundbooth team have been working on, because it appears that it has taken them 18 months to create it's one solitary new feature; the ability to "Ctrl-K" split an audio file in multitrack view.

Brian... I always complete my video edit prior to getting to work on the audio mix. Premiere, as we all know... is helpless with sound other than to sync. For my work flow, it would make no sense to have any sort of dynamic linking. Once things are locked in the video edit, I go to work on the stems in Vegas. There I am set up with my WAVES mastering plug-ins and have a GUI that is on par with Pro Tools or any DAW..

Audio only renders are not time consuming.... granted, it does become an organizational issue if there are many versions back and forth and you want to retain all of them, but frankly, the old method as you describe is quick and straight forward.

I can see your frustration if you were attempting a final mix as you were working your video edit, but I can't imagine how that work flow would function. That would mean that you are using Premiere... at least in some degree, for your sound mix? I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Too bad it wasn't updating Audition and bringing it into the CS5 suite...the place it deserves! Then we'd have some decent software to do our sound.

I agree that your workflow is best at the moment, but just imagine being able to copy and paste all the clips on a PPro timeline and then edit them in Soundbooth. You could apply all the effects and reverb etc to audio you wanted during the edit and it would help you during the edit while you still have time to make changes. Then if you change a clip here and there by a few frames, it would be a simple matter of doing the same thing in Soundbooth, or export markers from PPro to Soundbooth to help you get sync back. That is the way I currently work in AE.

The only distinction would be I simply render out rather than the cut and paste you desire.

I haven't ever had the need to go back for a video edit (save for a cutaway or b-roll) once I have a lock and do my audio mix and mastering.

If you had a truly dynamic link between the sound program and Premiere, where changes made to the sound files are instantly updated in your video timeline, that would be nice integration, and would essentially save some rendering.