Adobe Audition 2.0

Product Review: Page (1) of 5 - 01/16/06

Adobe Audition 2.0 A major transformation for this audio recording and editing program By Frank Moldstad

Adobe Audition 2.0 interface

Mixer view: New interface is completely modular.
Adobe Audition 2.0 has undergone a major transformation, constituting the most significant upgrade in the program's history, all the way back to its Cool Edit Pro days. The version 2.0 makeover touches every aspect of this audio production application, from hardcore DAW operations to editing and finishing in a video production chain.

Among the highlights are a vast improvement in the way Audition handles plugins, much better automation control, new audio analysis tools and a completely customizable new interface. Finding and organizing files is greatly enhanced with the new Adobe Bridge and its support for XMP metadata. Audition 2.0 also gains significant boosts in real-time performance, due to its new default ASIO driver support. And with the addition of Broadcast Wave file import ability, it now has wide compatibility for cross-platform collaboration.

We'll explore all the new features of Audition 2.0 in this review, starting with one of the most dramatic changes -- the all-new interface, which has been radically redesigned with modular panels of muted brownish-gray. This interface is a marvel of design -- everything is resizable, dockable, or hidable, allowing you to create an ideal workspace for any task. It is one of the best and most functional application environments I've ever used.

Multitrack view
The design solves one of the biggest problems with getting around an application where multiple windows and functions need to be readily accessible but not always front and center. The panels can positioned anywhere in the interface, or dragged into tabbed views. Workspaces for different functions such as Frequency Space Editing can be saved and recalled. Any view can be restored to the default view by resetting it.

Audition 2.0 shares this interface structure with three other members of the Adobe Production Studio family -- Premiere Pro 2.0, After Effects 7, and Encore DVD. The family has grown closer in other ways, too. The Production Studio Premium edition also supports the Edit in Adobe Audition and Edit Original commands. With the Edit in Adobe Audition command, Premiere Pro or After Effects can send an audio clip directly to Adobe Audition 2.0 for editing, eliminating the need to import and export the clips. Or, if the audio file was originally created in Audition, the Edit Original command will open the file in Audition with the full session that was used to create that audio file.

Processing and Mixing
One of the most significant new features in Audition 2.0 is the Mastering Rack, a clean and elegant solution for applying processor plugins to the master bus. This enables the setup of a real mastering chain that was not doable in previous versions of Audition, because there was no way to process the main outs. Now the final link in the chain is in place. Plugins can be inserted in individual tracks, individual busses, and finally on the master outputs. In addition to being more efficient, master bus processing helps glue a mix together for better-sounding results.

In a multitrack project, for instance, all drum tracks can be assigned to bus A, vocals to bus B, guitars to bus C, and so on, where they get sectional effects processing and level control. All busses (and non-bussed individual tracks) are then sent to the master bus, where Mastering Rack effects can be applied to the entire mix.

The Mastering Rack is a well-organized and user-friendly design, and the same solution has been used for the per-track and per-bus effects bins. In either the Multitrack view or the Mixer view, you click on a little arrow at the right side of any of the effects slots, and a menu of available effects appears. To access the Mastering Rack in the Edit view, you go to the pull-down effects menu at the top of the interface, where it's the first item.

Mastering Rack has 16 plugin slots on the left and displays interface of currently selected processor on the right.

Per-track effects rack shares the Master Rack design.

When you select an effect, its interface pops up inside the Mastering Rack, with all 16 available effects slots displayed on the left. You can also simply open the effects rack without assigning an effect. It's a quick process to insert other desired plugins from the rack. Once they are assigned, the rack provides a very convenient way to adjust effects relative to each other, or reorder their position in the chain.

There are several additional controls on the rack interface, including Power, Pre/Post routing, Freeze Track and Effects Rack Safe During Write. A variety of rack presets is selectable from a pull-down menu, with choices such as Compressor>EQ, Reverberated Phase and Smashed Dynamics. Users also can save their own presets.

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