Dynamic Duo: How to Automatically Manage Volume Levels Using Audio Ducking in Adobe Premiere Pro for macOS

Tutorial on Audio Ducking in Adobe Premiere Pro on Mac

Benjamin Arango

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

Too many times, while mixing voiceover with the background music in a video, the dialogues don’t seem to be audible. That’s when we follow the process of audio ducking in Premiere Pro that would automatically lower the volume of the background music whenever there is a dialogue.

The best thing about Premiere Pro audio ducking is that it is an automatic process and we don’t need to put a lot of effort. To make your job easier, I’m going to let you know how to use the Adobe Premiere Pro audio ducking feature in a step by step manner in this guide.

Part 1: How to Use Audio Ducking to Balance Music and Voiceover in Adobe Premiere Pro on Mac?

If you have been using Adobe Premiere Pro on Mac, then you would already be familiar with the wide range of editing features that it has. One of them is the Premiere Pro audio ducking option that comes inbuilt in the application. Using it, you can automatically lower the volume of the background music and amplify your dialogues.

To perform auto-ducking in Premiere Pro, we first need to define each audio track and then use the ducking feature. Here’s how you can also perform audio ducking in Premiere Pro like a pro.

Step 1: Define the Audio Types

Since Adobe Premiere Pro can’t automatically detect the type of sounds, you need to do it manually. To do audio ducking in Premiere Pro, you can first import your video clip and the voiceover to the application, and drag them to the working timeline.

Now, you can first select the voiceover file that you want to amplify, and from the sidebar on the right, click on “Dialogue” as the type of the audio file.

Once you mark the audio type, you will get different options. Here, go to the “Loudness” option and click on the “Auto Match” button.

Afterward, you can do the same for your background audio file. Select the file and choose its audio type as “Music”. You can also set its loudness to “Auto Match” if you want to.

Step 2: Perform Auto Ducking in Premiere Pro

Now when you have set the audio types, you can just find the Ducking option on the sidebar and turn it on. Here, you can first click on the dialogue icon from the top and get the needed options. You can adjust its sensitivity and set a level or improve or reduce its quality.

Apart from the dialogue icon, you can also click on the Music icon and do the same. For instance, you can reduce the quality of the background music and increase the level of the dialogue track.

Step 3: Make the Final Changes

Great! You can now preview the changes you have made and check the audio ducking results in Premiere Pro. If you want to finalize things, then you can perform keyframing and manually adjust the volume.

Furthermore, you can also perform an instant hard ducking in Premiere Pro. For this, just choose the track, go to the side panel, and select Preset > Music > Hard Vocal Ducking. While it would get instant results in Adobe Premiere audio ducking, the results might not be so effective.

Part 2: Wondershare Filmora : An Easier Way to Auto Duck Your Audios on Mac

As you can see, the Premiere Pro audio ducking feature can get a bit complicated if you are a beginner. Therefore, if you are looking for a simpler and more effective automatic ducking solution, then use Wondershare Filmora. This intuitive and diverse video/audio editing tool has an automatic audio ducking option that would make your job a whole lot easier.

To learn how to perform automatic audio ducking in your videos on Mac via Wondershare Filmora, one can follow these steps:

Step 1: Load the Video or Audio Files on Filmora

Firstly, you can just launch Wondershare Filmora on your Mac and import your videos/audios. You can drag and drop the files or just go to its Import Menu option to browse the files. Afterward, you can drag the files to the timeline at the bottom to work on them.

On the native interface of Filmora, you can also directly record voiceovers. Just click on the voiceover icon (below the preview window) and start recording any dialogue.

Not just that, you can also find a wide range of royalty-free music on Filmora that you can readily use in your projects without any copyright issues.

Step 2: Perform Automatic Audio Ducking on Filmora

Great! Now you can see your video and the audio track on the timeline of Filmora. At first, you need to select the voiceover (or any other track) that you want to amplify.

Once the desired audio track is selected, right-click it, and choose the “Adjust Audio” option.

As the dedicated Audio Editor will open, just go to the “Ducking” option at the bottom and turn on the “Lower the volume of other clips” feature. You can further select the level to lower the volume of other background clips in the video here.

Step 3: Save and Export Your Video

That’s it! After making the changes, just click on the “OK” button and Filmora would automatically adjust the volume of other clips. You can further make the needed changes in the video and click on the “Export” icon. This will let you save the project in the desired format and resolution on your computer.

Who knew it would be so easy to do auto-ducking in Premiere Pro, right? Though, if you are looking for even a simpler alternative to Adobe Premiere audio ducking, then consider using Wondershare Filmora. A user-friendly and resourceful video editor, it offers a wide range of features and other inbuilt tools that would meet every post-production requirement of yours in one place.

Benjamin Arango

Benjamin Arango is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Benjamin Arango

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