(Slow Version) How to Create an Audio Spectrum in Adobe Premiere and After Effects

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A simpler, slower guide to How to Create an Audio Spectrum in Adobe Premiere and After Effects.

Original fast version here - How to Create an Audio Spectrum in Ad...


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In this video, we cover the following...

In this example we’ve got a piece to camera and the goal will be to add a simple audio spectrum onto top of our video clip of the person speaking.

In Premiere, select the audio that you wish to use for your spectrum and you then need to export it as a separate file. In the Menu go to File - Export - Media.
The export window will appear and in here you need to deselect the ‘Export Video’ tick box to tell Premiere to only export the audio.
You now need to choose your audio file format, MP3 is a commonly used audio format with good quality and low file sizes, however if you want higher audio quality you may want to choose WAV format.

Click the blue text next to ‘Output Name’ to choose the name and save location of your audio file and click export.

We’ll use this file shortly, but first back in Premiere we’re going to create an adjustment layer by going to File - New - Adjustment Layer. Double check the specs of your adjustment layer match your timeline and click ok.

Next drag and drop this adjustment onto your timeline and extend It to match the same duration as your audio.

Next right click on your adjustment layer and select ‘Replace with After Effects Composition’.


This will open After Effects and prompt you to create a new project. Choose a name and save location for your After Effects project and click ok.

Next you’ll need to import the audio file that we saved earlier. We’re going to drag and drop the audio file into After Effects to import it into our project and then add it to the timeline. You can also delete the adjustment layer at this point.

You can now start to create the audio spectrum.Create a new solid by going to the menu and selecting Layer - New - Solid, the colour of the solid doesn’t matter so choose any colour and click ok.

You now need to go to the effects and presets window and search for ‘Audio Spectrum’, drag and drop this effect onto your solid and this will now transform your solid into the Audio Spectrum. For ease you might want to rename the solid to ‘Audio Spectrum’ in the layer menu.

Firstly you need to tell the audio spectrum to be responsive to the audio in your footage. In the effect controls change the “audio layer” option to the chosen audio in your composition and now if you scrub quickly through your After Effects timeline you should see the effect start to work.

You may well want to adjust the overall look of the spectrum to get a more responsive waveform with a bigger display. The following settings are a good starting point when using vocals and you can then adjust them further using trial and error as you watch back your composition…

For vocals we keep the Start Frequency at 1000, then change the End Frequency to 8,500.

We change the frequency bands to 128, the Maximum Height to 10,000 and lastly the audio duration to 100 milliseconds.

Playback and preview your spectrum and you may want to adjust these settings further depending on the look you’re going for.

You also have the option to change the colour of the spectrum, you can adjust the inside and outside colour of the display individually if you would like two different colours but we’re going to change both inside and outside to the same colour here.

With your audio spectrum created you can go back into Premiere and here you may want to resize and re-position the spectrum on your footage, so open the effect controls for your audio spectrum layer and here you can adjust the size and position as required.

Lastly we often add the simple drop shadow effect just to help the audio spectrum stand out a little more. In the effects & presets window search for ‘Drop Shadow’, drag and drop this onto your clip and then adjust the look of the shadow as required.

What we’ve done here is a technqiue called dynamic linking, the After Effects composition will now have replaced your original adjustment layer within your premiere timeline. If you wish to go back and make changes to the After Effects composition, simply right click and choose ‘Edit Original’ and this will re-open your composition in After Effects where you can make more edits.

When happy with the look go back into Premiere and your audio spectrum is complete.