Adobe Audition CS5.5 is now Available for Purchase (Ignore - this is very old)

[Charles VW]

http://www.adobe.com/products/audition.html

Attention all you existing Audition users, Mac Public Beta users, and other early adopters: I encourage everyone to download the 30 day trial of Audition CS5.5 and/or purchase it.

As always, we appreciate your feedback (positive and negative), and as you can see on the forums, we are listening.

If you're simply reporting a bug, please use the form here:

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

If you're making a request for a new feature, or an improvement on an existing feature, also use the form here:

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

If you're simply alerting us that there was something in a previous version that isn't in this version, please see this:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/895/cpsid_89588.html

Also, feel free to search in the forum as we may have already addressed the question for another user.

[Paul_Ferguson]

Wow, talk about lack of due diligence.  Okay, I'll wear it.

[Guest]

I, like the vast majority of consumers, am not a regular forum user. Anything Durin wrote would have been outside my scope of vision. I'm quite certain that the forum community is contributed to and read by only a VERY small portion of Audition users. I personally only came to these forums after I bought and returned CS5.5 in hopes that I could get across to the Adobe team the reason why I felt the need to get my money back. I've been using Audition (and CEP) for over a decade, and this is the first time there's been a release called an upgrade even though it has far less features than the previous version. Due diligence is great. That's why I read EVERYTHING on the product page, which calls this release an upgrade (despite it having less features than a downgrade to 1.5) and fails to mention the huge decrease in features. You'd think that'd be pertinent information to put up front and center on the product page.

I actually found that feature comparison chart after I had returned the purchase. I couldn't find it through on links on the actual product page though. It took a Google search. A feature comparison chart is standard on the product pages of most software. but Adobe had good reason to not make it readily available. In fact, there's not even a link to it in the ONE AND ONLY faq that mentions a feature reduction here: http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/faq.html. Faq stands for frequently asked questions. A quick look in the forum shows that there are certain other questions that are far more frequently asked than the ones that are currently posted in that faq.

Likewise, the FEATURES page mentions nothing of the missing features. http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/features.html

I value authentic and transparent companies. I should be able to expect an upgrade to be an upgrade and for any reputable company to inform me on the product page if otherwise. I practiced the amount of diligence appropriately due for such a purchase. Avoiding this would not have required due diligence, but excessive diligence, especially back in mid April, when I first pre-ordered the product.

My suggestions:

1. Make it clear on the product page that this version is missing  A LOT of the features that are in prior versions and that have been a staple of the product line. This version may be quite good as a product of it's own, but not when it's billed as an upgrade to a product that had far more features. Explain more clearly that it's a rebuild and that it lacks many features.
2. Make the "feature comparison chart" a tab on the product page. It's more important than the current features tab, and more revealing than the reviews and faq tabs combined. Marketing teams should help people find what they want, not mislead them - through withheld information - into buying something they don't want. If the product is good, there's no reason to hide anything. A comprehensive reading of the product page will show anyone who's experienced this version that much of the relevant info about it is hidden.
3. Update the faq to address the questions that are actually most frequently asked, and not just questions that you want people to ask so you can give the happiest sugar coated answer you have up your sleeve. These questions should include:
   1. What features are missing?
   2. When will the features be re-implemented? Update, or future version? CS6? When's that expected?
   3. How do I open Audition 3.0 sessions in CS5.5 (while preserving settings)?
   4. What members of the Audition clientele is this best suited for, and which users would be better off waiting for the next upgrade?

Durin has definitely been great in clearing things up for us. Of course, that took people asking! I think if Durin was in charge of marketing there'd be happier customers (and probably less money wasted on the poor customer service system). It's not that difficult to just tell about the product as it is, warts and all. If the product has value, then there's no reason to hide the facts about it deep in the site. Just tell your costumers, in bold writing on the front of the product page, who amongst them the product is actually best suited for - and don't try to mislead the rest!!

[_durin_]

Noted and I fully agree.  The Audition team created documentation that was intended for the product page, to highlight the differences from Au3 and what is missing at this point, which were not implemented in time by the admittedly overworked web team.  We are trying to get those pushed to the servers ASAP.  I don't think it was anyone's intention to mislead our existing customers and "trick" them into purchasing a tool that might not meet their needs, and I think this serves as a good example to start working with Marketing earlier and more often to make sure everyone involved with promoting the application understands that the excitement over the new features and placement needs to be tempered with any potential shortcomings.

I'm glad you were able to easily get a refund and I hope you'll give Audition CS 6 a try next year when the major missing tools are in place.  Thanks again for your candor and politeness!

[Guest]

Thanks Durin! As always, I appreciate your effort to clarify. I can't say I agree with you though - I'm not entirely very polite.   Though you're right about the candor - a mere product of the marriage of frustration and dedicaton to the betterment of the product. I can say at this point that I don't think the misleading product info was intentional, though it was pretty neglectful. It'd take two minutes to make the current feature comparison chart a tab on the pruoduct page.

Regardless, I very much look forward to CS6. I've been toting CEP as the best audio software for a long time and I wish to continue doing so.

On a side note, can you point me in the direction of a feature suggestion box? I've had many ideas over the years but never took the time to find the place to contribute them.

[_durin_]

You can submit feature requests or bug reports via an online form at https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

OR

Send them directly to us at audbugs@adobe.com  (That's where the form submissions end up anyway.)  I also suggest posting them in the forums where some additional discussion may be generated.  Currently, there is a separate "Feature Request" sub-forum, but I believe there will be some consolidation done to our gaggle of groups in the next few weeks, so I'd recommend posting them here where all the traffic is.

[Guest]

Thank you kindly. I'll definitely engage the community and send along some emails for less conversational ideas. Cheers!

[Bob_Sackter]

I don't want to pile on here. I do see many of the upgrades you have put into Au4 and the processing speed is way up over Au 3.01. As stated above, I too am missing the features that were previously available. I do understand the undertaking of the new release, and that the team is working on implementing these for future releases. The one thing I would like to suggest is that there be some consideration in the price of the upgrade for people who have purchased Au4. I have tried very hard to use this version, but constantly find myself going back to 3.01 as many of the effects and tools that I need for my workflow are not in the new version,

[KarolVO]

Hi,

AA serves me very well as a tool in my voice over studio. I guess I use only about 30% of it's features using it for recording, cleaning and basic mastering and synchronizing with video.

First problem: perhaps it is just few clicks away, but I cannot set mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out - I use it massively and I'm not keen on using +\-

Will be back with more soon

[ryclark]

It should just work in Waveform view if your cursor is over the waveform or the Time bar. In Multitrack it works on the Time bar by default but you have to use Ctrl+Scroll wheel on a track wavform else it just moves you up and down the tracks.

[KarolVO]

It doesn't work in waveform as it use to in 3.0 by default (even if the cursor is over it). In multitrack it only moves the tracks up and down and when with ALT, it just hightens all tracks...

Generally, I see totally re-written, different editor with little of it's old functionality left. I have been using it since Cool Edit and I thing I'll just stick with AA3 for a while. I hope Adobe will improve it. Now, I still have about 25 trial days left and intend to give it a chance...

[Guest]

Removing support for .wma files is a killer disappointment. Can we expect an update anytime soon? I would love to start using AACS5 but i can't because it doesn't support .wma and my job at the radio station requires working with .wma recordings. Please, when can we expect an update? Im dying to use AACS5 but i can't yet because there is just no support for .wma, what was the reasoning for getting rid of .wma support? Why not keep it.. Heres a thread of disappointed customers who need .wma support for their productions http://forums.adobe.com/thread/844412. Please allow us to download some type of .wma support package along with other missing  features so we can start using Adobe Audition CS5 to its real potential. Thanks in advance and i appreciate you guys responding to our feedback! Looking forward to an update!

[ryclark]

whooisodis wrote:

Removing support for .wma files is a killer disappointment. Can we expect an update anytime soon? I would love to start using AACS5 but i can't because it doesn't support .wma and my job at the radio station requires working with .wma recordings. Please, when can we expect an update? Im dying to use AACS5 but i can't yet because there is just no support for .wma, what was the reasoning for getting rid of .wma support? Why not keep it..

Adobe haven't actually got rid of anything. Audition has been rebuilt from the ground up to cater for the Mac as well as Windows PCs. The developers just haven't yet had time in the developement program to re-code every single function available in previous versions of Audition. We are all hoping for further developement of Audition into a fuller CS6 version in the not too distant future.

[KarolVO]

Untill then, I'll difinitely use AA 3 and have already uninstalled 5.5.

Pity though, as it has some very nice speech volume leveler and other

features potentially helpful in my VO work.

I also feel that it isn't quite fair, that Sound Booth users can upgrade to

AA CS 5.5 paying same $99 as AA users who had to pay more for the software

in a first place. This however isn't a problem really...

Anyway, I'm waiting for 6.0 only hoping it will be even greater tool than

3.01

Karol

[_durin_]

I won't bore you with the details of the internal bureaucracy within a big corporate when trying to get a minor, trivial update posted to a website.  Allow me to say that our team is still trying to get the differences posted to the Audition product page.  I am fully aware how ridiculous it is that a single line of text can't be inserted into a web page after 4 months.

[Cubed Root Sound]

You rock, durin. This must be frustrating for you. I just want you to know I really appreciate your attitude and willingness to be straightforward and helpful.

[TANISHAGO]

EXCELENT

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

This post is nine years old and completely out of date now. It does not need replying to at all.