I was about to add this as a brand new User Voice Request but see that has been requested before. This request has gone all the way back to 2008 in the private beta and virtually NO ONE in that long and lengthy discussion wants this behavior to behave in the way that it does.

I am shocked by @Bruce Bullis and that comment that this was a "popular feature request" as all discussion around this, for years, has been that this is not desired behavior.

A common suggestion to fix this is to show the little + sign to indicate to the editor they have more tracks in the Source but DO NOT auto create them.

This “popular feature” renders useless for me the rest of Pr! I’m still on Avid.

Make it ON by default and add an OFF switch in the settings. It should not be that complicated…

the single most pathetic and non-sensical thing about premiere. I know a lot of editors and believe me we all hate this "feature" The timeline should always dictate what happens on an edit not the other way around. Goes all the way back to linear tape editors. There's a million reasons why this makes the most sense. Get rid of this ridiculous time sucking, interface messing "feature".

This drives me bonkers every single day. Adding a warning that I would also have to dismiss might put me over the edge.

My source has 8 audio tracks but I want 3 of them. Don't automatically create 5 extra tracks if I don't want them in the timeline. Give me an option to deselect tracks on the source side without adding tracks to the timeline. Or the option to turn off automatic track creation altogether. Either option keeps the requested feature for the 3 people that wanted it that way.

A warning for something we are aware of is not helpful. We'd like an option to control how we edit ! ie; switching this function off and on. As this is the essence of editing - control over sound and picture !

Automatically adding tracks when the source clip contains more tracks than the sequence wastes a lot of time for me in a session and it eats up valuable timeline real estate. I would prefer to see a disable new automatic audio tracks in settings. Thanks!

Adobe, please add an option to enable/disable Auto-create New Tracks as it is done in Avid MC! I will stay on MC while waiting... Thank you!

@Matt Stegner

Yes I would like to *not* have to disable tracks via the audio channels setting - this may affect others using the clip and it is not apparent that the clip tracks differ from the file tracks.

I want to be able to patch (say) A15 source to A3 timeline *without* creating any extra timeline tracks and *without* semi-permenantly removing source audio channels.

Here's a comparison. In PP I have to click the + to create matching timeline tracks to even *see* how many source tracks there are, then manually patch A4 to A1, then clean up by deleting the excess tracks.

In Avid I can have more source tracks than target tracks (it will, optionally, create more tracks if I edit those source tracks to the timeline). It autopatches A4 to A1 when I deselect the other tracks. No excess timeline tracks to then clean up.

@Bruce

Here's how we get to set the option in Avid - both 'auto create' new tracks to match source and 'auto enable' source tracks can be set.

Also totally agree with Trevor. AutoPatch all the way! Targeting/patching source and timeline, in my mind, is Premiere's biggest weakness... and one of the integral / most often used parts of editing.

This would be my third request to go with Autopatch and track toggle shortcuts that are source/record based (rather than always being record side)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sy71wfce2tksgbg/detailed%20autopatch.mp4?dl=0

In Avid it's an option (see - https://forums.creativecow.net/docs/forums/post.php?forumid=45&postid=872677&univpostid=872677&pview=t ) and I use it both ways. Sometimes I want to add all the tracks (e.g. editing a sequence to a sequence), more often I don't as there are 16 source tracks, 14 of which I do not need and I want to keep my timeline track count down to 8-10 for screen estate purposes.

Would also require that we be able to see 16 tracks on the source track selectors, without having to add them to the record side.

"It would BE a great feature, IF it created the tracks when the user tries to INSERT the clips. It does it now when you OPEN the clip in the SOURCE viewer."
Yes! This exactly!

It would BE a great feature, IF it created the tracks when the user tries to INSERT the clips. It does it now when you OPEN the clip in the SOURCE viewer.

Try it. Open a project. Create a sequence with 2 audio tracks. Now OPEN a video file with more audio tracks. It creates the tracks in the sequence.

So if I am working with a sequence that has 4 audio tracks, it is IMPOSSIBLE to add a clip from a source that has 8, without the tracks being created. I MUST go back and delete the audio tracks.

This would be FINE if it only happened during insert or overwrite operations, I agree it's a great feature especially for drag-n-drop beginners. But the current implementation is broken. It creates the tracks as soon as you open the source.

TRY IT.

This is slightly confusing for me. Premiere will not add extra audio track unless you add a clip to the timeline that has more channels than available tracks. If you don't want those channel added you need to turn them off in the "Audio Channels" dialog of the source clip. Is this request something different?

What Jim means is that the tracks are only added when you cut the clip into your sequence. I agree there should be a way to unpatch the tracks without first adding the clip to your sequence.

Sorry, but that's just not true. Have tried this many times on multiple different machines, versions, etc. This issue has apparently been around a long time:
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1466593

Premiere Pro will only add audio tracks to the sequence if a clip is added to the sequence that requires them. Simply opening a clip in the Source Monitor will have no effect on the sequence.