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Normalizing audio in Premiere Pro means bringing a clip to a consistent, standard loudness so your voice-over does not sound too quiet or jump around next to your music. The fastest way is the Loudness section of the Essential Sound panel, and it takes just a few clicks.
Watch the tutorial
Step 1: Select your audio clip and open Essential Sound
Click the audio clip on your timeline that you want to normalize, such as a voice-over. Then open the Essential Sound panel with Window > Essential Sound. Make sure the Edit tab is active. With a clip selected, the panel asks you to tag it before you can use any of its tools.
Step 2: Tag the clip as Dialogue
Under You can also assign one of the following audio types to each clip yourself, click Dialogue. This tells Premiere Pro that the clip is speech, which unlocks the matching controls. If your clip is background music or a sound effect, pick Music or SFX instead. You can also click Auto Tag and let Premiere Pro guess.
Once tagged, the panel shows sections for Enhance Speech, Loudness, Repair, Clarity and Creative, plus Clip Volume and Mute at the bottom.
Step 3: Click Auto-Match in the Loudness section
Expand Loudness by clicking the small arrow next to it, then click Auto-Match. Premiere Pro analyzes the clip and adjusts it to a standard average loudness for dialogue. Before you click, the panel reads Not Matched together with the analyzed loudness. Afterwards it confirms the clip was Auto-Matched to target loudness of -23,00 LUFS.
That is the whole normalization. If you want to undo it, press Reset next to the button.
Step 4: Check the result
Play the clip and watch the audio meter on the right of the timeline. A normalized voice-over now sits at a steady level. The timeline clip also shows the dialogue tag icon next to the fx badge, which means the Essential Sound effects are applied to it.
Tips
- Normalize each type of audio separately. Tag voice-overs as Dialogue and music as Music, then match each, so the speech stays clearly on top.
- Use Clip Volume for fine tuning. After Auto-Match, nudge the Clip Volume slider if you want the voice a little louder or softer.
- Export with clean audio settings. Our guide to the best export settings covers the audio format and bitrate.
FAQ
How do I normalize audio in Premiere Pro?
Select the clip, open Window > Essential Sound, tag it as Dialogue, expand Loudness and click Auto-Match.
What loudness does Auto-Match use?
In the video, the Dialogue type was matched to a target loudness of -23 LUFS.
Does normalizing remove background noise?
No. Normalizing only evens out loudness. Use the Repair section of the Essential Sound panel for noise and reverb.
Annoying mic pops in your voice-over? Fix them with our Remove Microphone Pop tool.
