Why You Should Keep Your Audio Clips Organized while Editing

Sound really can make or break your films. You can have awesome footage that can be completely ruined with bad sound. But on the flipside, okay footage can be made good with great sound. Tom Antos knows this to be true and believes that the best way to make sure your films have great sound is to stay organized.

https://youtu.be/yqhzC4PXiKM

In Antos’ own experiences, he has found that even if you have very beautiful visuals, if you have sound that isn’t very good, the entire quality of the project takes a huge dip. But Antos believes that obtaining good sound isn’t something that’s impossible to do. “I think these days with the kind of tools that we have in technology, I think we can all do it. It’s just a matter of knowing how to go about things,” with organization being key step.

Antos shows us how organizes his sound on his timeline in Premiere Pro. He says that you should first be organizing your soundtrack or your different sounds on two different tracks so that you know what tracks contain what.

He starts with the dialog and then next begins to add in the small sounds that help tell the story, like the sound of footsteps or sounds in the distance that catches the attention of your characters.

But in the particular clip that he is using, he finds that having just sound effects isn’t enough. He feels needs more to make the scene, so he goes on to add music. Music is obviously one of the most powerful tools you can use in your project, since it really sets the emotion and tone of the scene. The music that Antos adds to his scene makes it feel much more full and interesting. But when he adds the music, he makes sure he keeps it organized on his timeline.

He also say that keeping organized will help you edit your sound if you decided to do the sound mixing yourself. “Having your audio just separated or your different audio groups into different tracks … it makes it so much easier because now you can very quickly go in [and edit].”

And he says organization not only helps you, it also helps anyone else that you might and your project over to.

In summary, keeping organized just makes everyone’s workflow much smoother and allows you to focus your attention on what really matters, and that’s making your sounds the best that they can be. You shouldn’t have to be bogged down by bad organizational habits.

Sean Berry
Sean Berry
Sean Berry is Videomaker's Managing Editor.

Related Content