Premiere Specific Tasks
 

I work with Premiere pro CS3. I use to use Premiere 4, which is much easier. I only want to use Preimere Pro because the more I use it, the better I'll get. Here are some tasks that I cannot find out how to do.

1. How do I lower the Music sound while specific clips are playing. I have video clips, with seperate audio(song-mp3)in audio 2. how can
I lower the sound of the song playing when a specific video file plays and then pick up to were the sound was?

2.How can I get the effect of a news report, with the news person talking and then a square to the side of them playing footage?

what other video blogging sites are out there other than youtube and vimeo? thank you very much

There are several ways to do #1, but here's one of the easiest: Use the razor tool to slice the audio clip where you want the volume change to begin and end, then just drag the horizontal line in the audio clip down to where you want it. Apply cross fades at either end of the adjusted audio clip so the transition isn't sudden.

For #2, I'd just create a graphic with a clear background and move the graphic to where you want it in the frame, then lay it into your top available video track. Should just pop in wherever you want it.

thank you very much! the sound issue will help me allot!! by the way, were is the cross over button?

If you mean crossfades or audio dissolves, they are in your audio effects drop-down. Just drag on to, and center over, the cut.

thanks for the help

Damn! That's brilliant! I never would have thought of that.

You don't have to cut the audio clip with the razor tool to change the audio level. Select the audio track, and move the current time indicator (CTI, you know, the playback head?) to where you want the volume to change. Now, mouse over to the left side of the timeline and click the diamond-shaped icon in the audio track head. This inserts a keyframe in the audio track, visible as a small diamond on the audio level line in the audio track. IMPORTANT NOTE: you MUST select the audio track in the timeline BEFORE you can set a keyframe. Then, press the right arrow key once to move ahead one frame (or however many frames you want) and set another keyframe. Now, use your mouse to move the volume level line to the right of the second keyframe either up or down.

Why would you do this rather than splitting the clip? Well, for one, there would be fewer individual clips in the timeline, reducing the chance that something might get misplaced or left out when moving or editing parts of the sequence. Secondly, you can have the volume change over a period of time, rather than just slamming from one setting to the next. If you want the volume to change uniformly over a half-second period, just put 15 frames between the two keypoints (assuming 29.97 FPS).

Thirdly, if you only want to alter the volume in a given segment of the clip, set two keypoints at the start, two more keypoints at the end, and then use the mouse to pull the volume line between the second and third keypoints. Everything before the first keypoint and after the fourth keypoint remain unchanged.

Now, if you decide to move that clip to another place on the timeline, then all you have to do is move one clip, and not two or three razored sections.

Martin

Just hold down the Ctrl key and click on the audio rubberband to create a keyframe. The audio does not need to be active.

There's advantages to either way of fading audio, try both and see what works for you.

Welcome to the World of Adobe, where there are fifty ways to accomplish a single task, and they'll sell you another application that will give you fifty more ways.

Regards;
Martin

wow thanks Martin, I'll try out that method. im learning premiere pro little by little. Whst do you guys think of the premiere pro, classroom in a book?

There's no need to drag audio fades to clips, just make sure you have targeted your audio track, park the playhead near beginning or end of an audio clip and press the shortcut for audio transition (i think it's CTRL ALT D).

If you prefer automatic ducking (making background music quieter when there's a voiceover), it can be done too: A quick tutorial on automatic audio ducking in Premiere : Adobe Premiere Pro

Or use Premiere's audiomixer, that's usually quicker and easier than drawing a timeline full of keyframes.

The book's not bad -- certainly better than the manual that came with the software. Adobe manuals seem to be written from the point of view that you already know the software, and just need a reminder.

Spending some time at lynda.com helps a lot. I got a free 30-day subscription when I bought CS3, and I spent a lot of time going through their Premiere training videos, one after the other. In particular, I needed it for Encore, whose manual is probably worse than anything Microsoft ever wrote. I don't think I would have ever figured out the DVD menuing system in Encore without outside help.

Martin

thanks for the link and info!! your awesome

Hey Victor, I don't want to beat a dead horse, but personally, i like to go to the far left audio track, select the desired track, twirl down the arrow, and supersize the audio track to give you lots of space..

Press the P for Pen tool. You can enter desired keyframes by pressing control and left clicking. You can start manipulating the keyframes by simply dragging the points..

You can even go as far as Ctrl clicking individual keyframes to give you Bezier handles, and getting wonky results..

Lots of options my friend...
BTW, cross fading between two audio clips is Shift>Ctrl>D altogether..So long as you have the correct track on the far left selected..

cool! good pic

Headache!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Today is the first time I edited with allot of clips on Premiere pro. At first I loaded 24 clips, totaling 40 min. and it said low on memory to save and proceed with caution. then I loaded 4 clips at a time and edited them. after 30 min or so it freezes and shuts down. What is the big problem? am I doing something wrong? what can I do?

Again and again... we cannot give an informed advice without knowing:

-your project settings (PAL, NTSC, HD, SD...)
-your computer config (CPU, RAM, OS, HDD USB/Firewire...)

[QUOTE=Jiri Fiala;932357]Again and again... we cannot give an informed advice without knowing:

-your project settings (PAL, NTSC, HD, SD...)
-your computer config (CPU, RAM, OS, HDD USB/Firewire...)[/QUOT
here is what I usually work with, I really dont change the settings when I create a new project but here is all the info:
DV NTSC, Standard 48KHZ
-For editing with IEEE1394 (FireWire/i.LINK) DV equipment.
-Standard NTSC video (4:3 interlaced).
-48kHz (16 bit) audio.
-Drop-Frame Timecode numbering.
General
Editing mode: DV NTSC
Timebase: 29.97 fps

Video Settings
Frame size: 720h 480v (0.900)
Frame rate: 29.97 frames/second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: D1/DV NTSC (0.9)
Fields: Lower Field First

I record with a Canon XL1, I always want to create great quality videos that dont look like regular camera footage. Maybe I'm using the wrong settings? My computer is a Dell XPS 420, 3 gig ram, Intel Core 2 Quad 2.40GHz

What else are you running on that Dell? From the description it sounds like you have plenty of horse power, but you're running into issues because of your setup maybe.

The XPS series are gaming machines, so I assume you have lots of other software on the computer. Keep in mind that video editing is a very demanding task, and computers perform a lot better if you dedicate them for that. My experience is that every piece of software will try to "configure" my computer the way it is best for that particular application, and the end result is a messed up machine. I have achieved the best results reformatting the computer and loading strictly the minimum soft I need for editing, nothing else, no antivirus, no surfing of the internet.

I dont use the computer for gaming at all, pretty much just media, and I still have over 300 Gigs of hard drive space open, I cant explain it!

Victor are you storing your media files on the "C" drive?

Have you shutdown all the "Bloat Wear" that vendors like Dell and HP and Gateway load onto the systems they market?

Are you using Vista and if so have you shut down all the eye candy and other resource hogs that come with it?

I hope this points you towards a solution

Grayson

I have deleted useless programs, and removed all those eye candy features vista has

More Tweaks
 

Now run msconfig.exe from the run menu.

Go to the services tab and note what services are running and which of those a deemed as essential.

Under "Administrative Tools" go to Services, either under its own applet or from Computer Management. Turn off the "non essential" services one by one and see if your system works better.

You should also visit Video Guys and check out their "Research" section for tweaks to XP. They do not recommend running Vista!

a Great Help would be to install a second hard drive as you media drive. And keep your drives Defragged!


Hope this helps

Grayson

yes!! now were talking!! im going to try that today!!

There's no way in hell C2D computer with 3 gigs of RAM would run to insufficient memory with PPro and SD project, even with all the crapware OEMs plague new computers with (BTW: you are free to uninstall all of it, I've yet to see a manufacturer-supplied utility that would do anything more than double Vista's builtin features). Vista actually manages memory better than XP, even if it takes up more of it (this is not a contradiction). I have NEVER run into this problem even on measly 1 GB RAM laptop with Vista. I have actually run Premiere and After Effects simultaneously on it, although that was a wee bit tough on hard drive :)

Unless there is something radically wrong with your setup, which we cannot tell from the info we have. Check if you haven't accidentaly turned off virtual memory, however unlikely that is (under Computer Properties - Advanced Settings - Virtual Memory). Check if Windows recognizes available RAM (in Computer Properties, Win-Pause/Break). Defragmentation is good, but it WON'T make your computer run into memory problems. That's a complete myth.

Fire up Task Manager (CTRL-SHIFT-ESC) and check memory usage (it's on Performance tab). Make a screenshot of Processes and Performance tabs and post it here.

thats a good idea, a screenshot!!! im going to do all the suggestions that were posted and open a project with allot of clips, then see if its better, if not ill show pics......how do you do screen shot? ctrl, alt and what else? also, while on the subject, how can I turn someone green like the incredible hulk?

There is an utility called Snip built right into Vista. Type it into Start menu and then snip right away. Or you can use PrintScreen and paste into into Paint or whatever graphic app.

And please do not hijack the subject, create new thread for your Hulk question.

lol, i didnt want to waste space on asking a simple question, but will comply with your request. Yes Sir!

It's not wasting space, internet is huge :) You risk stalling the thread and not getting relevant answer to either of your questions. I suggest asking this question in Compositing forum instead of Premiere forum, it's likely to be quite elaborate.

All the best.