From the course: Premiere Pro Guru: Audio Workflow and the Essential Sound Panel

Best practices for mixing: What to listen for - Premiere Pro Tutorial

From the course: Premiere Pro Guru: Audio Workflow and the Essential Sound Panel

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Best practices for mixing: What to listen for

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- When it comes down to it, mixing audio is unique to every individual. We all hear things slightly differently and it's no surprise that some of us like more "bass" and some of us like less of it. However, I think that we can all agree that the listening environment is important. After all, when it comes to audio, there are two things that are essential: your ears and the equipment that get the sounds to them. Let's talk about your ears. Some people are born with natural abilities. Others are not. Just like any other skill, you can train your ears to know what to do to adjust your audio to get the desired results. Now let's talk about the equipment that brings sounds to your ears. Needless to say, you should work in a quiet room. But besides quiet, you can use certain equipment and do many things to improve the way you listen to your audio in your editing space. Get the best speakers you can afford. A wide variety of models and sizes and prices are available. Your speakers don't have to necessarily be huge and/or extremely expensive. They just need to have a decent response to the signal that is being fed to them. Wall material. Various materials will have distinct sound absorption properties. One side of the room may be brighter than the other and your mix will suffer. Positioning. Try to place yourself in the middle of the speakers. They should be at the same distance on the left and on the right. If they are small, position them between three and four feet from your head. Ensure that some space is between the speaker and the wall. This will prevent the wall reflection from distorting how the audio gets to you. And avoid placing speakers in the corners of the room. Speaker Height. Sometimes all you need to do is place the speakers at ear level. You may need to purchase a pair of short pedestals from a local pro audio distributor to achieve optimal elevation. Speaker volume. Play tone through the speakers and adjust the volume until the level is comfortable. As if someone is speaking normally to you in the room. After you set your speakers, do not adjust the level of the speakers or your computer's audio. If you alter the speakers' volume, you'll throw off your sense of level and never be sure about the levels of your program. Headphones. Sometimes you'll need to keep your sound volume to a minimum, forcing you to wear headphones. Headphones have both good and bad qualities to them. If you combine a set of high quality, professional headphones with a clean amplification system, you can get the most accurate and uncolored sound content. You won't need to consider room acoustics or other problems because when you rotate your head, the headphones will rotate with you. Which means that no matter what, you will always be in the sweet spot. There are also negative aspects to wearing headphones. Your ears get tired a lot more easily. As you can see, you have many options to consider. Keep in mind that whatever options you choose will affect your ability to effectively mix and enhance your sound.

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