Persistent software bug in Audition when working with larger files?

Hey Steve! The glitchy audio returned in a new project, unfortunately. Took extra good care to make sure the files were on a separate drive, only 3 temp file backups etc. No luck.

I went through the entire 26-minute audio track, making sure I did not "adjust changes" to any other track than the one I was paying attention to. Yet somehow the audio glitches slipped in throughout the track... Very frustrating, especially as I ran into one near the end but it turns out they retroactively appeared in the earlier minutes which took me a LONG time to figure out, having to re-listen, edit them out, and then just pray that they won't appear elsewhere when I inevitably save the project again....

Is there anything else I can do to prevent this? 

Thanks for reminding me! 

How to replicate: 

I import my 20-30 minute VO audio file (generally 3-4 separate files). 

I run my favourite custom template to clean up the audio.
>Parametric Equalizer
>Normalize
>Dynamics Processing
>Normalize
>Dynamics Processing
>Hard Limiter
>Dynamics Processing

I use match loudness to -16 dB

I save the audio file which prompts Audition to ask to save/overwrite all existing audio files to the new, enhanced, quality, to which I press "yes to all".

Now somewhere since the 2025 update, this causes the audio to distort anywhere in the chain - so it could be an audio warp at 2 minutes, it could be at 25 minutes. There tend to be 2-3 glitches in a 20 minute track.

"So, in short to make sure I understood it correctly: I will change the "Primary Temp Cache" to a separate drive from where my original projects/VOs are stored?"

Correct. Mine uses a fast SSD, and this works fine. But note also what I said about the number of undos...

Thanks Steve. That's a really interesting take on this issue. I've used the exact same file structure using Audition and my voice overs for 4 years now - and I've never ran into this problem before 2025 before. However, I am of course eager to try anything to fix this.

So, in short to make sure I understood it correctly: I will change the "Primary Temp Cache" to a separate drive from where my original projects/VOs are stored?

There definitely is an overwrite/requirement to re-save the audio files once I batch edit them, but this has been popping up for years, overwriting the original audio files, without issue. I hope this will work, I'll report back when I have a new VO project! 

Thank you for your reply. I managed to replicate it, it happens when I use one of my custom-made favourites of normalization + dynamic processing. Really strange, as I've never had trouble with this before. Basically, when I batch-clean up audio it will insert random audio glitches/warps in longer audio tracks. 

Well I'd definitely take Steve's suggestions first.

When this happens it's usually a problem with the temp file. This has been noted as an issue before, and generally it's the OS interfering with another file in the same location, or some other sort of interruption there that causes this to happen. Fortunately there's a fairly straightforward way of eliminating this sort of problem, and that's to move your temp file to a location that the OS can't/won't touch.

On my DAW I have a separate HD set aside for temp files, and as well as this I limit the number of undos that can be saved (that's what the temp file is used for in editing - I have it set to 3). So my suggestion is to try this first, and see how much difference it makes. If you are using a laptop, then a USB external drive will do fine - an SSD would be even better, because generally they are faster.

Edit>Preferences>Data for the numner of saves, and Edit>Preferences>Media and Disk Cache for the location. It's only the primary temp location you are bothered about - the secondary one appears to make no difference in this situation.

I've never experienced this glitch. I haven't noticed other posts related to this either, but that means nothing.

Do the errors re-appear at the same point if you close and re-open the file? If not, this problem could be the result of disk read errors.

What happens if you use a different storage device? Any difference?