Adobe Audition is not a new program. In 2003, Adobe bought Syntrillium, the makers of Cool Edit Pro, and rebranded Cool Edit as Audition after integrating the program into Adobe's Video Collection.
Other than tweaking the program to integrate with the other programs in Adobe's Video Collection, Adobe Audition 1.0 remains the same program as Cool Edit Pro 2.x. However, I did find Audition 1.0 to be considerably more stable than the last version of Cool Edit Pro.
I get asked about software all the time. People think that because I write about recording gear that I must use every piece of recording software made. They couldn't be more wrong. Guy Kawasaki, famous Macintosh evangelist, once remarked how he was so tired of people claiming in their resumes that they'd mastered several computer applications. He said even the best probably couldn't master more than two. I am a master of Acid Pro 3. I dabble in everything else. Dabblers are OK but they can give very bad advice. I submerged myself into Adobe Audition for different reasons. First, Acid updated. The update is perhaps the worst I've ever encountered in any application. Second, the summing in Acid never sounded good. And, finally, Acid did not handle DX effects at a high enough resolution for my tastes. In essence, I desperately want a new application to be my primary audio program.
In my quest, I looked at Adobe Audition. I've used Audition for a few months and so far I've only found one weakness. It cannot use VST instruments or VST effects. I don't consider this to be a problem as I do not rely heavily on VSTs. However, if you have bought certain VST effects that do not come with DX versions, then you'll need to get one of the VST/DX wrappers. If you want VST instruments, then you'll need to look at another program such as Steinberg's Cubase SX.
Adobe put together a solid package with Audition. The manual is real. You can hold it in your hands and read it. It's 363 pages. For those who like canned content, you'll be happy that Audition comes with 4,500 royalty-free audio loop files in over 20 different musical styles.
Audition is essentially two programs in one. There is an audio editor and a multitracker. Adobe refers to this situation as two different working environments or views. Edit view is where you record, play, convert and edit single waveforms. I never experienced any problems with the edit view.
As a multitracker, I experienced a few occasions of false starts where the program starts but for whatever reason the sound does not engage. Some people call these "drop outs" but I'd think a drop out would be more properly when the sound is running but then drops out. Here, the sound did not engage properly on a few occasions. I merely had to hit the play button again and the problem corrected itself. I did not experience any true dropouts or system crashes when rendering a mix.
Audition contains two gems to my way of thinking. The first gem is the effects buss. Effects are processed at a high bit depth giving more resolution to effects. The second gem is the mix buss. When multiple tracks are mixed or rendered to a single stereo track, Audition puts out a file similar in quality to the most respect software mix buss in the recording industry.
Audition comes wth a full complement of effects that are proprietary to Audition. In essence, you can only use them with Audition. I counted 45 DSP effects including EQ, dynamics, reverb, delay, noise reduction, etc. About half can be used in real time. Audition also allows you to use DX plugins. You will likely hear new qualities in your DX effects you've not witnessed before given Audition's quality effects buss.
Audition only runs on the PC. Check Adobe's website for the latest information on system requirements. I found the program ran with CPU to spare to spare in most instances on my Pentium III 1 gHz system.
The Bottom Line: Adobe Audition represents an excellent value for editing and multitracking and it sounds very good. You can try out a demo before buying at the Adobe website. Street price is under $300. Recommended.
Link relating to this review: Adobe
