The Art of Sound Mixing

Achieve Sound with Precision using these Fundamental Editing Techniques

Now that you’ve recorded clean audio at the right levels, it’s time to intentionally sweeten and layer your sound to elevate your video content. Rather than thinking of sound as an after-thought, increase credibility by tying sound to your story.  

  • Clean up dialogue using essential tools in Adobe Premiere Pro 
  • Perform basic mixing and leveling techniques 
  • Head into Adobe Audition for a deeper cleanup of sound 
  • and export polished, balanced audio, primed to pair with your final video 

The Five Step Interview Audio Process

Here are five steps for editing the sound of an interview. 

  1. Build a story by assembling selects, structure, rough timing + organize timeline 
  2. Achieve clean dialogue be reducing loudness, noise or reverb  
  3. Smooth cuts between sound clips to prevent jumps in audio  
  4. Mix sound levels for consistency throughout project 
  5. Add Music to set the tone of the story but not distract from the story 

Build the Story + Organize the Timeline 

  • Configure audio channels in Premiere. Set audio clip channel configuration in the project panel before adding clips to the timeline. Stereo music clips have two channels in one clip, which is fine, but dual-microphone recordings should be converted to mono clips to control each channel independently. You can batch modify multiple clips’ audio channel settings at once, saving time. Note: Premiere Pro preferences allow you to set how audio channels are interpreted by default for future imports, which helps streamline your workflow.
  • Organize your timeline in four audio tracks: [Color-code + label tracks] 
    • A1 – Interview Dialogue 
    • A2 – Secondary Dialogue / 2nd Mic / Nat Sound 
    • A3 – Music  
    • A4 – SFX / Atmospheric Sound 

Assemble Interview selects on the timeline and rearrange to build main narrative structure + rough timing 

Clean up Dialogue

  • Utilize Loudness Auto-match 
  • If there’s noise in the dialogue track that’s distracting, try Noise Reduction. 
  • Adjust Reverberation (Reverb) – sound waves reflecting off walls, ceiling + floors, etc. This creates a sense of space and depth in the soundbite. Small room or cathedral. 

*Don’t OVERPROCESS. Fix enough for CLARITY, not enough to sound ARTIFICIAL.  

Smooth Cuts / Gaps Between Sound Clips

  • Use Fade in/Fade out or Constant Power transitions to subtly smooth out cuts to prevent pops, clicks or abrupt tone changes between audio clips. 
  • Use PEN TOOL (P) to create points to pull down to lower or raise sound volume to ease into dialogue clips. 
  • Every space has a sound. When clips are spaced out on a timeline, the sound cuts out completely to unnatural silence. Extend room tone bed throughout entire 3-min. video.  

Mix Sound Levels Before Adding Music

  • Adjust dialogue soundbites to be consistent throughout. 
  • Sound levels for dialogue should peak between –6dB and –12dB.  
  • Looking at the audio meter, levels shouldn’t pass –6dB (decibels), or it will be too close to 0dB, which turns red and is clipping, distorting the sound, making it unusable. 
  • Adjust AUDIO GAIN by right-clicking clip or pull up or down line across audio clip to increase or decrease volume. 
  • Use TRACK MIXER for overall balancing levels to maintain consistency across video. 

Core Concepts to Remember

  • Gain vs. Volume – Gain controls the input signal’s strength, shaping tone and distortion. Volume regulates the final output loudness. Gain is how it sounds; Volume is how loud it is. 
  • Reading the Audio Meter: Aim for dialogue to peak between -6 dB and -3 dB, keeping the meter in the green/yellow zone. Red indicates clipping (distortion), while levels too low (under -20 dB) sound weak. Music should generally sit between –18dB and –25dB under interview dialogue, roughly 10db to 20db lower than the voice.  
  • Sound clipping is audio distortion when a digital system is pushed beyond its max capacity, causing peaks of the sound waveform to be “cut” resulting in harsh, buzzing, crackling audio. 

EDITING SOUND IN ADOBE PREMIERE PRO 

  1. Organize and Label Dialogue, Music and SFX tracks [Color Code, if necessary] 
  2. Sweeten / Fix Dialogue first in the Essential Sound Panel 
    • Apply loudness auto-match, reduce noise, and lightly reduce reverb 
  3. Adjust sound levels  
    • Clip gain, and track volume 
  4. Check Audio Track Mixer 
    • Set dialogue baseline (-6dB to –12dB) 
  5. Add music + adjust levels between –18 to –30dB (Tip: don’t overwhelm message) 

ADOBE AUDITION, A MORE PRECISION SOFTWARE FOR EDITING SOUND 

Pull a particularly tricky sound clip from in need of editing into Audition. 

  • Apply noise reduction capturing noise print 
  • Apply parametric equalizer for a clarity boost + DeEsser (if needed) 

Key Takeaways

  • Clean up dialogue, fix background noise, balance levels throughout project 
  • Keep levels consistent across timeline  
  • Music should support not compete with dialogue. Don’t let it become overpowering. 
  • Remove / Smooth out sound from one clip to the next by recording room tone to add on its own layer as a subtle room tone bed.  
  • Fade in and out of audio clips to prevent pops in audio 
  • Don’t over edit dialogue to the point where your subject sounds robotic 
  • Listen to your final sound on BOTH headphones and speakers 
  • Check out freesound.org to get sound effects to amplify your ambient sound