Last updated on 29 August 2022
Being able to record audio in Premiere Pro can prove handy for several reasons, depending on the type of project you’re making. We’ll show you how to quickly record audio in premiere pro in a couple of easy steps.
It would be most handy if you’re providing narration over a video you’ve already edited together. This can save work & time rather than recording your voice using a different piece of software and importing it into Premiere Pro.
What you will need
Studio-quality microphone
Preferably, if you want a high-quality voice-over on your project, you will want a USB studio-quality microphone or a microphone that connects to an audio interface via XLR or 3.5 Jack.
If you are after a simple one, USB microphones are sold by popular brands such as Blue, Rode, Audio-Technica & many others.
You can always use your onboard microphone (if your computer has one) if you aren’t too bothered about a lower-quality voice sample. They still work perfectly fine; in most cases, modern laptops have good-quality microphones.
Audio interface if you aren’t using a USB mic
Audio interfaces are amazing to get the most out of microphones. You can find amazing ones such as the Sound Devices MixPre 6 II.
They allow you to connect microphones that are not USB-based, and connect them to a computer in professional quality. This is more what the professional video editors use, because they can use professional XLR micrphones such as the Shure SM7B.
Pop filter if you like
You won’t require this, but we recommend using a pop-filter of sorts if your mic doesn’t already have one built-in. They’re relatively cheap and can be attached to most microphones.
Pop filters will help to reduce breath blowing on your microphone and causing bass pops. This can actually ruin the quality of an audio clip if you have pops. This happens a lot when you pronounce sharp letters in words such as the letter ‘P‘ or ‘T‘.
Decide what quality you want to record in
One thing to note is that Premiere Pro cannot record in 98khz 32-bit float quality. To be honest, most people wouldn’t need this, but it’s good to be informed before trying to find it yourself. If you want software that records in 32-bit float, you can look at recording in Reaper or Adobe Audition.
Usually that quality is only used when recording sound effects or similar, so they get the most data for post-processing.
32-bit float essentially gives you a much bigger dynamic range, so if you audio peaks to 0, you can recover it. If you are recording in integrer, you will not be able to recover peaked audio.
recoridng audio in 48khz integrer is perfectly fine for good quality audio recording, just make sure you don’t allow the audio to peak. It’s good practice to set your gain for when the voice is speaking to a level that sits around -10 decibels.
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Quick guide
First, ensure you have the correct microphone settings for your voice-over.
- Navigate to “Edit” > “Preferences” > “Audio Hardware“.
- Once the audio hardware windows appears, find “Default Input” and change this setting to your preferred microphone.
- Select “OK” when you’re finished.
Go to your timeline when you’re ready to record audio in Premiere Pro. You will see microphone symbols on each audio track; when you click any of these symbols, it starts a countdown to recording audio and plays through your timeline while you’re recording. It’s as simple as that.
Record Audio in Premiere Pro – step by step
These steps are a more detailed version of the process above if you couldn’t quite follow our guide. We will go into more detail and provide images alongside the steps.
Step 1 – Ensure you have the correct mic settings
Make sure that you have the correct microphone settings by navigating to “Edit” > “Preferences” > “Audio Hardware“.
The audio hardware window will appear. You can change the primary recording microphone by adjusting the microphone within “Default Input“. Once you’ve selected your preferred microphone, click on “OK“.
Step 2 – Record audio in Premiere Pro
Now you have ensured you have the correct microphone settings; you can now record audio in Premiere Pro.
Start by finding your timeline. You will see a bunch of microphone icons next to your audio tracks. These are the icons you click to record audio. They will begin a countdown for you to record audio when you click them.
While you’re recording audio, the project will play through until you end the audio recording. It’s as simple as that. If your recording wasn’t quite what you wanted, you could undo it by pressing “Ctrl + Z” on your keyboard.
Step 3 – Open up the “Audio Track Mixer”
The Audio Track Mixer is brilliant for levelling your audio. You can also record from here too.
If you are looking to place audio effects on your recordings, then you will need this also. You can select it by going to:
- Click on “Window”
- Go down to “Audio Track Mixer” and select your sequence
Adding audio effects
To add audio effects and adjust their properties, my favourite way is going into the Audio Track Mixer and pressing the little arrow in the top left of the panel. I have located it in a red box in the screenshot below.
It will open up a new section where you can add audio effects to each track. It will look like this:
Video tutorial
This may help you understand better by watching it visually.
Summary
Learning how to record audio in Premiere Pro is an easy task to do. It’s also incredibly useful, depending on your project type, especially if you’re creating narrations or voice-overs of edited projects. Read Adobe’s guide if you’re looking for more specifications and details on recording in Premiere Pro.
You can check out our other tutorials in our complete guide for Premiere Pro.
FAQ
How do I record audio directly in Premiere?
You can follow this guide to see exactly how to record audio into the timeline.
Can you use Adobe to record audio?
Yes, Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro allow you to record professional quality audio.
Can you record 32-bit float audio in Premiere Pro?
No, it’s not possible to record in 32-bit float. But you can record audio in 32-bit float in Adobe Audition and use Adobe dynamic sync to connect the two software together.
