Does Premiere Pro have an audio visualizer?
No built-in effect makes reactive bars or waves in Premiere Pro. Use After Effects’ Audio Spectrum or Audio Waveform, a motion graphics template, or import a visualiser made in another tool.
Guide · free tool included
How to make an audio visualizer for Premiere Pro
The spectrum and waveform effects live in After Effects, not Premiere. Here is how to use them, how templates fit in, and a quicker route for a single song.
Premiere Pro doesn’t include an audio visualizer effect. The usual answer is its sister app, After Effects, which has two built-in effects that draw sound: Audio Spectrum (bars or lines across the frequencies) and Audio Waveform (the shape of the sound over time). You build the visualiser there and bring it into your Premiere edit, or use a motion graphics template that someone else built the same way.
Below are the After Effects steps, the settings that matter, and how to get the result into Premiere. If you don’t have After Effects, or you need one clean visualiser for a release today, you can make it with the music visualizer on this site and import the MP4 into Premiere like any clip.
Make an audio spectrum in After Effects
Set up a composition
Create a new composition at 1920×1080 and the frame rate of your Premiere sequence, as long as the song. Import the song and the artwork and drag both into the composition.
Add a solid with Audio Spectrum
Choose Layer → New → Solid. With the solid selected, choose Effect → Generate → Audio Spectrum.
Point it at the song
In Effect Controls, set Audio Layer to the song. Move Start Point and End Point to place the bars, and adjust Frequency bands, Maximum Height and Display Options for the look you want.
Render or send to Premiere
Render the composition to H.264 through Adobe Media Encoder, or import the After Effects project into Premiere through Dynamic Link so changes update in your edit.
Audio Spectrum, Audio Waveform and audio keyframes
Audio Spectrum
Splits the sound into frequency bands and draws each as a bar, line or dot. Turn on Use Polar Path for a circular spectrum around a round cover. Fewer, thicker bands read better on phones; Frequency bands around 32 to 64 is a good start. Narrowing Start Frequency and End Frequency to the range where the music actually lives stops the treble end from sitting flat.
Audio Waveform
Draws the waveform of the audio as it plays, along a straight line or along a mask path you draw. It suits voice and calm music better than the spectrum. Note that it reads the audio file directly, so volume changes or effects on the audio layer are ignored unless you precompose that layer first.
Convert Audio to Keyframes
Select the song layer and choose Animation → Keyframe Assistant → Convert Audio to Keyframes. After Effects adds an “Audio Amplitude” layer whose values follow the loudness. Link the artwork’s Scale to those values with an expression and the cover pulses with the music. This is the same idea as the visualiser templates sold online.
Templates for Premiere Pro
Motion graphics templates (.mogrt files) let you use an After Effects design inside Premiere without opening After Effects. Audio visualizer templates exist on Adobe Stock and template sites, some free. Install them through Premiere’s motion graphics templates panel, drop one on the timeline above your song, and set the audio source and colours in its controls.
- Check how a template reads the audio. Some are truly reactive; others need you to render a file first or run a script.
- Check the version: a template made for an older After Effects or Premiere may not open.
- Free templates are a good test of the workflow before you buy a pack.
When to import a ready-made visualiser instead
After Effects gives you complete control and is worth learning if visualisers are part of your work. For a single song or a quick podcast clip, a browser tool is faster, and Premiere handles the result like any other footage.
- Open the song in the music visualizer, add the cover art and pick Bars, Ring or Mirror in Wave.
- Cover the whole song with the timeline handles (up to 10 minutes), and export at 1080p and the frame rate that matches your sequence.
- Import the MP4 into Premiere. To use only the bars over other footage, export with a Solid background in a colour the bars don’t use and key it out with Premiere’s Ultra Key.
For voice recordings, the audio waveform visualizer has styles made for speech. Editing in DaVinci Resolve instead? See the Resolve guide. And for when a visualiser is the right release format at all, see what a visualizer is.
Audio visualizers in Premiere and After Effects: FAQs
Where is Audio Spectrum in After Effects?
Apply it to a solid layer: Effect → Generate → Audio Spectrum. Then set Audio Layer to your song in Effect Controls.
How do I make a circular audio spectrum?
In Audio Spectrum, turn on Use Polar Path and set the radius, then place a round cover in the middle.
Are there free audio visualizer templates for Premiere Pro?
Yes, on Adobe Stock and template sites, as .mogrt files. Check that each one supports your Premiere version and says how it reacts to the audio.
Can I make an audio visualizer without After Effects?
Yes. Make it in a dedicated visualiser tool, such as the browser one on this site, and import the MP4 into Premiere.
Why doesn’t my Audio Waveform react to volume changes?
Audio Waveform reads the original audio, ignoring effects and level changes on that layer. Precompose the audio layer, then point the effect at the precomposition.