Adobe Prelude is a video logging and ingest application for Windows and macOS that was part of the paid Adobe Creative Cloud lineup. It sits at the very start of a video project: copying footage off camera cards, attaching metadata, marking useful moments and assembling a first rough cut. The material then goes into Adobe Premiere Pro or another editor. Adobe has stopped selling and supporting Prelude. You can still use existing installations, although their functions may degrade or stop working.
Copying footage off camera media
Work in Adobe Prelude usually begins in the Ingest dialog. It shows the contents of a folder or connected device as scrubbable thumbnails or a list, filtered by file type. You tick the clips to bring in.
The dialog copies files to a primary destination, optionally into a new subfolder so files with identical camera names do not overwrite each other. Extra destinations can receive backup copies at the same time, although only the primary copy appears in the project. With transcoding switched off, Prelude copies files as they are. It can verify the primary copy against the source by MD5 checksum, file size or a bit-by-bit CRC comparison.
Switching on transcoding converts clips during ingest using encoding presets. Adobe Media Encoder handles the actual encoding. Transcoding also makes partial ingest possible: setting In and Out points on a thumbnail brings in only that section of the clip.
Card formats and file types
Besides ordinary video, Prelude reads audio-only files such as WAV, AIFF and MP3, and still images including PSD, AI, PNG, JPEG and TIFF. It understands camera card structures such as Panasonic P2 MXF, Sony XDCAM HD and XDCAM EX, and AVCHD, which must keep its original folder structure. HEVC footage is also supported.
Renaming and tagging clips during ingest
Adobe Prelude can rename clips as they are copied. A naming preset combines elements such as custom text, the date, the original file name and an auto-incrementing number. For formats with complex folder structures such as P2, the files on disk keep their names. Prelude stores the new name in the clip’s metadata as its title instead.
Metadata presets work the same way. Each preset is a set of fields with optional default values. You can mark fields as mandatory, so you must fill them in before ingest continues. Presets are XMP files that a team can share to use the same fields.
Logging with markers and tags
Logging means watching each clip and marking what matters. Adobe Prelude has two main marker types: subclip markers and comment markers. Subclip markers define an In and Out range that then appears as its own item in the Project panel. Comment markers attach a note to part of a clip. Pressing 1 or 2 during playback creates either type. A heads-up display lets you type the name and description without stopping.
For repetitive logging, you can save any configured marker as a template and turn it into a button. The Tag panel takes this further with a customizable grid of buttons, each with its own name, description, duration and colour. Clicking a tag during playback drops a comment marker named after it. Prelude stores tag templates as JSON files, and you can give tags keyboard shortcuts.
The Markers panel lists every marker in the open clip. You can edit names, descriptions and In and Out timecodes there. Logs can be exported as CSV, TXT or HTML files. Prelude saves all logging data and metadata as XMP. It writes the XMP directly into QuickTime files and keeps it in a sidecar file next to formats such as MXF.
Building a rough cut
A rough cut in Prelude is a simple timeline for selecting, ordering and trimming clips before real editing starts. Clips and subclips are appended in the order they were selected or dragged onto the timeline. You can add selected markers from an open clip directly. This places the source clip in the rough cut along with those markers.
You can record voice-over straight into a rough cut. You add a mono, stereo or 5.1 audio track and choose the input device and channels. Then you set pre-roll and post-roll countdowns and record from the playhead or within a set In and Out range. Prelude saves each take as an audio file and adds it to the project.
Handing off to Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro
When Premiere Pro is installed on the same computer, Adobe Prelude can send a rough cut with its clips and bins directly into the open Premiere Pro project. The markers remain editable there. For another computer, you can export the project as a Premiere Pro project or a Final Cut Pro XML file to a local disk or an FTP server. You can optionally copy the media alongside it.
Replacing Prelude in current workflows
Adobe has moved ingest and logging into Premiere Pro. Premiere Pro includes a Prelude workspace that arranges the panels Prelude users are familiar with. Adobe Media Encoder handles stitching several clips into one, another Prelude ingest task. You select the clips in its Media Browser.
