merging clips in premiere? at DVinfo.net

Dom Stevenson · July 29th, 2008, 05:01 AM

I'm a final cut user but have to do a job using Premiere. I'll need to know how to use what in FCP is known as "merge clips", whereby a separately recorded audio file is merged into one single file with the clip from the camera.

Is there a similar feature in Premiere and is it available on the Elements version of the software?

Ervin Farkas · July 29th, 2008, 07:36 AM

In PremPro hold down the control key and click on the video file, then on the audio file; right click on either one of them and select "link".

Not sure if the feature is available in Elements.

Will Mahoney · July 29th, 2008, 10:17 AM

If the audio and video were originally from the same source than I think you can "link" them. Otherwise Elements gives you the option of "Group" where you just group the clips together - you click one and they are all selected, you move one and they all move, etc.

Jiri Fiala · July 29th, 2008, 11:02 AM

Dom, sorry, nope. Premiere cannot do that. I guess that is one of reasons why there aren`t any feature films cut on Premiere.

But there is a workaround.

Create new sequence and sync your audio and video clips there. You can then use this sequence as any other media, i.e. set in/out points, create subclips and stuff.

It hurts, but can be done. Post feature request on Adobe website.

Dom Stevenson · July 29th, 2008, 11:54 AM

Cheers for the comments. I moved to FCP from Premiere several years ago and have not looked back.

There is an easy workaround i know, but i thought that Prem Pro would have had something similar to "merge clips" by now.

Thanks anyway.

D

Alan Craven · July 29th, 2008, 11:56 PM

"Link", which was mentioned above is the way to do this in Premiere Pro. Drag a marquee over the video and audio clip that you want to link/merge , then select link from the context menu which appears.

I think that if you Right click on the video and audio clips you want to link/merge whilst holding down the shift key, you get the same menu.

Jiri Fiala · July 30th, 2008, 01:47 AM

Alan, this is NOT the same as merging. Merge is used in film workflows, or any other workflows where audio is recorded separately from video. Editor can then simply sync A/V files and merge it into a single clip in FCP or Avid, which is impossible in Premiere.

Linking is merely a means of moving clips in sync in timeline.

Paul R Johnson · July 30th, 2008, 02:06 AM

Linking within a project work fine, can't see what the issue is - a true merged file for use outside of premiere is simple - just export it? The internal difference between a linked and merged file is surely unimportant - just not something Premiere users need to do. I can appeciate that if you wish to have a video file with embedded audio available for some other purpose it is handy, but as this isn't required by the editor, it doesn't matter. Most of my work involves syncing and replacing audio to video - Premiere does the job fine. Isn't this just a case of expecting a feature because other software has it, rather than considering if the feature is actually needed? There are lots of things I do on Premiere that require export to Sony Sound Forge, for editing then need putting back. Premiere can do these things, but not the way I wish to do them. I can't blame Premiere for this - I'm just used to a way of workng that is different?

Jiri Fiala · July 30th, 2008, 02:14 AM

Paul, how do you, then, *merge* audio and video clips of say, a short feature film, so they appear and behave like a single AV clip? You import them into Premiere, sync them on timeline and then export this timeline? That`s too much unnecessary work.

The difference is a huge one - you cannot bring unmerged clips into Source monitor, unless you manually make a sequence of these files.

It`s certainly possible to add all footage to timeline, sync and cut it there, but it`s cumbersome, slow and downright amateurish way to edit.

Paul R Johnson · July 30th, 2008, 05:30 AM

Jiri - I'm still unclear what it is you are talking about - I've got a digisuite system on another machine that I use for old Beta SP media - this produces and audio and a video file, as with what I think you are talking about. If I slap these into Premiere, and export them as an .avi they are merged? The time taken is real time or much less - What you are saying is that there is no direct convert two to one file feature that isn't accessed via the timeline. I guess it would be nice to have a conversion built in, but I have never needed one? Bringing in clips with embedded or discreet audio isn't a problem and has never made an impact on my workflow. In most cases when importing split files, the have the same titles, with only the filetype extension different, so they can be imported together.

I suspect I'm missing something that you do, that I don't. I'm trying to think of a scenario that would fit me, that would make this important - but failing. I'm sure to others, this lack of a one-click merge is critical but I've loads of old library material and Digisuite's separate file system doesn't cause any bother - I go to a removable caddy type drive, pull it out and insert into the other machine - seems fine to me?

Jiri Fiala · July 30th, 2008, 06:01 AM

Paul, imagine cutting a feature movie with a dialogue of two or more persons. All these takes are recorded on film (hence no sound) and sound is on, say, HDD recorders.

Now, I want to edit these simultaneously. I want audio and video to be in one, single media clip. In FCP or Avid, you can simply sync your audio and video files using slate points or TC, merge them (that is one click) and work with them as they were single media clip.

In Premiere, you cannot do that without one intermediate step, which would be getting those two separate clips (for A and for V) to a sequence and exporting this sequence to make a new clip with both A and V tracks. This extra step means extra work and (that is VERY important) doubling storage space needed to create these files. There will be also problems with timecode, as these new files won`t retain the original source TC (AFAIK).

Graham Hickling · July 30th, 2008, 03:27 PM

>>merge them (that is one click) and work with them as they were single media clip.

Doesn't using your first sequence within a second sequence (i.e. "nested" sequences) achieve exactly that in Premiere? I feel I'm missing something too...

Jiri Fiala · July 30th, 2008, 03:36 PM

Nesting isn`t as user friendly as merging. You need to create endless sequences and you cannot simply doubleclick them in bin to open in Source. And, there is still the persisting problem with TC - your new nested sequence won`t inherit TC from your original file.

These little nuisances add up to amounts of extra work in a long run. It may not occur to anyone who makes a living cutting weddings, but if Premiere wants to be called "Pro", it needs to have these features.

Ervin Farkas · July 31st, 2008, 05:20 AM

Jiri, I see you often times airing your frustration with Premiere... it doesn't do this like FCP, it doesn't have that like Avid...

Why then, are you wasting your time with Premiere? Why not simply go and edit on those "better" apps? [And by the way, there is nothing wrong with editing weddings, there are thousands making a living in this field of work - it's not a "lower" work, it's just different].

Just wondering...

Jiri Fiala · July 31st, 2008, 06:13 AM

Because it's a shame. Premiere offers some REALLY powerful capabilities like ripple editing with CTRL, nice audio support, media encoder and integration with After Effects (which is lacking and buggy, though), and I have PC based studio with Adobe CS3.

I LOVE editing with Premiere, but it's lacking in so many areas. No HDV scene detect and preview while capturing in 2008? No intermediate codec, non-existent support of sound postproduction. BAD memory management (constant refreshing of thumbnails in Bins!!), slowdowns on larger projects...

FCP has many quirks too. I think it's a shame Adobe cannot fix those little issues, because they have strong UI and editing capabilities.

Premiere is WAY too slow and power hungry, and is too expensive. The whole FCS 2 costs only 500 bucks more than Premiere itself.

July 29th, 2008, 05:01 AM	#1
Dom Stevenson Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: London UK Posts: 430	merging clips in premiere? I'm a final cut user but have to do a job using Premiere. I'll need to know how to use what in FCP is known as "merge clips", whereby a separately recorded audio file is merged into one single file with the clip from the camera. Is there a similar feature in Premiere and is it available on the Elements version of the software?

July 29th, 2008, 07:36 AM	#2
Ervin Farkas Inner Circle Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Atlanta/USA Posts: 2,515	In PremPro hold down the control key and click on the video file, then on the audio file; right click on either one of them and select "link". Not sure if the feature is available in Elements. __________________ Ervin Farkas www.AtlantaLegalVideo.com

July 29th, 2008, 10:17 AM	#3
Will Mahoney Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 259	If the audio and video were originally from the same source than I think you can "link" them. Otherwise Elements gives you the option of "Group" where you just group the clips together - you click one and they are all selected, you move one and they all move, etc. __________________ http://exposureroom.com/members/WillMahoney.aspx/ www.youtube.com/truckaccessories

July 31st, 2008, 05:20 AM	#14
Ervin Farkas Inner Circle Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Atlanta/USA Posts: 2,515	Jiri, I see you often times airing your frustration with Premiere... it doesn't do this like FCP, it doesn't have that like Avid... Why then, are you wasting your time with Premiere? Why not simply go and edit on those "better" apps? [And by the way, there is nothing wrong with editing weddings, there are thousands making a living in this field of work - it's not a "lower" work, it's just different]. Just wondering... __________________ Ervin Farkas www.AtlantaLegalVideo.com

July 29th, 2008, 11:02 AM	#4
Jiri Fiala Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Brno Czech Republic Posts: 453	Dom, sorry, nope. Premiere cannot do that. I guess that is one of reasons why there aren`t any feature films cut on Premiere. But there is a workaround. Create new sequence and sync your audio and video clips there. You can then use this sequence as any other media, i.e. set in/out points, create subclips and stuff. It hurts, but can be done. Post feature request on Adobe website.

July 29th, 2008, 11:54 AM	#5
Dom Stevenson Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: London UK Posts: 430	Cheers for the comments. I moved to FCP from Premiere several years ago and have not looked back. There is an easy workaround i know, but i thought that Prem Pro would have had something similar to "merge clips" by now. Thanks anyway. D

July 29th, 2008, 11:56 PM	#6
Alan Craven Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: York, England Posts: 518	"Link", which was mentioned above is the way to do this in Premiere Pro. Drag a marquee over the video and audio clip that you want to link/merge , then select link from the context menu which appears. I think that if you Right click on the video and audio clips you want to link/merge whilst holding down the shift key, you get the same menu.

July 30th, 2008, 01:47 AM	#7
Jiri Fiala Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Brno Czech Republic Posts: 453	Alan, this is NOT the same as merging. Merge is used in film workflows, or any other workflows where audio is recorded separately from video. Editor can then simply sync A/V files and merge it into a single clip in FCP or Avid, which is impossible in Premiere. Linking is merely a means of moving clips in sync in timeline.

July 30th, 2008, 02:06 AM	#8
Paul R Johnson Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Lowestoft - UK Posts: 4,045	Linking within a project work fine, can't see what the issue is - a true merged file for use outside of premiere is simple - just export it? The internal difference between a linked and merged file is surely unimportant - just not something Premiere users need to do. I can appeciate that if you wish to have a video file with embedded audio available for some other purpose it is handy, but as this isn't required by the editor, it doesn't matter. Most of my work involves syncing and replacing audio to video - Premiere does the job fine. Isn't this just a case of expecting a feature because other software has it, rather than considering if the feature is actually needed? There are lots of things I do on Premiere that require export to Sony Sound Forge, for editing then need putting back. Premiere can do these things, but not the way I wish to do them. I can't blame Premiere for this - I'm just used to a way of workng that is different?

July 30th, 2008, 02:14 AM	#9
Jiri Fiala Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Brno Czech Republic Posts: 453	Paul, how do you, then, merge audio and video clips of say, a short feature film, so they appear and behave like a single AV clip? You import them into Premiere, sync them on timeline and then export this timeline? That`s too much unnecessary work. The difference is a huge one - you cannot bring unmerged clips into Source monitor, unless you manually make a sequence of these files. It`s certainly possible to add all footage to timeline, sync and cut it there, but it`s cumbersome, slow and downright amateurish way to edit.

July 30th, 2008, 05:30 AM	#10
Paul R Johnson Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Lowestoft - UK Posts: 4,045	Jiri - I'm still unclear what it is you are talking about - I've got a digisuite system on another machine that I use for old Beta SP media - this produces and audio and a video file, as with what I think you are talking about. If I slap these into Premiere, and export them as an .avi they are merged? The time taken is real time or much less - What you are saying is that there is no direct convert two to one file feature that isn't accessed via the timeline. I guess it would be nice to have a conversion built in, but I have never needed one? Bringing in clips with embedded or discreet audio isn't a problem and has never made an impact on my workflow. In most cases when importing split files, the have the same titles, with only the filetype extension different, so they can be imported together. I suspect I'm missing something that you do, that I don't. I'm trying to think of a scenario that would fit me, that would make this important - but failing. I'm sure to others, this lack of a one-click merge is critical but I've loads of old library material and Digisuite's separate file system doesn't cause any bother - I go to a removable caddy type drive, pull it out and insert into the other machine - seems fine to me?

July 30th, 2008, 06:01 AM	#11
Jiri Fiala Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Brno Czech Republic Posts: 453	Paul, imagine cutting a feature movie with a dialogue of two or more persons. All these takes are recorded on film (hence no sound) and sound is on, say, HDD recorders. Now, I want to edit these simultaneously. I want audio and video to be in one, single media clip. In FCP or Avid, you can simply sync your audio and video files using slate points or TC, merge them (that is one click) and work with them as they were single media clip. In Premiere, you cannot do that without one intermediate step, which would be getting those two separate clips (for A and for V) to a sequence and exporting this sequence to make a new clip with both A and V tracks. This extra step means extra work and (that is VERY important) doubling storage space needed to create these files. There will be also problems with timecode, as these new files won`t retain the original source TC (AFAIK).

July 30th, 2008, 03:27 PM	#12
Graham Hickling Trustee Join Date: May 2004 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 1,669	>>merge them (that is one click) and work with them as they were single media clip. Doesn't using your first sequence within a second sequence (i.e. "nested" sequences) achieve exactly that in Premiere? I feel I'm missing something too...

July 30th, 2008, 03:36 PM	#13
Jiri Fiala Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Brno Czech Republic Posts: 453	Nesting isn`t as user friendly as merging. You need to create endless sequences and you cannot simply doubleclick them in bin to open in Source. And, there is still the persisting problem with TC - your new nested sequence won`t inherit TC from your original file. These little nuisances add up to amounts of extra work in a long run. It may not occur to anyone who makes a living cutting weddings, but if Premiere wants to be called "Pro", it needs to have these features.

July 31st, 2008, 06:13 AM	#15
Jiri Fiala Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Brno Czech Republic Posts: 453	Because it's a shame. Premiere offers some REALLY powerful capabilities like ripple editing with CTRL, nice audio support, media encoder and integration with After Effects (which is lacking and buggy, though), and I have PC based studio with Adobe CS3. I LOVE editing with Premiere, but it's lacking in so many areas. No HDV scene detect and preview while capturing in 2008? No intermediate codec, non-existent support of sound postproduction. BAD memory management (constant refreshing of thumbnails in Bins!!), slowdowns on larger projects... FCP has many quirks too. I think it's a shame Adobe cannot fix those little issues, because they have strong UI and editing capabilities. Premiere is WAY too slow and power hungry, and is too expensive. The whole FCS 2 costs only 500 bucks more than Premiere itself.