Introduction
Welcome to a quick tutorial on marking beats and managing music markers using SoundXtract in Premiere Pro.
To add markers, simply select the relevant music clip from the timeline and click Start. Then click the plus button. All beat markers will begin to show on top of the music clip.
Why Markers Matter
Adding markers is effective for editing videos with background music — it helps create a seamless and natural viewing experience. We achieve this by placing video clips, resizing them, and cutting them according to these markers.
Cutting the video at every beat may create a boring edit, because there is no variability at all. To fix this, we can either filter the beats, select a subdivision of beats, or use another type of music marker. All of these can be achieved by hovering the marker row and clicking the filter icon.
The Detection Tab
This is the “Detection” tab. It helps us control the timing of the markers. These settings appear throughout SoundXtract’s ecosystem — for example, the clip alignment feature and the audio-reactive effects also leverage these settings.
Here are some common actions you can take using the Detection tab:
- To change the speed of the markers, drag the speed slider. Slower is left, faster is right.
- To offset all of the beats one or more beats forward, drag the offset slider.
- To show other sound markers, use the type dropdown.
- To select individual beats, click Custom and target specific beat items in the beat grid.
Each square with a whole number represents a beat; the others are fractions of a beat. Notice how changing the speed slider resets the selected beats in the grid.
Evaluate your selection by clicking the speaker button. The markers will play together with the music, helping you judge whether your selection is indeed what you were trying to accomplish.
The Target Tab
In addition, you can select where in the timeline you want to add the markers. For that, click the “Target” tab.
The default start and end times, in seconds, correspond to the source music clip. You can set the start time or the end time by clicking the plus and minus buttons, or by writing specific values.
Another method to set the time range is by setting in and out points in the timeline — for example by pressing the I and O keys on the keyboard — and then clicking the brackets icon.
Multiple Marker Sets
Adding more markers can help visualize different rhythms or sounds together. Click the plus icon again to add other markers. To change the color, hover the color box and select the desired color. You can also rename the markers by clicking the name column.
Now you see that setting markers with SoundXtract is a breeze. If you still have any questions, reach out via Discord.
