Adobe Audition

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One of the first things you notice about Adobe Audition is its extensive loop creation ability, which is so entertaining that it sucks you in like a video game. But when you finally stop to investigate the rest of the program, it's apparent that Audition is a versatile professional audio recording and editing environment that could hold its own in most any situation.

The former Cool Edit Pro was purchased by Adobe last May from Syntrillium Software, and it appears to have found a good home. Although Adobe renamed it and tagged it with a version 1.0, this PC-only application brings with it the attributes of a mature program, including stability, an extensive toolset and a clean, intuitive interface. Audition can record up to 128 tracks, and individual files can be edited down to the sample level at up to 192kHz. The program includes support for 24-bit/96kHz DVD-quality audio. Recording, editing, and mixing is done at high-resolution 32-bit quality, using any sample rate up to 10MHz -- including 44.1kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, and 192kHz.

More than 45 DSP effects and tools are included with Audition, among them EQ (dynamic, graphic and parametric), limiting, chorus, reverb, noise reduction, delay, envelope follower and distortion. About half of them can be used in real-time during playback, and the rest have real-time preview capabilities.
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And did we mention that Audition also has extensive looping capabilities? Although it's a blast to play with, the looping functionality is a seriously powerful asset to Audition. You can quickly create foot-stomping grooves for soundtracks, music beds, or use it as a sketch pad for composition. A content CD called Loopology ships with Audition, and it includes more than 4,500 royalty-free audio loop files in over 20 different musical styles. Assembled as an on-line resource by Syntrillum and Cool Edit Pro users over the years. it's a collection of diverse patterns and beats by percussion instruments, keyboards, guitars, basses, brasses and reeds. Adobe also maintains this resource online at http://www.adobe.com/special/products/audition/loopology.html.

But in order for Audition to really fit with the Adobe family of video products, it needed one more thing: the ability to exchange "edit original" files with Adobe's video programs, Premiere Pro and After Effects. Adobe's primary addition to Audition 1.0, this function works very smoothly (see Charlie White's sidebar at right). Although the Adobe video apps, especially Premiere Pro, have capable audio editing toolsets, their integration with Audition takes audio manipulation to a new level for video and motion graphics productions.

This ability takes on added significance with the need to create high-resolution DVD-quality audio and 5.1 mixes, which Audition handles via a built-in multichannel encoder. Audition also supports 19 standard file formats (WMA, MP3Pro, Amiga, .wav, AIFF, etc.) and has strong SMPTE master/slave capability.

For basic use, Audition is straightforward and intuitive -- you can just jump in and start recording or editing if you have a basic understanding of other audio, or even video, editing programs. When you do need the manual, however, it's a good one -- a well-organized 375-page book with extensive descriptions of every feature.