Quick And Easy Audio Futz Filter in Adobe Premiere — Matt Lyon: Film & Television Editor

Perfect for telephones, televisions, old speakers, store intercoms and other sources of distorted audio. No plugins or external programs required!

Feel free to share and adapt this tutorial. Please credit and link to this article if you do.

The emphasis in this tutorial is “quick and easy.” The goal is to create a workable sound treatment using only built-in tools included with Adobe Premiere. While the results may not be worthy of Skywalker Sound, they should be good enough for rough stereo mixes, and in some cases, maybe even good enough for a final mix.

In this tutorial, I’ve exaggerated the audio effect for demonstration purposes. You’ll probably want to dial back my settings for more realistic sounding results.

I’ll be demonstrating two examples of a futzed audio treatment. Example one uses track-based filters and example two use track-based filters and a submix track. In general, I prefer track-based filters because it is much faster to apply an effect to a group of clips at once, and the effects are non-destructive. Revisions are easier because you only have to modify one set of parameters. This is much faster than copying and replacing multiple filters on multiple audio clips. Also, this workflow does not require the creation of audio nests (I’m not a fan of nests). Most importantly, track-based filters often produce superior sonic results, especially with effects such as compression, noise reduction and reverb.

Example one: corded telephone in “speakerphone” mode

In this example, I’ll replicate the effect of a late 20th century corded telephone’s built-in speaker.

I created a custom track button layout which allows track names to be visible at all height settings

1. Create a new audio track. This track will only hold the clips to which you will apply the futz effect.

2. Label the track appropriately. This helps you remember to avoid putting “non-futzed” audio on this track.

3. Open the Audio Track Mixer panel and maximize the Effects/Sends slots by twirling down the arrow in the top left.

If you’ve never opened the Audio Track Mixer panel, the Effects/Sends slots will probably be minimized. — If you’ve never opened the **Audio Track Mixer** panel, the Effects/Sends slots will probably be minimized.

The Audio Track Mixer with expanded Effects/Sends slots. The upper five slots are for Effects and the lower five slots are for Sends. We won’t be using the Sends in this tutorial.

Filter are applied to the audio signal in order from top to bottom.

4. In the Audio Track Mixer panel, find the track you allocated for the futzed audio. In the second Effects slot, apply a GuitarSuite effect. Do this by clicking on the dropdown arrow and select Special>GuitarSuite. This will be the primary filter that creates the futzed audio sound. The first Effects slot is left empty in case you decide to add some pre-processing to the signal before it gets futzed (like a compressor or noise reduction filter). In this example, I used an FFT Filter in slot one to reduce the mic rumble present in the original recording, and to steeply cut off bass energy below 300 hz.

If you’ve never used track-based filters before, you’ve been missing out! The same library of audio filters from the Effects panel is available as track-based filters, but the manner in which they operate is slightly different. Track-based filters “see” the audio track as one continuous input. They aren’t constrained by the clips bounds in your timeline. For example, a track-based Delay filter’s ringout won't get cut off when playback reaches the end of a clip.*
Track-based filters are applied as a linear signal chain. Slot one (the topmost pulldown) is processed first, followed by slot two, all the way down to slot five. Empty slots are simply ignored. It’s easy to change the order of filters by dragging them within the Effects bank. You can also drag filters into an entirely different track, or option-drag (alt-drag on Windows) to copy the filter.
Tip: You can change the filter order while your timeline is playing. You’ll hear realtime feedback of how this changes your sound.

*an exception to this rule is the “Convolution Reverb” filter. This appears to be a bug in Adobe Premiere.

5. Double click on the GuitarSuite effect to open its settings window. Ignore the presets dropdown at the top of the window. We’ll be dialing in our own custom settings. To begin, let’s choose an Amplifier filter that most closely simulates the tinny, distorted sound of an old speakerphone. Non-Amp: Clock Radio and Non-Amp:Metal Bowl are both good choices. In this example, I’m using Non-Amp:Metal Bowl because I like the touch of resonance it adds.

Next, we’ll dial in the Compression, Filter, and Distortion settings.

Compression: Since small, cheap speakers tend to have a tiny dynamic range, this setting should be left at or near maximum.

Filter: The best way to learn what all the various Filter options do is to cycle through them while your timeline is playing. In this example I’m using a Bandpass type, since that allows just a narrow slice of frequencies to be heard, mimicking the limited frequency response of the speakerphone.

Distortion: Of the choices available, I tend to favour the Smooth Overdrive setting. It adds some distortion, but isn’t harsh on the ear. Starting with the Amount set to zero, I dial it up until I find a balance I’m happy with.

Mix: This controls the blend between the original sound (0)%) and the filtered sound (100%). I like to start at 100% (all filtered sound) and dial it back until it feels right.

“Tin Can Telephony” is listed as the preset, but my settings are all custom.

Tip: If you find the Bandpass filter produces a sound that is too tinny, click the Bypass box to skip the Filter parameter entirely. Instead, try adding a separate Parametric Equalizer in the effects bank. This will give you more control over what frequencies are being boosted or cut.

6. Finally, we’ll go to the fifth effects bank and select Stereo Imagery>Stereo Expander. Set the Stereo Expand parameter to “0/Narrow”. This removes the stereo spread you can hear in the original audio’s music track. Now our speakerphone audio has a monophonic quality that is more realistic for our scene.

Be aware that this filter is applied AFTER any panning you’ve set at the individual clip level.

Here’s the original audio, without any filters applied:

And here’s the final sound treatment:

Photo by Rhea Ong on Unsplash
Audio courtesy of freesound.org

Example two: old television

In this example, I’ll replicate the sound of an antique television playing quietly in the background of a scene. I’ll use a submix track to apply one set of filters to multiple audio tracks at once. My intention is to have this fake television program play “under” the scene, so I’ve created a heavily muffled effect.

1. Similar to example one, create and label as many new audio tracks as are needed for your fake television program. In this example, I’ll be using two audio tracks.

2. Right click in your sequence audio track panel and select Add Audio Submix Track. If you’d like give your submix track an appropriate name.

3. In the Audio Track Mixer, use the Track Output Assignment pulldown to route the tracks containing your television audio to your new submix track.

Routing multiple tracks to one submix allows us to apply one set of filters to as many tracks as we’d like, simultaneously.

4. Locate your submix track’s effect bank, and add a GuitarSuite filter in slot two. For this treatment, I’ve used a Retro/Bandpass filter, Smooth Overdrive distortion and a Non-Amp: Clock Radio Amplifier setting.

5. Now, add a Parametric Equalizer to slot one of the effects bank. This filter will further refine the sound, and help carve out some space for the rest of the scene audio to live. In this example, I’ve added a bump at 180 Hz, to exaggerate the boominess of the television cabinet. A large dip at 1250 Hz carves out the voice, and a giant rolloff of the high frequencies muffles the sound further.

If you find this treatment too unrealistic, start by adding back some high frequencies in the “H” band.

6. Just like my speakerphone example, you may choose to add a Stereo Expander filter in slot 5. However, if you find a narrow setting isn’t playing well with the rest of the scene, try a wide setting. This will push the sound outwards towards the edges of the soundstage, for a more diffused (and possibly unrealistic) presence. You can also leave Stereo Expand on the narrow setting, and use the Center Channel Pan to offset the sound to the left or right.