How to Sync Audio and Video in Adobe Premiere

Eleanor Reed
7 min readDec 7, 2020

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Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

During professional recordings there comes a need to record audio and video separately. This is to get the best from both audio and video. Later on, you are required to sync audio in premiere pro. Now how to sync audio and video in premiere pro is presented to you here.

Learn the Basics on Syncing Audio in Premiere

There are many who struggle with merging clips in the premiere. It is not a difficult task to perform until you have some basic understanding and the right technique.

Premiere Pro provides you an easy and effective method to synchronize your audio and video. This process is known as merge clips in the premiere.

You can select any video clip and easily sync it with up to 16 channels of audio. Clips that make up the merged clip is known as a component clip. Clips can be selected from the project panel or the timeline. You can invoke the merge command from either the clip menu or the contextual menu. For contextual command, you need to select more than one clip.

When it comes to syncing audio and video in premiere pro you are provided with an option of merging one or multiple audio clips to a single video. The permissible limit for syncing audio tracks in a merged clip is 16. It includes mono, stereo, sound 5.1. When it comes to the tracks, a single mono clip is counted as a track. A single stereo is counted as two tracks and a single 5.1 clip as six tracks.

How to Sync Audio and Video in the Adobe Premiere

When it comes to syncing audio and video in premiere there are many techniques available on the internet. To make it easy for you some of the tested techniques are presented here.

There are basically two methods of syncing audio and video in the premiere.

Method 1. Automatic Synchronization

It is just similar to merging. The only difference is, no additional file is generated. You just need to follow some simple steps as given below.

Step 1: Place both audio and video files in the timeline on top of one another as shown in the image.

Step 2: Highlight both audio and video track, and then right-click. A dropbox will appear. Select “Synchronize” from the given options.

Step 3: Now select “audio” as the synchronize point. Select the track that you want to synchronize.

Step 4: Now delete the scratch track and select the “link” option to link clips.

Once you click on the “link”, the premiere will automatically sync your audio and video file.

Method 2. Manual Synchronization

What happens in most of the cases is, premiere won’t perfectly synchronize video and audio all the time. To avoid adobe premiere audio out of sync, you can go for manual synchronization. Manual synchronization is the best method to prevent any mismatching.

Step 1: Place both audio and video files on top of one another in the timeline.

Step 2: Go for a good reference point. Now mark the frame where you start to hear the sound of both available audio tracks. You can use the “M” key from your keyboard for marking.

Step 3: Now it’s time to align the tracks. You can use markers for the same.

Step 4: Now delete the scratch track and link the available clips by going through the “link” option.

Once you are done clicking on the “link” you will get your files synced.

How to Fix Adobe Premiere Audio Out of Sync

There are several instances when the premiere pro audio is out of sync. This happens due to various reasons and is a general case, especially when syncing is performed automatically. Well, if you are confused about the same let us discuss in detail.

Why Can’t I Synchronize in Premiere?

  1. Variable Frame Rate (VFR) Issue: When you record a digital video with a variable frame rate it causes the MP4 file audio to play out of sync. Especially when you are editing the same in Adobe Premiere.
  2. The difference in Audio Sources: Sometimes the recorded audio is a mono source with 1 channel. On the other hand, the audio that is connected directly with footage can be stereo or 5.1 with multiple channels.
  3. Synchronize is Disabled: There are several instances when auto synchronizes is disabled.
  4. Discontinuous Clips: These are sequential clips but contain some lost or dropped sound.

When it comes to solutions on how to fix Adobe Premiere audio out of sync there are many. We are going to discuss some trusted and tested techniques here.

Merging Clips Using Premiere

Merging audio clips and video clips are one of the easiest and rapid techniques to fix Adobe Premiere audio out of sync. This method combines both audio and video tracks. It then creates a new clip that is properly synched. The best part of using a premiere is, it does all the work for you and you need not get involved in any tricky task.

All you need to do is to follow some of the basic steps as given below.

Step 1: Highlight both tracks that you want to merge. Once you are done right-click from your mouse. A drop box will appear. Now choose “Merge clips” from the given options as shown below.

Step 2: Now select “Audio” as a synchronization point. Now select “Remove Audio from AV Clip”. Once selected a tick will appear as shown in the image.

Step 3: This is the final step in which you are required to drag the merged footage into the sequence as shown in the image.

Once you drag successfully, you are done.

View the Checklist When Using Adobe Premiere

In most cases, people aren’t able to sync audio and video in premiere or aren’t able to sync audio and video in premiere pro or aren’t able to sync audio and video in premiere pro cc. Then they try different methods but, in the end, they got frustrated. This is a general case as most of people don’t go for a checklist. You can go for the modules present on the checklist of Adobe Premiere.

To make it easy for you, here are some tips and solutions.

  1. Length of audio files: When you use short audio clips generally lesser than 3 seconds it causes issues. It is good to use audio files of at least 5 seconds or more.
  2. Indistinct parts: There are cases when audio clips have indistinct parts. It makes it difficult for the synchronization algorithm to find a match. You can use an editor to solve this issue.
  3. Low quality: Make sure that the audio clip is of good quality. Syncing will be better when audio quality will be up to the mark.
  4. Mismatching of Clips: It is good to check whether synchronization is possible or not. In some cases, the recordings are from different events or are from different takes. So be sure about the same.
  5. YouTube Sound Settings: There are many instances of premiere pro audio out of sync especially when you upload videos on YouTube. Here you are required to set audio to 48000 Hz and 16 bits when working with video to get the issue fixed.

Synching audio in the premiere is a need for many. It provides you an opportunity to take advantage of technology and provides you the best output. But there are many instances of audio and video out of sync in premiere pro cc. To help you out on the same, trusted and tested techniques are presented.

Originally published at https://recoverit.wondershare.com.

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Eleanor Reed

I am specialized in picture, video, camera and SD card fixes. I ‘d love to translate complicated solutions into easy-to-understand ones.