Locking audio to timeline in Premiere Elements

Question

I'm creating a slideshow with pan-and-zoom as well as imported video clips.  I've created a "soundtrack" with imported music in Audio Tracks 2 and 3 and manually "mixed" the music so that the audio clips appear "staggered" on the timeline (i.e., one partial song in Track 2, next partial song in Track 3, next partial song in Track 2, etc.).  I manually entered beat markers for all of my anticipated video edits (as I have done for all my NLE software projects on other platforms).  However, whenever I shorten a video clip, the entire contents of audio tracks 2 and 3 shifts to the left correspondingly.  And, of course then my beat markers for the rest of the project don't line up.  This is completely maddening.  I can not find a way to "pin" or "lock" the audio tracks to the timeline. There isn't even any accompanying video for these tracks -- just music.  Every time I shorten a clip to match the beat, Elements "outsmarts" me and moves all future audio out of sync. And I have to shorten each clip because, for stills, the clip duration is set when the stills are "imported" to the project.  There must be a way to toggle off this free-floating audio.  Any thoughts...?  I'd be grateful...!

Answer 1

Welcome to the forum.
Unfortunately, PrE does not allow Locking Tracks, like PrPro does. I have requested this feature for several years, and for each new PrE release, as I feel it is very important and useful.
I usually am adding my soundtrack as the last thing I do, just before I Export/Share, so it does not bother me that much, but doing what you are, or if one is doing a music video, then being able to Lock those Audio Tracks (I Lock Video Tracks in PrPro often too), would be such a useful feature.
Let's look for a way to get what I think you want, as a few additional steps might make your life a bit easier. You have your "mixed" Audio Clips on two separate Audio Tracks. You have them edited, as you want. I would think about Exporting/Sharing JUST the Audio to a PCM/WAV file @ 48KHz 16-bit. That will effectively mix your two Tracks of Audio into one stereo file. Then, you can Import that output file into your Project, replacing the two Tracks of Audio Clips. Being one file, it will not move, when you edit your Video. Two things to consider: in that output file, you will most likely loose your Beat Markers, but can add those back, and when you go to edit any Clips, that are "covered" by other Clips, some of the edit functions do not work, quite as they did when they were not covered, such as Delete and Close Gap - the gap will not close. It would be the same, if you had a Video Clip above the one that you were editing. Still, for most editing functions, that should not be an issue, but it will depend on how you have edited your Clips to that point. For Stills, you can Ripple Edit, and change the Duration up/down, as needed. If you are working with Video Clips, and have enough extra Frames (referred to as Handles, when dealing with Transitions), you can do the same with them. If they do not have adequate Frames, then you might have to shuffle things around a bit.
By Exporting/Sharing the Audio to a single file, you have, in essence, Locked that Audio Track.
As a side-note, some users have encountered issues with both of the Fixed Audio Tracks, Soundtrack and Narration. The usual "fix" is to just use one of the free "regular" Audio Tracks - just exactly as you have done already. I refrain from using Soundtrack, or Narration (though I have never had those problems), because so many others have reported them.
Good luck, and maybe we will all get lucky, and Adobe WILL honor some feature requests for Track Locking.
Hunt