Create a unique music loop and mix it with a voiceover track

In Adobe Premiere, select the Audio Workspace preset, or choose Workspace > Essential Sound to reveal the all new Essential Sound panel with Adobe Stock audio built right in. Click Browse at the top of the panel so you can explore the extensive library.

Use the search bar to search for keywords, or simply just start limiting your results by Mood, Genre, Tempo, Vocals, etc. 

In our example, we’re editing a short profile video of an AI company working on a self-driving car. We’d like to find an Adobe Stock audio cue with a great beat, but something that mellows after a strong intro so we have some breathing space for the VO.

We’ll search for that by simply selecting the Hip-Hop genre and auditioning our results.

Adobe Premiere Pro’s powerful Timeline Sync lets you preview any Adobe Stock audio cue, in perfect time with your video - even before you import the asset to your project!

Note that there’s a checked box at the bottom of the Essential Sound Panel next to Timeline Sync. 

With that enabled, park your timeline’s playhead anywhere in your timeline where you anticipate starting the music cue. In our case, we’ll be playing from the first frame so we’ll start there. 

Identify a music cue in your search results you’d like to preview and click the play button next to the cue name.

When you decide to preview a different track, just click the play button in the new track, and the playhead in your timeline will jump back to your initial starting point for a fresh preview. You can also use the up and down arrow keys and space bar for a faster keyboard-driven approach.

If you find a track you like, but isn’t the perfect one, you can instantly listen to other tracks by the same artist to see if there’s a better fit.  

Click the three-dot icon on the right side of the cue and select “More from this artist.”

Once you find a track that you want to cut into your timeline, you can add it to your project by right clicking on it and selecting “Add to project.” 

Note that you also have the option to save the track to a local folder on your hard drive or add it to an Adobe Creative Cloud library. 

This sample version of the Adobe Stock audio track is a compressed m4a. However, it has no audio watermarks to interrupt the experience of your edit. You can export these versions as part of your project, completely watermark free, to share privately with clients and collaborators. 

When you license a track for inclusion in your final edit, Adobe Premiere Pro will seamlessly replace the m4a version with a high quality wav file.

Mute the VO track by clicking the Mute icon on the left side of the audio track. Then select the music cue in the timeline and play it.

To mark the beat, use a four-count and tap the M key on your keyboard every time you return to the 1. I like to count it out like: “M, 2, 3, 4, M, 2, 3, 4”

If you mark the entire track, you’ll notice that the markers appear on all the downbeats. Each marker is a potential edit point for this cue.

In our example, we want to start the music as the cue starts, but for the main body of the video, just use the beat that begins around the 52 second mark because it feels a bit more spacious than the rest of the cue.

Use the blade tool (keyboard shortcut C) to cut the Adobe Stock audio cue near the marker you put around the 17 second point, right before the main beat kicks in. 

Blade the cue again around the 52 second mark right as the stripped down beat starts, and again around the 58 second mark, right before the stinger ends the cue.

Next, slide your selected beat into place right at the cut where the intro ends, replacing the heavier beat. Play through the edit to make sure it’s precise. 

Duplicate the four-count loop as many times as you need, without making it too repetitive. For our edit, we’re using it three times, but on the third time we let it play through the final stinger.

Now we’ll highlight the voiceover recording by using the Essential Sound panel to automatically duck the music under the VO clips.

Select all of the VO clips on the timeline (in our example, they’re all on Audio track 2). In Essential Sound, click the Edit tab, and then click the Dialogue button.

Next, select all of your stock audio clips in the timeline (in our example, it’s everything on Audio track 1) and click the Music button.

With the stock audio clips still selected, click the check box next to Ducking in Essential Sound and then click the button that says Generate Keyframes. If the music level is reduced too much, try reducing the “duck amount” by sliding it to the left. Then hit “generate keyframes” again.

Adobe Premiere Pro will place keyframes and dip the volume of the music at every instance where you have a VO clip in the timeline. Adjust the parameters in the Ducking controls to find a balance you like.

Now select all of the voiceover clips on Audio track 2 and look at the Essential Sound panel’s edit tab. 

Our example sounds pretty great with the adjustments that Adobe Premiere Pro automatically applied when we labeled these clips as dialogue, but note that this is the place you can go through and make adjustments as needed.

Now that you’re sure that you like the track you’ve edited into place, you can license the track right from your timeline.

Simply right click on the Adobe Stock audio clip you’d like to license, and click License… in the pop-up menu. You’ll need to have credits in your account, which you can pre-purchase at www.stock.adobe.com.

Export your video with an Adobe Premiere Pro preset for social media or desktop presentations.

We’re using a 1080p HD Vimeo preset that outputs a video we can use on any social media platform.

You’ve cut the ideal custom beat for your video, and mixed it perfectly with your voiceover track!