Adobe Premiere Pro Audio Format Guide
Best audio formats for Adobe Premiere Pro. What to import, how to export, and recommended settings for broadcast and web delivery.
Adobe Premiere Pro is the industry-standard video editor for professional post-production, and its audio format support is comprehensive. Knowing the best formats to import and export ensures your audio stays clean through every editing stage.
What Premiere Pro Imports
Premiere Pro supports essentially all common audio formats: WAV, AIFF, MP3, AAC (M4A), OGG, FLAC, WMA, and more through Adobe Media Encoder. WAV and AIFF are the preferred import formats for professional work — they are lossless and process without any additional quality loss in the editing timeline.
Project Audio Settings
Premiere Pro projects default to 48 kHz audio — the standard for video production, broadcast television, and film. Always match your audio source files to the project sample rate. If you import 44.1 kHz audio into a 48 kHz project, Premiere will resample on the fly. This works but is slightly less efficient than having matched sample rates throughout. Export your voiceover recordings and music stems at 48 kHz, 24-bit WAV before bringing them into Premiere.
Working With Music Tracks
MP3 files import into Premiere Pro and work fine for rough cuts and review. For final delivery, use WAV or AIFF music stems — uncompressed audio in the timeline ensures the final export does not compound lossy artifacts from the music with lossy artifacts from the export codec.
Adobe Media Encoder: Export Settings
For web video (YouTube, Vimeo): H.264 video with AAC audio at 320 kbps, 48 kHz. For broadcast: ProRes video with PCM (uncompressed) audio or Dolby Digital at 384 kbps. For podcast audio-only export: AAC at 256 kbps, 44.1 kHz, stereo. For film/TV delivery: WAV or BWF (Broadcast Wave Format) at 48 kHz, 24-bit per the network's delivery specification.
OGG and FLAC in Premiere
OGG Vorbis and FLAC import through Adobe Media Encoder on Windows. On macOS, support can be inconsistent depending on the macOS version and installed codecs. If you have OGG or FLAC files and encounter import errors, convert to WAV using AudioUtils before bringing into Premiere — this is always the safest approach.