Premiere Elements 12 review: A compelling choice for video newbies
Adobe’s consumer video editing program Premiere Elements is back for the 12th round in the battle to be the home video editing champ, and this version has some powerful new features that make it a strong contender for the prize.
Premiere Elements has often been viewed as a cut-rate version of Premiere Pro, inheriting pro features a couple of versions old. That’s not a bad thing, though, as Premiere Pro is one of the most powerful professional video editing programs available. With version 12, Premiere Elements gets sound effects, a dynamic soundtrack, and a new motion-tracking feature from its big brother. The interface gets a makeover as well, with the addition of a guided mode (like its sibling Photoshop Elements) alongside the quick and expert modes.
The Elements Organizer can be accessed from within the editor to load files.
New Guided Mode
New to Premiere Elements—though old hat for on Photoshop side—Guided Mode takes you through nine common tasks such as importing a video, adding a soundtrack, and trimming clips. It does a good job for the novice video editor, highlighting the correct buttons in the interface to avoid flipping between windows. It would be nice to have even more guided tasks available, though: things like the motion tracker and saving the finished video are not covered. Other parts of the interface are mostly unchanged from Premiere Elements 11: and those users will feel right at home.
The additions to the audio features are also useful. This version adds a wider range of cartoon and other sound effects, plus a soundtrack feature that creates a custom music track from 52 scores in 7 categories that are included (the program downloads them only when you use them to save space). When you create a score from these, it is customized to the length of your video so that it starts and ends properly, and the level is adjusted for the sound in the video; a nice touch that makes a video look and sound more professional.
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