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A professional and beginner multitrack music and audio editing, mixing and compositing workstation

A professional and beginner multitrack music and audio editing, mixing and compositing workstation

Vote: (766 votes)

Program license: Trial version

Developer: Adobe

Version: 2022.23.0

Works under: Windows

Also available for Mac

Vote:

Program license

(766 votes)

Trial version

Developer

Version

Adobe

2022.23.0

Works under:

Also available for

Windows

Mac

Pros

  • Properly segmented interface with separate menus and movable panes
  • Advanced features with different wavelength views and the ability to edit frequency
  • Many recording features and effects

Cons

  • Extremely advanced program that will take a lot of time to learn
  • Has MIDI support, but the interface is confusing and difficult

Adobe Audition is an audio editing program that also helps with post production of music and vocal tracks. This program is aimed more towards professionals who want a technical and powerful program with all the best features. There are also many ways to edit the compression and audio composition.

Professional Features

Audition is a program really meant for professionals as it's full of technical jargon and advanced tools that only those in the industry will fully understand. The interface starts out easily enough as a multi-track display that allows you to record music and vocals on their own separate track.

Immediately after installation it will become the default program for certain audio files and will ask your preference about other compatible files. You can choose whether you want this to be the default program or not. While it might seem like a good idea to open every audio file with Adobe Audition, it's usually best to keep conventional files like MP3 with programs meant for playing rather than editing.

Audition has a clean interface that is properly segmented. Every window has its own tabs and menus. This makes it easy to customize each menu. While many people like the default layout, you are able to move it around if you'd prefer. Simply click the "Unlock Panel" tool and you can move the menus around. You can also save your own layouts to help with special projects.

There are three main editing modes to choose from. Each one is useful for editing the audio compression. Waveform Display shows the audio in a wave format. Spectral Frequency Display instead uses colors that represent the sound. Logarithmic Display is similar but displays it with a common logarithmic line graph. There are also two modes for editing stereo sound. You can choose between Spectral Phase Display and Spectral Fan Display.

Advanced Recording Suite

While many people use Adobe Audition for its editing features, this is also a highly advanced recording suite that allows you to record for nearly any microphone. From the computer's microphone and low-tier peripherals to the most advanced microphones, you'll have no problem recording audio whether it be talking or singing.

There are many features for editing the sound as it's recorded so that it's perfect. You can also add effects before or after the recording. While Audition is much heavier on the editing side than the recording side, there are still many features to play around with to create a professional sound.

Sound Card

Your computer needs a great sound to make use of all the features. Those with weaker computers and sound cards might have a hard time with Audition because it requires a significant amount of power and resources. Not only that, but it does have a hard time with MIDI support. MIDI allows you to directly connect some instruments to record directly from them.

While it does support this format, it's very confusing and difficult to get the instrument to sound correctly. It's better if you can find another way to connect your instrument. If you can't, then this feature is available for your recording needs.

Cut and Paste Editing

You might be surprised to hear that an advanced program like Adobe Audition uses simple cut and paste editing, but that's exactly what it does. In fact, this is the conventional editing technique that most audio editors use. You just mark the points to cut and then select where to paste them. At the same time, Audition does much more than this.

One advanced feature is that it senses beats and rhythms. This not only better segments your audio recording, but it helps with the editing and ensures that your song sounds organic when you're finished. You can also change the sound frequency rather than the sound itself, which create make the song sound completely different. That's why this is such a professional and advanced program. It might use a conventional editing technique, but it has advanced tools on top of it that make this a completely different program than most audio editors.

Pros

  • Properly segmented interface with separate menus and movable panes
  • Advanced features with different wavelength views and the ability to edit frequency
  • Many recording features and effects

Cons

  • Extremely advanced program that will take a lot of time to learn
  • Has MIDI support, but the interface is confusing and difficult

Pros

  • Tabbed UI
  • Multitrack Editing
  • Quick Launch Time
  • Creative Cloud Integration
  • 5.1 Surround Sound Editing
  • Frequency Editing

Cons

  • Slow Installation
  • Can't Burn CDs
  • No Basic Editing Mode
  • Requires Monthly Subscription

Adobe Audition is a piece of professional music recording software that supports multitrack song creation. This app features all the premium tools and precision that define the Adobe brand, but beginners may have difficulty with the sophisticated language and options. Once the app has been installed and launched, it will automatically search through your hard drive for audio files with compatible formats. The app will prompt you to associate a specific filetype with the software, which prevents it from adding every sound file that exists on your hard drive.

The user interface for Adobe Audition is sharp and aesthetically pleasing. The main windows use tabs to separate the Mixer, Main, Effects, and File sections. With the Unlock Panel feature, you can move these windows freely and place them wherever you'd like. If you design a new layout that works optimally for a specific type of project, you can save that layout as a template for further similar projects.

The editing tools in Adobe Audition are exceptionally sophisticated, and they are broken down into four primary editing modes. These modes are Waveform Display, Logarithmic Display, Spectral Frequency Display, and a combination of Spectral Phase Display and Spectral Pan Display. The last two combine in order to produce stereo sound that has been synced perfectly with itself.

When editing files in Adobe Audition, you'll end up using the classic cut-and-paste functions. To create a cut, you must select an in point and an out point from the existing timeline. The software is so advanced that when you set these points, the app compensates for rhythms and tonal patterns so only unwanted material is cut.

The Help guide built-in to the software includes a detailed and straightforward explanation of the cut-and-paste function. The guide will also teach you how to use the Frequency Space Editing function. This cutting-edge function lets you choose certain frequencies to edit instead of being forced to edit the entire waveform. Not only that, but the software includes countless sound effects that can be applied with ease.

One of the potential downsides to Adobe Audition is that it requires a subscription to the Creative Cloud service from Adobe. The newest version of the software features improved noise reduction, new special effects, and easier editing of multiple tracks.

A set of phase correction tools were also added to the most recent version of the software, and it now supports 5.1 surround sound and virtual instruments. The Multitrack View helps with editing without sacrificing consistency or time. Once clips have been grouped, you can easily fade and trim the individual tracks with identical timing. Audio files can also be saved in batches with specific formats, locations, and names.

Pros

  • Tabbed UI
  • Multitrack Editing
  • Quick Launch Time
  • Creative Cloud Integration
  • 5.1 Surround Sound Editing
  • Frequency Editing

Cons

  • Slow Installation
  • Can't Burn CDs
  • No Basic Editing Mode
  • Requires Monthly Subscription