Keeping the original audio in a PMV

A pure PMV throws away the source audio and runs on music alone. But a lot of the best edits don't — they keep the original audio sitting under the track, so you still hear what's happening. It's most of the appeal of an audio-led edit, and it's the difference between watching a montage and being in the scene.

The problem is that mixing them naively sounds terrible. Two full-volume audio sources fight each other: the music muddies the source audio, the source audio muddies the music, and the result is worse than either alone.

The fix: a steady music bed

The fix is to stop both sources competing at full volume. Pull the music down to a steady level under the clips and leave it there, so the music carries the rhythm and the source audio stays audible the whole way through.

Done by hand in a normal editor, that means extracting the audio from every clip, lining each piece up with its cut, and balancing the two tracks across the whole timeline. On a four-minute edit with dozens of clips, that's genuinely tedious work — which is why most people either skip the source audio entirely or just leave it fighting the music.

Doing it automatically

Onset Engine does the mix for you. Tick Mix Original Audio in the Editor (under More options), or Keep your clips' own sound under More options in New video, before you render, and it will:

1. Pull the source audio from every clip in the edit and line it up with the picture, so each clip is heard over its own cut
2. Sit the music at a steady Music Level under your clips for the whole render — 30% by default
3. Play your clips' own sound at Source Volume — 1.0 is as recorded

Both levels are on the Advanced tab under Source Audio Mixing, and they stay constant for the whole render, so the music never pumps up and down.

Getting a good result

Pick source clips worth hearing

Mixing makes the source audio audible — which is only an improvement if it's worth being audible. Clips with clean, present audio work. Clips with a TV in the background, a noisy room, or a camera-mic hum become a lot more noticeable once the music sits under them.

Match the track to the technique

Dense, wall-of-sound tracks fight this: the music has to sit so low to make room that the drops lose their punch. Sparser tracks with space in them — slower tempo, less mid-range clutter — leave room for the source audio to sit in, and the mix sounds natural.

Tune the two levels

If the music drowns your clips, lower Music Level (0.30 = 30%; 0 mutes the music). If your clips are too quiet, raise Source Volume. Generate a draft, listen, adjust.

Think about where it lands

Source audio is easiest to hear in the quieter stretches — the build, the verses, the sections between drops. On a full-energy drop the music dominates anyway. If your driver puts the busiest source audio exactly where the track peaks, the two are competing for the same moment; shifting that content to the lower tiers usually sounds better.

Worth knowing

• It's a render-time setting, so you can render both ways from the same edit and compare.
• The levels are constant for the whole render. If you want the music to rise and fall around specific moments, render with source audio and finish in a normal editor.
• Each clip's sound follows its own cut. You hear what you see, in time with the picture.
• Both audio sources carry the same copyright considerations as ever — see the copyright guide.