Adobe® Premiere Pro CS6

By Howard Berenbon

With this latest release, Adobe® Premiere Pro CS6 continues to offer enhanced video editing features for video professionals with more new features and improvements over the previous release, CS5.5.  They also offer programming in their Creative Cloud (Adobe® Premiere Pro CC).  Premiere Pro is faster than older versions because it takes advantage of 64-bit environment and their lightning fast, GPU-accelerated Mercury Playback Engine (of course your operating system must be 64-bit Windows or Mac).  If I had to pick just three features that makes this program outstanding this program they would be the 64-bit environment with the enhanced Mercury Playback Engine and their Speech Search which lets you search the spoken dialogue and jump to a frame that matches. 

Adobe® Premiere Pro lets you optimize your video footage, or clips, and record digital video directly to your hard drive from various sources. Clips are easily edited and manipulated using several trim tools, and special effects may be added, for high quality professional output, in various video and audio formats, and fast. Improvements include a faster Mercury Playback Engine, more efficient editing with a redesigned timeline, more precise editing tools, fast and reliable multi-screen encoding, variable playback resolutions, easier integration with Adobe Story and Adobe Audition, stabilizer effect to fix a bumpy camera, and much more.

Getting Started
After you run Premiere CS6, the main menu opens with the following command menus at the top:

File Edit Project Clip Sequence Marker Title Window Help

In the center of the screen, a window allows quick access for creating a New Project, opening a Recent Project or accessing the Help menu.  Help is important because it takes you to the Adobe Community Help screen for lots of clickable resources and a search box to type in your question.

To start a new project, click on the New Project folder and a dialogue box appears with your initial file settings including Action and Title Safe Areas, Video and Audio display formats and video capture mode (DV or HDV) and Video Rendering and Playback (default is Mercury Playback Engine).  If you’re new to Premiere Pro, just keep the default settings, however, you may need to change some settings later.  Enter the new project name at the bottom, and then click OK. A project is made up of your video clips and audio assets, including sequences.  A new screen opens entitled New Sequence with Sequence Presets, General (video and audio settings) and Tracks tabs with the Sequence name: Sequence 1 (a sequence is a video portion of your project). Now, you can pick your video preset, either standard or widescreen, and leave the rest of the settings at the default values.  When testing using my Kodak Zi8 video camera, I had to change the settings to a Sony XDCAM-EX to get the right size screen.  Next, enter a name for the sequence, or leave it as Sequence 1.  Click OK once again, and a few seconds later your work area will appear.

Version CS6 looks very much like CS5.5 with five panels in the work area. The Project Panel is at the top left and includes the Project tab (with project name) and all your project files (video, audio and graphics).  As you build your project, the names of your assets (video and audio, etc.) will appear in that panel.  Below that panel are four tabs: Project (name), Media Browser, Info, Effects and Mark. Assets are added by either dragging to the Projects Panel or by clicking on Import in the drop down File menu.  To the right of the Projects Panel is your Source Panel (a small video monitor) where you can edit your video and audio and drag to your Timeline, which appears below.  You’ll preview your project components in the Program Panel and do some editing.  Then you can drag each clip to the timeline to view, and that’s where you will do more extensive editing using the tools to the left of the timeline. When your project is complete, you click on Export from the drop down File menu to begin creating your video in one of several formats. To start the rendering process, click on Media, and you’re ready to save.  No need to change the settings (AVI is default), just click save and Premiere will start churning your video, and minutes later, or longer—depending on the file size--you’ll have your finalized video ready to view and use. For example, a 3.5 minute video can take about 10 minutes to render. Of course, this depends on the speed of your computer.  If you did not name the video sequence, it will be saved as “sequence1,” but it’s easily renamed.

What’s New and Improved in Adobe Premier Pro CS6

A more connected Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe® Premiere® Pro CC is part of Creative Cloud™. That means you have access to all the latest updates and future releases the moment they're available. You can use Sync Settings to keep your settings, workspaces, and keyboard shortcuts organized across multiple computers. Sharpen your skills and master new tools with a rich library of training videos. And with Behance® integration, you can share your projects and get immediate feedback from creatives around the world.

Editing finesse
Edit more efficiently with a redesigned Timeline, intuitive track targeting, and dozens of new shortcuts. See critical information such as duplicate frames and through edits. With Paste Attributes, you can copy and paste the specific effects you need from one clip to another.

Link & Locate
Modern productions are built on hundreds (if not thousands) of clips. It's easy to lose track of files and backups saved on multiple drives. Link & Locate helps you track down your clips quickly, making media management — and your productions — more efficient.

Lumetri Deep Color Engine
Quickly apply rich, beautiful, preset color grades in Adobe Premiere Pro thanks to the Lumetri™ Deep Color Engine. With the Looks Browser, preview and add looks from Adobe SpeedGrade™ as easily as adding a dissolve. Also import LUTs from other systems.

Precise audio control
Control sound with the Audio Clip Mixer, adjusting clips independently for a perfect mix. Get hands-on with an audio control surface for more precision. Fine-tune with the TC Electronic Radar Loudness meter, and access effects plug-ins like VST3 and Audio Units (Mac OS only).

Adobe Anywhere integration
Adobe Premiere Pro integrates with Adobe Anywhere* for video. Team members work with files on a shared server without downloading. Avoid versioning problems. Make and review edits from any location. Assemble the best team — with no geographic limits.

Mezzanine codecs, native formats
Industry-standard mezzanine codecs are built in. Edit cross-platform with Apple ProRes (encode on Mac OS 10.8 only). Get cross-platform support for MXF-wrapped Avid DNxHD files. Natively edit even more formats thanks to new support for Sony XAVC and Panasonic AVC-Intra 200.

Closed captioning
Brand-new capabilities for importing and manipulating closed captions have been designed with editors in mind. Intuitively import, view, edit, adjust positioning and layout, and export media with closed captions — either embedded or as separate files.

Mercury Playback Engine
Now, more editors get real-time performance when working on complex sequences, thanks to support for a wider range of GPUs. Get enhanced, cross-platform support for OpenCL and CUDA. Render less often, work faster with third-party effects, and face deadlines with more confidence.

High-fidelity interchange
Get greater accuracy and a smoother workflow when importing or exporting Avid or Final Cut Pro projects. AAF import is more accurate, with improved support for DNxHD media. And, you can choose just the sequences you want when exporting to XML or AAF.

Sync Settings
Now you can walk into any edit bay in the world, sync your settings with Creative Cloud, and all your customized settings — including workspaces and keyboard shortcuts — will be exactly where you want them.

Improved multicam editing
Working with multiple video angles just got easier. Set up multicam edits faster with a streamlined workflow. Sync single shots or entire bins of footage all at once using audio waveforms. You can even mix frame rates and codecs in the same sequence.

Adobe Story panel
Adobe Story Plus — included with Creative Cloud membership — is a robust scriptwriting tool. Import scripts and the associated metadata with the new Story panel in Adobe Premiere Pro. Quickly navigate to specific scenes, locations, dialogue, and characters as you edit.

Project browsing
Spend less time searching and more time editing. Find and ingest content faster with the improved Media Browser. Browse existing projects to find the specific sequences and media you need and import them into your current project.

Multiple GPU export support
Adobe Premiere Pro can now take full advantage of computers with multiple GPU cards for significantly accelerated export times. Rendering and compression just got a whole lot faster.

Adobe Exchange panel
Give your editing system a boost with the latest plug-ins and extensions. The Adobe Exchange panel is a convenient way to browse, install, and find support for free and paid add-ons.

Broad format support
Get true native support for a wide range of source formats with no need for transcoding or rewrapping. Import files fast and get immediate, render-free playback. For tape-based workflows, the new Edit-to-Tape panel allows for easier layback (third-party hardware required).

Enhanced monitoring
See the details you need right in the Source and Program Monitor panels. Switch between video and audio waveforms with one click. See improved title and action safe guides. Plus, the whole app is updated with HiDPI support for enhanced viewing on the newest monitors. (Mac OS only)

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 sells for $695.00 and is available for the IBM PC or compatible multi-media computer with an Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor or faster processor running Windows 7 /8/ Vista with 2 GB RAM, 10 GB of hard disk space for installation, 1,280 x 900 screen resolution and a DVD burner for video creation.  64-bit edition of Vista or Windows 7/8 required for Premiere Pro and After Effects. Also available for the Mac with a Multicore Intel processor, Mac OS X v10.6.8 or V10.7, 2 GB RAM, 26.3 GB of hard disk space for installation, 1,280 x 900 screen resolution and a DVD burner for video creation.   For more information, or to order, visit Amazon.com.

Software Companies Mentioned
Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Ave
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
URL: www.adobe.com
800-833-6687