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Adobe Audition: Channel Map Editor incorrectly re-enables disabled channels across multiple effects

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Product: Adobe Audition 26.x
Platform: Windows
Area: Channel Map Editor, Effects Rack Presets, Favorites / Batch Processing
Severity: Incorrect audio processing / channel routing

Description

I discovered a channel assignment issue in Adobe Audition while working with six-channel (5.1) audio.

I initially noticed the problem with FFT Filter, but after testing other audio effects, I found that the same incorrect channel-selection behavior occurs across the effects I tested.

This appears to be an issue with Audition's shared channel mapping or channel configuration handling, rather than an FFT Filter-specific problem.

Observed behavior

When I configure an effect to process only specific channels:

Channels 1 and 2 only: Audition may interpret this as the default channel configuration and automatically enable channels 3–6.
Channels 3 and 4 only: Audition may treat the effect as a four-channel configuration and also enable channels 5 and 6.
Channels 5 and 6 only: Channels 1–4 remain correctly disabled.

I have reproduced the same pattern with multiple audio effects.

Expected behavior

Adobe Audition should preserve the exact channel selection regardless of which channels are enabled.

For example, in a six-channel file, selecting only channels 1 and 2 should always produce:

CH1: Enabled
CH2: Enabled
CH3: Disabled
CH4: Disabled
CH5: Disabled
CH6: Disabled

The disabled channels must remain disabled when the effect configuration is saved, restored, or used in batch processing.

Technical observations

I examined the XML configuration files generated by Audition, including EffectPresets.xml and Favorites.xml.

Channel assignments appear under ChannelMaps, with InputMapping and OutputMapping structures.

Some configurations use C=2 for channels 1–2, C=4 for channels 3–4, and C=6 for channels 5–6.

The XML format also supports explicitly disabled channel entries using D_n=-1.

A six-channel configuration with only the first two channels enabled can be represented as:

C=6

D_1=0, D_2=1, D_3=-1, D_4=-1, D_5=-1, D_6=-1

This raises the possibility that Audition is treating omitted higher-numbered channels as enabled or default channels instead of preserving their disabled state.

This is a hypothesis, not a confirmed root cause.

Impact

The issue can cause effects to process channels that the user explicitly intended to exclude.

For multichannel audio mastering and automated batch processing, this can create unintended modifications to surround channels, compromise channel isolation, and produce inconsistent results.

Requested fix

Please investigate the shared channel assignment and serialization/deserialization logic used by Adobe Audition's effects.

All six channel states should be preserved independently, including explicitly disabled channels, when saving, loading, or executing an effect configuration.

The behavior should be consistent across Effects Rack presets, recorded Favorites, and batch processing workflows.

219416307nr0Author

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Additional Findings: Successful Workaround Through Explicit Channel Mapping

I performed additional tests by directly modifying the channel mapping data in Adobe Audition's EffectPresets.xml and Favorites.xml files.

When Audition saves an effect with only channels 1 and 2 selected, the XML may contain a two-channel mapping (C=2) without explicit entries for channels 3–6.

However, I found that explicitly defining all six channel positions resolves the incorrect channel restoration behavior in my tests.

For example:

C = 6
D_1 = 0
D_2 = 1
D_3 = -1
D_4 = -1
D_5 = -1
D_6 = -1

With a corresponding complete six-channel input and output mapping, Audition successfully loads the configuration and correctly preserves channels 3–6 as disabled.

Key finding: Audition can correctly interpret explicitly disabled channels when the full channel mapping is present in the XML. However, configurations saved through Audition's own interface may use a shortened mapping that leads to previously disabled channels becoming enabled when restored.

This suggests a possible inconsistency between the serialization and restoration of channel mapping settings.

I have also reproduced the channel-selection issue across the different audio effects I tested, indicating that the problem may involve Audition's shared channel mapping system rather than a specific effect.

Please investigate how trailing disabled channels are saved and restored.

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