Audition 2015.2 Mac Will Not Export Sidechain Compression (Audio Ducking) FX

Report · Dec 28, 2016

I have the sidechain compression set up on a 9 track audio project. One track is the voiceover and it controls the compression FX on the other 8 channels. When I play the audio in Audition, it works flawlessly. When I try to export the audio, the compression is not present. The audio sounds just like the pre-FX audio. Seems like a bug to me. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Report · Dec 29, 2016

I believe I recall a reported bug in version 2015.3 and before that caused this effect. I'm pretty sure you find it's been fixed if you upgrade to a newer version--the latest is CC 2017.

Report · Dec 29, 2016

Thank you for your response. I have updated to the latest available which is 2015.2.1 (v9.2.1.19) on Mac. The problem still exists. When I use File -> Export -> Multitrack Mixdown -> Entire Session... and then under "Mixdown Options" I select all tracks, I end up getting what sounds like the original tracks with no FX applied to them. I am editing 7.1 film audio. I would like to combine the voiceover track with the center channel as one mono file and all other channels exported with their effects in their own mono file. This will ultimately be encoded into DTS multichannel audio. If I export the Master track as mono, I get all the tracks combined together even if I only solo one of the tracks. This doesn't seem correct to me either. If I use Multitrack -> Export to Premiere Pro... and choose "Export each track as stem" I end up getting mono wavs with the same results. Am I doing something wrong? By the way, this project was created from within Adobe Premiere using the Edit -> Edit in Adobe Audition option. It doesn't seem like it should matter but I figure I should mention it just in case.

Report · Dec 29, 2016

I just realized I may not be able to get the latest Audition because I am running OS X v10.9.5. When I tried to download from the web instead of the app manager, I got an error saying Audition no longer supports my operating system. This is really lame. So it seems there is a critical bug which renders this app completely useless for any real work and in their infinite wisdom, Adobe decided I need to upgrade my OS before I can get a version which will do something useful. I'm not impressed.

Report · Dec 29, 2016

BigPines wrote:
So it seems there is a critical bug which renders this app completely useless for any real work and in their infinite wisdom, Adobe decided I need to upgrade my OS before I can get a version which will do something useful. I'm not impressed.

I'd look at this with a slightly different perspective...

Microsoft, despite all the moaning about them, at least attempt to keep their OS so that it will run previously released software from other companies. Apple, on the other hand, will make no such attempts. When the problems they introduce get serious enough, then companies like Adobe are forced to do rewrites, and if the issues are such that the new version won't work with Apple's previous versions, you are a bit stuck. But this isn't Adobe's fault - well not in my book anyway. To do what you'd want, Adobe would have to keep different versions available for different Mac OS's - and that's not financially viable for any software manufacturer to do.

Can I respectfully suggest that you have a go at Apple?

Report · Dec 29, 2016

I respectfully disagree. Many like to have a go at Apple because they have been so successful. Apple has frustrated me many times and I do have a go at them when it is appropriate. However, Adobe sold me a product which is apparently defective. I say apparently because that has not yet been confirmed. Adobe and I entered a contract with each other. I paid them and in exchange, they provided me software for my OS with an advertised value. Apparently, this software has a core defect so significant, it renders the product completely useless and it is not providing the advertised value. If one can't export any audio out of Audition, what good is making edits to audio within Audition? Completely useless. Adobe should honor it's side of our contract and provide a working app for my OS. It is unreasonable for major bugs (not completely sure this is a bug yet) not to be fixed for customers who paid them in good faith.

BTW, I understand the complexities of software development as I am a professional software developer. As software developers, we have a responsibility to customers we have made contracts with/commitments to. If we cannot meet those responsibilities economically, we must adjust our prices like every other business. We cannot breech our contract and abandon our customers because it is too expensive to keep our side of the bargain. I am not yet saying Adobe has done this but that is how it is looking so far. I continue to investigate. I sincerely hope this is just operator error. I am a novice Audition user and I may very well be doing something incorrectly.

Report · Dec 29, 2016

Bug fixes only happen in new releases of the software in the subscription model of supplying software. Audition is now on CC 2017.1 build 10.0.1.8, many versions on from your installation. So unfortunately any bug fixes can't and won't be done retrospectively as far as I understand. So unless you upgrade your Apple OS you won't be able to update your Audition version to one without the bugs that you are seeing.

Apple have made at least three major updates to OSX since your version, so having to use 10.10 or above shouldn't be an imposition. It is, surely, beholden of all of us to keep our computers up to date OS wise in order to be able to run the latest versions of apps, particularly if yours is used in a professional capacity.

Report · Dec 29, 2016

Thanks guys but please, my OS is really off topic and a distraction from the actual issue and point of the original post. We don't even know for sure this is a bug yet. Adobe has not weighed in. I certainly don't need anyone preaching to me that my OS is out of date or I should just go with Windows. That may be easier than helping solve the actual problem but it isn't productive. I have good reasons for being on this OS version which I don't need to justify. Yes, my OS is three years old but that is immaterial. My choice of OS is not relevant to Adobe's responsibility. I'm sure Adobe would agree. Adobe sold me a product which was developed *FOR MY OS*. Let me say that again - Adobe confirmed my OS was supported by Audition CC 2015. They told me the product would work on my OS *BEFORE* I purchased it. If this turns out not to be true, they have a responsibility to rectify the situation. It is disturbing to me that some don't seem to get the point on this.

I know this is a lame example but let me try to explain in a way that makes some practical sense. Let's say you have a car. Wait for it - it is a THREE YEAR OLD CAR! Crazy huh? The horror! Some people thumb their nose at you for owning a three year old car but you like your car, you have a lot of aftermarket items installed on the car, it does exactly what you bought it for, you need your car and you don't care what others say about your choice of car. You buy a performance enhancement designed FOR YOUR MODEL AND YEAR OF CAR which is advertised to give your car better gas mileage. Once you purchase and install the product, the display of the product works but you get no increase in gas mileage at all. After seeking an answer from the manufacturer, you are told the product never did work for your car (probably never worked on any car) and you will need to buy a new car and then get their latest product in order to see the advertised gas mileage increase. Is this also acceptable? Of course not.

We are not talking about a new feature or a minor bug fix here. We are talking about a potential bug in the core functionality which renders the application 100% useless. If Adobe has their customers trained to think like this, no wonder they would operate their business this way. I hate to think that.

If this is really a bug which will not be fixed then shame on Adobe. I am actually not convinced a bug this large could get past Adobe. I will install a virtual machine with Apple's flavor of the month on it to see if Audition behaves differently there. If someone can see a mistake I am making or give me some tips on proper use which may solve my problem, I welcome any input.

Report · Dec 29, 2016

Love it or loathe it, the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription model is now the way things work. Because you subscribe rather than buy, there tend to be multiple releases each year, some major changes, other minor enhancements or bug fixes. Because of this, Adobe don't go back and make a change on 2015.3. Rather they just issue a new release--currently 2017 build 10.0.1.8 as Ryclark said.

I'll have to disagree with the statement that your OS is off topic. If your operating system is what's stopping you from installing the current version of 2017, then that IS the problem. As a regular on these forums, I notice that the last 3 or so major releases from Apple have done things that seriously messed up the audio. These problems are usually fixed BY APPLE a couple of months later on few months or a year ago) was SO bad in audio terms that multiple manufacturers of both audio hardware and software published warnings telling their users NOT to upgrade.

Given the subscription model, Adobe now probably react more quickly than most to changes in OS--but it's unfair to expect any software supplier to keep changing older releases because one OS provider makes changes without regard to backwards compatibility. To put it in perspective, my sound/video computer now runs the latest version of Windows 10--but I have Audition versions back to 3.0 still running happily. Indeed, I've heard of people running older versions of that still going strong but my disks for prior versions are in a box somewhere in the garage.

Sorry, but in this case I'll have to join the others and point the finger of blame at Apple in this case. They're the ones changing things so you can't get parts for your 3 year old car.

Report · Dec 30, 2016

BigPines wrote:
You buy a performance enhancement designed FOR YOUR MODEL AND YEAR OF CAR which is advertised to give your car better gas mileage. Once you purchase and install the product, the display of the product works but you get no increase in gas mileage at all. After seeking an answer from the manufacturer, you are told the product never did work for your car (probably never worked on any car) and you will need to buy a new car and then get their latest product in order to see the advertised gas mileage increase. Is this also acceptable? Of course not.

Only it wasn't designed for your model and year - it was for a later one. The only possible error on Adobe's part was not to warn you that it wouldn't work. And I'm afraid that if you had to wait until every single configuration possibility for several different Apple OS releases was tested for Audition so they could tell you this, there would be even larger gaps between fixes, and that's pretty much the reason why. Yeah, the whole thing sucks a bit. We can't fix it. And in this case, neither can Adobe.

But like Bob and I have said, it is your OS and its provider that's at issue here. Denying this simply isn't plausible when the evidence is considered.

Report · Dec 30, 2016

Thanks for nothing guys. This forum turned out to be as worthless to me as Audition - equally a complete waste of time.

In case anyone else runs across this thread and is having a similar problem, this does NOT appear to be a bug. I installed OS X 10.12.2 on a VM and completely patched it so I was running the very latest up-to-the-minute Apple OS (as of today anyway). No doubt tomorrow when Apple releases 10.12.3, this forum will blame all reported issues with Adobe's software on Apple's lack of backward compatibility and the customer running an antiquated OS but I digress...

I then installed the very latest Audition 2017.0.1 build 10.0.1.8. It works exactly the same as it did in my 'ancient' 3 year-old OS.

It is obvious to me this is operator error. I must simply not understand how to use this tool. In the future, real assistance would be preferred over the rabid Adobe Defense Brigade coming out and proclaiming it is all the fault of the OS and Adobe is God and can do no wrong.

I'll move on to Ableton Live. I know I can do what I want there. I was just trying to use Adobe's "easy" built-in workflow. *rolleyes*

Report · Dec 30, 2016

You said it was a bug in your OP. You were very quick to blame the software. So, unfortunately, we proceeded along those lines with our answers.

"It is obvious to me this is operator error. I must simply not understand how to use this tool. In the future, real assistance would be preferred"

Maybe if you had said that originally and asked for operational assistance then maybe our answers would have been different.

Report · Dec 30, 2016

Added to that, there WAS a known bug in 2015.2 which has since been fixed so it was pretty easy to assume that was the issue.

Best of luck with Ableton--I use it myself for MIDI but (and maybe it's just me) don't get on at all with the GUI for any work with wave files.

Anyway, sorry if you feel this conversation was useless but we did our best with the information provided.

Report · Jul 05, 2020

Also be sure that the track that you are sending to your sidechain compressor is not the same bus that you're exporting your mix through, I had this problem sending dialog from my Dialog bus to the Music bus but what I had to do is send my dialog straight from my original dialog track to a music sub bus and keep my master buses clean to export through, this way the processing might not fully make it to the export even though you may hear the sidechain compression in the project

Report · Jul 05, 2020

This post is getting on for four years old. Why are you replying to it?