Loading

Ten Essential Moves for Podcasting in Adobe Premiere Rush By Justin Hodgson (with an assist from Todd Taylor)

Reasons to Make a Podcast

Podcasts are a widely popular medium for digital storytelling, sharing content, and distributing information. But what makes them valuable as a classroom engagement is they allow students to

  • create and share digital stories in an incredibly simple, yet widely accessible media form
  • share their voices and control narratives in increasingly relevant digital channels
  • avoid fussing with a visual/video track when its either too cumbersome or not the right fit for the project
  • focus on linguistic narrative, close listening, and sentence style/substance.

Additionally, podcasting is a great alternative to video-based, "academic" digital storytelling projects (i.e., talking-head expert videos). Podcasting presents another option to video that remains content-focused and yet may simply be a better fit for certain learning outcomes.

Reasons to Use Adobe Premiere Rush

There are many potential uses for working with Adobe Premiere Rush--from coursework activities to creating instructional media assets--but the step-by-step guide below is designed as an introductory experience: helping participants learn key terms, identify parts and functions, and gain familiarity with the interface and the process of making podcasts in Adobe Premiere Rush.

Why Adobe Premiere Rush?

  • Rush works on mobile, laptop, and desktop devices, is "platform agnostic” (Mac & PC), and instructors only need to teach / support one audio/video editing application
  • Rush is powerful yet simple, and it is easier to learn than Audition or Premiere Pro, both of which can be intimidating for novices
  • Key audio editing features, such as auto-ducking, are easy and automated to apply
  • File management, including import/export of files, is streamlined
  • Exporting finished projects to YouTube for streaming and closed captioning is seamless.

The Ten Essential Moves

  1. File Management
  2. Record & Transfer File(s)
  3. Create a New Project
  4. Two Ways to Trim a Clip
  5. Edit Primary Audio Clip
  6. Add/Edit Voice Over Track
  7. Add/Edit Music Track
  8. Apply Auto-Ducking to Music Track
  9. Add static, visual title card
  10. Saving & Sharing

Instructors and students are granted permission without specific, additional written consent to provide/share/distribute this document for use in accredited, non-commercial, educational settings. This material may not be reproduced, duplicated, or copied for commercial purposes.

1 | File Management

Many of the problems that novice podcasters encounter in projects can often be avoided by some basic care toward media asset management from the start project.

  • A media asset can be any object/file potentially included in a media project: e.g., an audio recording from a mobile device, a Zoom audio/video recording, an mp3 music soundtrack file, screen capture image, etc.

Media assets can come from a variety of sources and be scattered all over the place (from mobile devices to computer desktops to the cloud). So to help minimize frustrations down the road, there are really two basic approaches to file management:

  1. DESIGNATED FOLDER: put all of you media assets in a specific, named, designated folder (Green Arrow), and
  2. NAMING CONVENTIONS: name the media assets in ways that make them easy to be found and organized (Blue Arrow).
Create a Designated Folder & Add Media Assets

1.1 | Create a Folder and Add Media Assets

The first step is to create a designated folder for this activity and put media assets for this project into that folder. Workshop participants can use their own media assets or, to make it more convenient, can download the assets used in this tutorial guide.

Thanks to Adam Maksl for serving as my practice podcast guest.

2 | Record & Transfer file

Audio or audio/video recordings are needed to make a podcast. There are, of course, multiple ways to capture audio recordings, but perhaps the two easiest for faculty and students alike is through Zoom or using the audio record features on their smart phones.

For a fuller breakdown of the steps for recording in Zoom, including adjusting the audio recording settings, visit my Zoom-to-Rush guide.

2.1 | Record Audio/Video

To record in zoom, press the Record button (green arrow) and select "Record on this Computer" (Red arrow). This will save the file locally on your machine.

2.2 | Transfer Recording File(s)

Once you are done, stop recording in Zoom, and click End. This will trigger the file conversion. Once it is completed, the files will download to your computer. Locate these files and move them to your designated folder for this project.

3 | Creating a New Project

It’s important to define two key terms used in Premiere Rush: Project and Sequence.

  • A Project is an edited collection of media assets and sequences: a Project is like a collection of ingredients (e.g., eggs, flour, sugar) all gathered on the countertop ready for baking a cake.
  • A Sequence is a specific arrangement of media assets within a Project that will eventually be shared or exported as an individual file: a Sequence is like a mixing bowl where you add, modify, and mix ingredients to form your cake batter.

In Premiere Rush, when creating a new Project, one begins by selecting the desired media assets, which are automatically added to the timeline, creating an in-progress sequence.

3.1 | Creating a new Project

3.1.1 | Open Creative Cloud Application (Green Arrow), Select Video Category (Purple Arrow), and Click Open on Premiere Rush Application (Red Arrow)

Step 2.1 - Launching Adobe Rush

3.1.2 | Select "Create a New Project" (Green Arrow) and then find/select the project folder you created in Step 1 (Purple and Red Arrows).

2.2 Creating a New Project & Finding Assets

3.1.3 | Select your asset (Green Arrow). Name your Project (Purple Arrow). Click Create (Red Arrow). It will take Premiere Rush a few seconds to prepare the Project and create a new Sequence in that Project.

2.3 Selecting Assets, Naming Project, and Creating a Sequence

3.2 Navigating the Workspace

In Premiere Rush, you can hover the cursor/mouse over each icon (but do not click) to reveal the name and function of each button.

3.2.1 | Control Tracks & Expand Audio

  • If users are unable to see all the visual and audio tracks, toggle the Control Tracks icon (green arrow ). Users can also expand the audio of a selected track by toggling the Expand Audio icon (red arrow)

4 | Two Ways to Trim a Clip

Original/Raw audio and video clips are rarely trimmed or edited exactly the way we want them to sound and look in the finished product. There are two basic ways to trim them in Premiere Rush: Dragging the edges (i.e., click & drag method) and Splitting the clip (i.e., inserting a cut).

It’s important to know that when you trim/edit a clip in Premiere Rush you are doing so non-destructively, which means that you can always get back to the original clip. The changes you make are not permanent. So, you can click+hold+drag the beginning (front) and ending (back) edges back again to restore pieces that you trimmed off earlier.

4.1 | Dragging the Edges

Select the clip you want to trim (once selected it should be identified by the orange frame around the clip). To trim off the end of a clip: hover over the edge of the clip until the Red Bracket appears (Green Arrow) and then click and drag.

NOTE: As we are creating a podcast, you can turn off or hide the video playback on Visual Track 1 by clicking the eyeball icon (Purple Arrow).

4.2 | Splitting the Clip

Locate the playhead at the place where you want to split the clip (Green Arrow). Click the Scissors icon (Red Arrow). This will split the clip at the playhead line, creating two small clips. Users can further edit/trim these smaller clips, rearrange them, or even delete them. (To delete, be sure to first select the clip to be deleted, making sure it is bounded by the orange frame, then click the "trashcan icon" or press the "delete" key on your keyboard.)

Step 5 Trimming/Splitting Clips

5 | Edit Primary Audio Track

For this step we want to edit the primary audio to its core form. This includes cutting off front material/filler, editing for content and quality (e.g., moving elements, cutting segments, removing any unwanted stumbles, etc.). As the sample podcast series I'm creating is called "Rush | A 4-min Podcast" and the original file is nearly 5 min long, I want to remove a minute or so of the content. So, if using the provided files, users should complete the following steps in order:

5.1 | Trim the Beginning

  • Edit clip beginning so the primary audio begins at the 00:20:14 mark. Users can either use the Dragging the Edges approach (click and drag the beginning of the audio clip [Red Arrow/Red Bracket] to 00:20:14) or users can Split the Clip (move the playhead to 00:20:14 [Green Arrow] and insert a cut using the scissors icon [Purple Arrow], which creates two pieces; click and delete the first segment).

5.2 | Remove a Snippet

Once 5.1 is complete, users can then use the Split the Clip technique twice (the first at the 00:51:11 mark [Green Arrow]; the second is at the 02:16:03 mark [Red Arrow]) creating 3 segments. Select the middle segment (clip between Green and Red Arrows) and press delete.

This should create a final primary audio featuring 2 segments that run 03:10:11 (give or take a frame or two).

6 | Add/Edit Voice Over Track

To add a voice over track, go to Audio Track 2 and click the Microphone icon (green arrow). This will set the track for recording (replacing the microphone with the red record button). When you are ready to record, click the red button. After the count-down, record the voice over and then click the record button again.

  • Helpful tip: it can be helpful to mute the audio on Audio Track 1 (Purple Arrow) while recording.

Once done recording, be sure to edit the Voiceover (i.e., trim the beginning / ending as needed).

VOICE OVER SCRIPT

"Hello, and welcome back to Rush, a 4 min podcast. I'm your host Justin Hodgson and today my guest is Adam Maksl, Associate Professor of Journalism and Media at IU Southeast and co-lead for the Indiana University Digital Gardener Initiative. Our conversation features insights on the initiative and the faculty fellows program at IU, and the impact they're trying to have on digital literacy across the IU campuses."

6.1 | Add Title Card Spacer

As we selected to work with a video to create this podcast, at this juncture we need to add an image or title (e.g., a graphic) on which to attach the introductory voice over. This can be avoided if choosing the .m4a file in Step 3.1.3, as the entire audio editing will occur on Audio Track 2. But for the purposes of this tutorial, we are going to add a title card to our timeline to create space.

6.1.1 | Add Title Graphic to Timeline

  • Select the + button (Green Arrow), select Graphics (Blue arrow) and then under Titles select the first title option (Purple Arrow). Once a title is selected, click the Add button (Red Arrow)

6.1.2 | Extend Title Time

  • Using the Dragging the Edge method (green arrow), extend the length of the Title graphic so it is longer than the voiceover.

6.1.3 | Move Title onto Visual Track 1

  • Select the Title graphic (Green Arrow) and drag it onto Visual Track 1 at the very beginning (inserting it before the primary audio/video clip).
  • Then click and drag the Voiceover (Purple Arrow) so it is aligned under the Title graphic.

7 | Add/Edit Music Track

Podcasts typically include some kind of audio background or music track as part of their opening. So, we want to add music to our introduction to help frame the podcast.

7.1 | Add Music Track

To add music, click the blue + button (Green Arrow), then select Audio (Blue Arrow). In the submenu, choose the first available soundtrack (or you can filter by soundtracks, sound effects, and loops). Below, I've chosen to filter by Soundtrack and selected "Can't Stop Me Now" by Triple Scoop Music (Purple Arrow). Once your music choice is selected, click the Add button (Red Arrow). The music file should be added on Audio Track 3.

7.2 | Edit/Trim Music

We don't need the music running throughout the podcast. Rather, this is a framing element, a bit of atmosphere at the beginning, so we want to trim it so it ends a second (or so) after our primary audio (from Step 5) begins.

Using the Split Clip technique, position the playhead where you want to split the clip (Green Arrow), select the music track (on Audio Track 3 - if selected, it should have an orange bounding box around it). Click the Scissor Icon (Blue Arrow) to split the clip, then select the 2nd segment (Red Arrow) and press the delete key or click the Trash Can icon (Purple Arrow).

7.3 | Add Fade In/Out to Music

To ensure our music fades in and then out (so as to avoid hard breaks in the audio), we will add a Dissolve Transition.

  • Select the music segment on Audio Track 3 (Green Arrow). Click the Effects Menu (Blue Arrow) and select Dissolve (Red Arrow).

8 | Apply Auto Ducking to Music Track

Anytime we add music to a podcast, we want to make sure the music doesn't "step on" the voices (voiceover clips or talking head interviews). To ensure this doesn't happen, we want the music volume to drop noticeably below that of any speaking voices. This practice is called Ducking (e.g., the music track ducks under the voices). Adobe Premiere Rush can do this automatically with a few key clicks.

Select the Music clip on Audio Track 3 (Green Arrow). Select the Audio Edit Menu (Blue Arrow). Turn on Auto Duck (Red Arrow).

9 | Add static, visual title card

One way to think about podcast creations is to give some attention to the visual branding of the show: i.e., the visuals that convey online or in the Application in which the podcast plays. To this end, users can place a key visual on Visual Track 2 and extend it for the length of the production (i.e., basically replacing any visual on Visual Track 1 with a single static image).

  • Users might create the podcast visual using Adobe CC Express Image.
  • As Adobe Premiere Rush only currently exports to video formats, a single static image for the visual will drastically reduce the overall file size.

9.1 | Add Graphic Visual/Title Card to Project

9.1.1 | Download your Express Image creation (as .png or .jpg) and save it in your designated folder for this project.

9.1.2 | Add to Project

  • Click Blue + Button (Green Arrow), select Your Media (Red Arrow), and then select the Express Image (e.g., "RushPodcast_Image"; Blue Arrow) that we just added to the designated folder for this project (e.g., Rush_Podcast folder). Once selected, click the Add Button (Purple Arrow) to insert the image into the Timeline.

When the image is added to the timeline, it will likely be on Visual Track 1, and likely be inserted it into the production between the two segments on Visual Track 1.

9.1.3 | Move and Extend (in full) Image

Move the added image (Green Arrow) to Visual Track 2 (Purple Arrow). Then, using the Dragging the Edges technique (Red Bracket), click and drag the edge of the Image so that if runs as long as the entire podcast production (Red Arrow).

10 | Saving & Sharing

To return to the Step 2 analogy, what we have at this point is nothing more than cake batter. We still need to bake this cake. Meaning, we need to “Share” or Export the project so that others cam hear/see/playback the work. Novices often don’t understand that the Sequence on the workspace timeline is not the same thing as an exported file that might be viewed on YouTube or listened to on a Spotify. Thus, they frequently try to send their friends cake batter rather than a baked cake. We, however, are going to make sure we complete the steps and export the cake: i.e., create a file we can upload and/or share with others

10.1 | Saving in Premiere Rush

Projects and sequences regularly auto-save in Premiere Rush; so you never have to worry about preserving the latest changes you made.

10.2 | Exporting a Sequence

Click the "Share" menu option (Green Arrow) to open the Share Settings interface. Select "Local" (Purple Arrow) to save it on your machine. Give it a unique project name and tell it specifically where to store the exported file (Red Arrow). Once these are set, click Export (Blue Arrow), and Premiere Rush will prepare and render the new clip for sharing and exporting.

Created By
Justin Hodgson
Appreciate

Credits:

Created with an image by Alex from the Rock - "Home minimal studio auido broadcast interior. Microphone, laptop and on air lamp on the table"