Adjusting Video Sound
If the visual part of a movie is perfect but the sound is not, then the movie looks amateurish. Fortunately, Premiere offers sophisticated tools for getting the sound right. We've already discussed how to add new sound tracks to the timeline. Now you need to understand how to adjust each sound track so that everything sounds perfect.
On every sound track, there is an arrow icon. Clicking it will expand the view and make an adjustment area for the sound track available, as you can see here:
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In this adjustment area, you can add new control points simply by clicking anywhere along the red line. Then you move the control points by dragging them with the mouse. The control points control the level of the sound. For example, in the following illustration, the level of the sound in video track 1 has been taken to zero so that the sound on a split-edit is used instead:
What you will normally do is listen to the sound track and "even out" or "sweeten" the sound by adjusting things so that the sound is uniform throughout your entire piece.
It is important to mention that having a good microphone can really help sound quality, especially when you are filming someone talking. A good lavaliere microphone (the kind that you clip onto the front of the speaker's shirt) can make a huge difference. Lavalieres come in both wired and wireless versions. You will especially notice the advantages of lavalieres when you are filming indoors -- a lavaliere will completely eliminate the echoes and "booming" sound that you will frequently get from recording someone indoors with the camcorder's built-in microphone. Check out Shure's Wireless Microphone Systems for details.
For more information on digital video editing and related topics, check out the links below.