In early 2000, I was editing audio for Theater productions using a Radio Shack mixer, two cassette tape recorder/players, a turntable and a borrowed reel-to-reel tape player. Although I did good work, that set-up required hours and hours to get the simplest mix to performance level. I needed another method that was faster and allowed for more control. Enter Cool Edit Pro, a digital audio program created by Syntrillium Software. I'd followed the developments in digital audio, but I was stubborn since most of my education in sound had been on analog machines (old habits die hard).

I was ready for a change though. A new, more powerful computer (with a quad-core CPU) and a strong desire to learn led me to a positive review of Cool Edit Pro. And after downloading the trial version, I was very happy to learn that it was anything but a lite version. In a very smart move, Syntrillium guaranteed themselves a large user base by making Cool Edit Pro limited only by certain functions that the user could choose each time the program loaded (usually referred to as “crippleware”). In addition to being very easy to use, there was excellent mulitrack editing and a great selection of effects for individual wav files. The multitrack feature allowed me to create/edit my sound projects with much greater control and in a third of the time. I instantly became a devoted Cool Edit Pro user and since there were many user forums for this program springing up all over the net. I had an instant advice and technical help for free.

Then Adobe announced in May of 2003 that they were buying Syntrillium (and with it Cool Edit Pro). Needless to say there was a high level of anxiety in the Cool Edit community since no one really expected Adobe, who was primarily into graphics with their Illustrator, Photoshop and Premiere combo, to actually improve on a product that was outside of their area of expertise. But when Adobe released their new version of Cool Edit Pro (now branded as Adobe Audition) in August of 2003, the reviews were very positive. Cool Edit Pro was essentially unchanged, the only difference was in the name. Sure the cost was a bit more, but I liked the program so much that I managed to scrape up the money for the full version of Audition and I loved it. 

I've been a devoted Audition user ever since. Version 1.5 came in 2004 with the addition of basic video editing, frequency space editing and some rudimentary pitch correction. The big change came with Version 2.0 when Adobe re-worked the entire program: the GUI was re-designed, ASIO support added, much improved video editing/multitrack, VST support and excellent mastering tools including compression effects provided by Izotope. Adobe Audition was now a contender in the professional digital audio workstation (DAW) market as the user base exploded and the rave reviews kept pouring in.

Audition 2.0 has been my digital audio editing program of choice for over two years now. In that time, I've moved to sound editing/mixing for Machinima (3d animated film shot in a game engine). I've created complete soundtracks for half a dozen films, the most recent being a Machinima film that has over 175 separate soundtracks along with many sounds created entirely within Audition (a first for me). Version 2 has been a workhorse with a solid performance, few crashes and functionality that just went deeper the more I learned about it.

You could say I was excited to be able to review the new Adobe Audition 3 (released in November of 2007), but that would be an understatement; I was ecstatic. My thanks to Julie Lin at Adobe for providing the copy of Audition 3.0 that I'm reviewing here.

What's New

Rather than go through the excellent review materials provided by Adobe for Audition 3, I chose to immediately open a big multitrack project I'd just finished and jump right in. I wanted to see if this new version was actually more efficient with quad core processors. The difference was noticeable. Where my Windows XP system would start to hiccup a bit at around 180 separate tracks, there was no such barrier with Audition 3. Not only was I able to add more tracks, the quickness and ease of playback, the ability to zoom in and out, and the “bounce session to new track” made working with Audition much “snappier”. Where Audition 2 was like driving a Honda, I now felt like I was driving a Porsche. 

The Adobe Audition series has always had superb integration between the edit view and the multitrack view (the three basic work modes are “edit”, “multitrack” and “CD”). The ability to edit individual sound elements and to combine sounds is superb. What Audition 3 does is to make one of the best DAWs even better.

Here's a short list of some of the improvements: 

• Major improvements in Frequency Space Editing with the addition of the “Spot Healing Brush” and the “Effects Paintbrush”.
• VST plug-in manager and support for VSTi instruments (three free VSTi's included)
• Basic midi tracks and piano-roll editor
• XML session support. You can now save your sessions to XML for other multitrack applications. (Alas, you can't import XML sessions though)
• Video preview for surround sound mixer and beefed up surround sound mixing.
• New series of Effects; Convolution Effects, Guitar Suite, Mastering Effects, Radius Time-Stretch from Izotope. (over 50 DSP tools and effects)
• Auto crossfades, clip fade handles, top/tail view, on-clip fade & gain controls Mix down to Edit view
• Play lists. You can now organize and play marker ranges for live performance or broadcast.
• Multitrack additions: collectively trim and fade grouped clips, ripple-delete ranges of clips, duplicate contents of entire tracks (including clips, effects, etc) 

In going through the excellent tutorials included with the Audition 3 CD (provided by Adobe and Lynda.com), I tested the “Spot Healing” and the “Effects Paintbrush” and found that these tools are major improvements to the program. The ability to isolate an unwanted sound or range of sounds is phenomenal. These new tools are worth the price of the upgrade alone. Musicians who want to rid their live sets of unwanted background noise, radio technicians removing an unwanted cough or sound effects designers who want to clean up a poorly recorded voice over will have a field day with these tools which allow you to remove sounds visually as well as aurally.

The new effects are top notch. I was particularly impressed with the Radius Time-Stretch effect. There was occasional distortion when using earlier time-stretch effects (lowering voices, length of effects, etc), but there is literally zero distortion with this new tool. Izotope also adds a new tube-compressor to this version of Audition and it is equally excellent. Bringing the dynamics of a voice over session to a smoother and clearer mix is very easy. You can use the presets built into the effects or create your own with ease. Smart of Adobe to choose effects that would benefit both sound editors and musicians as well, since time-stretch and compression are invaluable to someone composing music using Audition 3.0

Speaking of music, since I am essentially a sound designer I haven't had much use for the compositional elements of Audition, so for this review I decided to try my hand using the accompanying “Loopology” CD which is filled with thousands of music clips (loops). Using the unusually well-written manual (Adobe has always had good user manuals) and the video tutorials provided, I was able to create a basic music mix that while not top quality, wasn't bad for a beginning musician. What impressed me was the ease of finding appropriate loops on the disc and then being able to quickly set the BPM (beats per minute) for the composition and then lay the tracks in. Editing, copying and grouping selections was a snap. I was surprised at how simple it was. Now all I have to do is practice and learn more about loop creation. 

Room for Improvement

So where's the catch? What doesn't work in Audition 3? Well, it's not a very long list. Firstly, Audition 3 is really more like Audition 2.5. Despite very well thought out additions and changes (too many to go into here), there is room for improvement. Firstly, why wasn't Audition included with the recent Adobe Creative Suite 3? Instead they chose to include something called 'Soundbooth”, ostensibly because editors using Premiere Pro (their DV editor) just wouldn't be able to understand or use all of the advanced functions in Audition. I don't agree and find this reasoning to be pretty thin. Film editors or directors editing their films would want the most complete set of audio tools they can get.

In addition, the integration of Audition 3 with the new Creative Suite is less than that with Audition 2. Previously, you could right click and send a mix to Audition right from the Premiere Pro timeline; not any more. With Audition 3 you have to export the wav file and import it into Premiere Pro. Now when you right click you get the option to open the audio file in the dinky Soundbooth. Not a good choice.

And while Audition 3 adds the ability to export XML file formats, there is no support for importing XML which means other NLE's cannot communicate with Audition. This makes it very difficult to integrate Audition with any kind of traditional DV workflow, since XML (and OMF and AAF) is a basic file format for NLE editing. For home-based editing like mine, this is not a major issue, but this lack of integration is strange for the usually forward-thinking Adobe. I'm not sure why they would have left this out.

The inclusion of video in surround sound mixing is welcome, but why no ability to export the mix as DVD standard dolby AC3 format? Encore DVD, which is part of the Creative Suite, can encode AC3, but if you don't want to buy the entire suite, why not include this ability with Audition 3? Another odd and seemingly counter productive choice by Adobe. However, according to Bruce Williams (a great audio teacher) there appears to be a fix for this.

And finally, while the CD editing interface is useful, it still isn't anything I use regularly. Any number of free, open-source programs actually have superior functionality. Adobe has added the ability to query a CD database (not easy to set up) which is nice, but with no ability to encode directly to mp3 (you have to rip the CD as a wav and then save as an mp3), Audition 3 is behind the curve. If Adobe is serious about this part of the program, they need to do some research and then get to work. Simply adding database lookup doesn't cut it.

However, all of these problems are well within Adobe's ability to solve. I think it's much better to increase your ability to use a product rather than limit it, even if it might benefit other programs in Adobe's stable. The user-centered philosophy of the open-source movement is something Adobe should take a close look at. By staying with a “keep it in the Adobe Creative Suite” approach you limit the users ability to use other products that benefit the Audio/Video work flow. 

Conclusion

Should you upgrade to Audition 3? Absolutely. At $99 for an upgrade from ANY previous version of Audition this is an easy choice to make. And for $349, you will get one of the best DAW's on the market today. You get a solid, intuitive design; a very deep function set; excellent integration of audio editing elements, and a large user base. These elements and more make Adobe Audition the editor of choice for filmmakers, radio editors, musicians and anyone who needs complete control over the audio in their project. And the 30-day full featured demo is a great deal.

With Adobe's Audition 3, the best audio editor just got better.

Notes:

• Abit P35 Pro Mobo
• Intel Q660 CPU overclocked by 10%
• 2 Gigs Mushkin xxx Ram
• XFX 8800GT PCI graphics card
• On-board Realtek sound chip
• Western Digital Raptor 150Gb Hard Drive
• Dell 24” LCD Monitor
• Antec P182 Case
• Windows XP SP2

System Requirements for Audition 3.

Of course, the Adobe website is the first stop for learning more about Audition 3. You can also get a full description of what's new in Audition 3 at the Lynda.com website, which features free samples from a complete course in Audition 3 taught by the excellent audio teacher, Bruce Williams. His own personal site (audio2u.com) contains an amazing amount of information on Audition 3 along with all kinds of tutorials and podcasts relating to audio in general. His interview with Hart Shafer (Senior Product Manager for Audition at Adobe) is a good introduction to what Adobe was trying to do with Audition 3 (although Hart talks too fast at times).

Ricky Grove [gToon], Staff Columnist with the Renderosity Front Page News. Ricky Grove is a bookstore clerk at the best bookstore in Los Angeles, the Iliad Bookshop. He's also an actor and machinima filmmaker. He lives with author, Lisa Morton, and three very individual cats. Ricky is into Hong Kong films, FPS shooters, experimental anything and reading, reading, reading. You can catch his blog here.