7 Secrets for Premiere Pro CC 2019
Adobe Premiere Pro is a massive piece of software. Even the masters don’t know every keyboard shortcut and tweak-able option for speeding up your workflow and making editing easier.
Today we’ll be covering some of the best-kept secrets for Premiere Pro CC 2019, so you can save time and energy on your next edit! Gone are the days of extra clicks and wasted rendering time, check out these tips today.
1. Add Edit Shortcut
Even seasoned professionals still use the cut tool with their mouse to split a clip, but like most things in Premiere, there is a shortcut. This is Ctrl+K or Cmd+K, and can automatically create a cut on wherever the playhead is located. This ensures accuracy and speed, which isn’t always the case when using the mouse to select the playhead then cut the clip. Clicking on the razor tool then going back to click on your clip takes a lot of time by comparison!
WATCH: How to Create Custom Keyboard Shortcuts in Adobe Premiere Pro
2. View Your Video in Full Screen
As you may have noticed in Premiere Pro, there is no convenient button near the source monitor or program monitor that enables fullscreen viewing. Sometimes you want to be able to see your videos and effects at actual size, before rendering them out. You may also not want to mess with your workspace to make the viewer larger. There is a keyboard shortcut for this as well, which is Ctrl+~ or Cmd+~. Full screen view seems like such an easy feature to include a button for somewhere, but at least there is a way to get to it at all!
3. Set the Correct Renderer
These days, a good editing computer is pretty similar to a good gaming computer. A strong CPU, lots of RAM, and a beefy graphics card (GPU). Premiere Pro will render your project much better if you have a strong graphics card. On the other side of the coin, if you’re using a system that relies on integrated graphics from the processor, you’re going to have a fairly unpleasant time while editing.
Going to File -> Project Settings -> General will let you change your renderer.
Mercury Playback Engine Software Only is what you’ll be stuck with if you don’t have a good enough GPU. The clips in your timeline will show up with a red warning bar across the top. You will need to render your timeline manually to see smooth playback, which can take a lot of time.
Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration is what you’ll want to use if you have a graphics card. The exact version will depend on what brand of graphics card you have, but they will all function the same. GPU Acceleration will allow for smooth playback (the better the graphics card, that smoother it should be), and no extra render time to do so.
4. Use the Optimal Scratch Disks Location
Scratch Disks refers to the location on your computer where Adobe stores scratch files. Scratch files are things like captured media, audio, and preview files. The existence of these files means that editing times can be cut down! However, if you’re working on a giant project, these files can add up, so it’s important to be aware of where your scratch files are being saved.
By default, this location is wherever you have Adobe installed. And if you chose the default options when installing the Adobe suite, this is likely the same storage location that your computer’s operating system is installed. If you have a modern computer, you may have that stored on a solid state drive rather than a traditional mechanical hard drive. While the prices for SSDs are pretty cheap these days, many people have a pretty small one. It fills up fast, and you may not have a lot of room for things like scratch files.
To change this location, go to File -> General -> Scratch Disks, and create a custom location for all of the different types of scratch files. A new folder on a high-capacity hard drive with plenty of free space is a great choice!
5. Arrange Your Audio Perfectly
By default, you can make adjustments one frame at a time on video and audio tracks. But sometimes, an audio track doesn’t line up exactly perfectly with the corresponding video track. When you’re working in terms of frames, it can be frustrating when the waveforms don’t quite line up. If you right-click the top of your timeline and select Show Audio Time Units, you’ll then be able to adjust audio clips based on those time units, rather than video frames. This allows for much more precise editing, and alignment of tracks.
6. Sync Footage from Multiple Camera Angles
If you recorded an event or take with multiple angles, it can be difficult to sync everything perfectly. Adobe Premiere has a tool for this, however. Put all of the relevant clips into a project then right-click the folder and select Create Multi-Camera Source Sequence. You can sync by in/out point, timecode, or audio waveform.
Audio waveform may be the easiest way to do this, if the audio captured is similar in each camera. You’ll just need to select which audio track you want to use as the final output. When you go to edit the newly created sequence, you’ll be able to toggle multi-camera view. That will enable you to change which camera you’re viewing at any given time.
7. Open Timeline Clips in the Source Monitor
Sometimes it can be a pain to hunt down an original clip in your project panel. But if you know where the clip is in your timeline, it’s easy to find and edit in/out points. Just make sure your playhead is over the clip you want, and press the F key. If you’re in a massive project, this shortcut could be a big time saver.
Premiere Pro is a bottomless pit of shortcuts and hidden secrets, and it seems like even the best editors have plenty left to learn. Let us know if these secrets for Premiere Pro helped your editing workflow, and what your hot tips are!
