Adjust Audio Levels With Ease

NOTE:  This shortcut has been updated.

When you are working on a piece that is already laid out in the timeline, there are a couple of very powerful tools to help you get the audio levels where they need to be. The one will will discuss today is CTRL + and - and CTRL [ and ]. If you have a clip selected on the timeline, you can hit CTRL - OR + to raise or lower the level by 1 decibel:

This offers you much more control over the alternative of grabbing the levels overlay line and dragging it up or down (this tip notwithstanding). This method’s chief benefit is that it can be applied to a group of selected clips at one time. This is useful for selecting one particular camera’s shots (where the audio levels are consistent) or for quickly adjusting a music bed. To make rough adjustments even more quickly, you can use CTRL [ or ]

which moves them up or down by 3 decibels. This is the shortcut I usually use to set “ballpark” levels for a rough cut and I later use CTRL - or + for fine tuning. To truly perfect your mix however, I highly recommend the versatile Audio Mixer tool (OPT 6) which gives you the ability to meter and adjust all aspects of your mix simultaneously and includes a master fader to adjust overall levels (which you cannot do from the timeline).

There is a related set of commands that can make equally quick adjustments to the pan for clips on the timeline, and it’s covered here.