How to make your voice sound Cinematic in Premiere Pro

These tips would be easy for beginners since you won’t need to set the frequencies manually.  

Native Premiere Pro tools

Here’s the way you can enhance your audio in Premiere Pro without using any plugins or beta version of Premiere.

To make your voice clear, warmer and more cinematic, you’ll need to tweak several effects. We use these effects in all of our videos and voice-overs to quickly achieve great results.

First, make sure all of your audio clips are placed on one audio track. Open the Audio Track Mixer tab - if you don’t have it on your workflow, you can always enable it from the Window.

Then click on the little arrow on the left to show effects and sends.

Here you’ll need to apply audio effects to the specific track - if all of your voiceovers are placed on the first track, apply effects to it.

This method is very convenient as we will apply the effects on the whole audio track, not just on separate clips.

Parametric Equalizer

The first effect you need to apply is a Parametric Equalizer.

With its help, we can cut all the unwanted frequencies and boost those parts we need to highlight.

Select Filter and EQ>Parametric Equalizer. In this case, the effect would be applied to the whole audio track, not just one audio clip.

Click on the Parametric Equalizer to open the effect settings. Here you’ll see a frequency spectrum window, which shows your voice frequencies from low to high.

You don’t necessarily have to cut the frequencies manually, just click on the Presets window and select Vocal Enhancer. Premiere Pro will automatically cut out the extra frequencies, making your voice sound clearer and deeper.

Amplify

The next effect we’ll use is Amplify. It allows you to adjust the audio levels of a clip in a more precise and controlled way than using the Volume Handle.

Drag and drop it from Effects or go to Audio Track Mixer and choose Amplitude and Compression>Amplify.

  Here we’ll use the +6dB Boost preset to make our voice stand out more.

Single-band Compressor

The third effect we’ll use is a Single-band Compressor. You can find it via Amplitude andCompression>Single-band Compressor.

It will reduce the dynamic range of a recording(the difference between the loudest and softest parts of an audio). This effect will be especially helpful if the loudness of your voice is changing during the audio.

Here you’ll need to pick one of the presets for the Voice - experiment and pick the one that gives the best result. The preset we mostly use in our edits is called Voice Over.

DeNoise/DeReverb/DeEsser

Finally, you may need to clean our audio from background noise. The most useful effects to fix this are DeNoise, DeReverb or DeEsser.

DeNoise effect would be needed if background noise is heard or you used a weak headset to record the voice.

DeReverb is better used if you’ve recorded the voice in a large room with a lot of echo.

Like in the first case, you can add them from Effects or from Audio Track Mixer via Noise Reduction/Restoration>DeNoise/DeReverb. 

  Both of these effects need to be set at 10% or less(we use 7%) - otherwise they will influence your audio quality.

DeEsser will remove the hissing sounds(s's and t’s) from your recording and will make it smoother.

Here you can set it to -40dB, but it’s always better to experiment with values to find the most suitable one for your voice.

Premiere Pro beta

And this tip would suit the users of Premiere Pro beta - it will be much faster, as Premiere Pro will enhance your sound automatically.

Go to Essential Sound and with your audio clip selected, click on the Auto Tag button(or select the Dialogue tag from the menu below).

Now, all you need to do is click on the Enhance button - Premiere Pro will analyze and improve your audio.

In the Enhance Speech menu, you’ll also be able to customize your sound manually, by dragging the Mix Amount slider. It will change the level of the enhancement applied to the original clip.

Additionally, you can enhance clarity, change loudness and apply equalizers and vocal enhancers how high and low tones.

To Sum Up

Here’s how to make your voice sound cinematic in Premiere Pro!

Experiment with settings to find the best presets for your voice, but be sure to use Parametric Equalizer, Amplify, Single-band Compressor, and DeNoise/DeReverb effects to achieve a cinematic sound.

And for users of the Premiere Pro beta - you can use the new Enhance feature to automatically enhance your audio. If you found this tutorial useful, be sure to check our guides for Premiere Pro - here you’ll find tips on how to speed up Premiere Pro, stabilize video, create various effects and much more!