Audition CS 5.5 and the future of Audition

[_durin_]

Good morning Audition fans.

As promised, I wanted to share the news and state of Adobe Audition as well as answer your questions about the new release and what the future holds. 

First, Adobe announced the release of CS 5.5 Monday morning to coincide with our presence at the NAB convention in Las Vegas, NV.  Among the updates to the other applications in the Production Premium suite, the big news from my perspective was the inclusion of Audition into the Production Premium and Master Collection suites.  Soundbooth, the previous audio tool offered in the Suite, has been discontinued.

Next, a little bit of history:  Adobe purchased Syntrillium 8 years ago in order to provide an audio solution to their video and broadcast production users.  At the time, Premiere Pro was a Windows-only NLE and Cool Edit, now Audition, was a great fit in the original Video Suite.  However, as Adobe recognized the value in the Suite model for users and the bottom-line, the other applications were updated to support Apple and Windows users.  The Audition team looked at the 15 years of legacy Windows code and were not confident the application could be ported quickly enough to satisfy the CS release schedule.  As an audio editor was necessary in the suite package, we created Soundbooth which was a simple audio editor built on top of Premiere Pro's media playback engine.  This enabled the team to provide value to the Suite, but the limitations of a playback engine crafted to handle large video files was not ideal for detailed audio production.  As a tool to assist with basic audio editing and restoration needs for a primarily video and motion graphics audience, it did find a userbase who appreciated the simplicity and ease of use, although leaving audio professionals and more savvy users wanting more.

Immediately after each release of Soundbooth, the team continued working on Audition but it was apparent that Adobe did not need two audio tools in production and the more popular application was absolutely Audition.  We made the commitment to build Audition as a fully cross-platform solution and replace Soundbooth in the line-up, offering the power and fidelity of Audition without making the transition for Soundbooth fans too jarring.  For at least the past 7 years that I've been with the team, the most-requested feature has unequivocably been "Bring Audition to the Mac!"  There are numerous on-line petitions and forum threads demanding this happen.

So we've spent the past two years re-writing Audition from the ground-up, preserving or updating our core DSP, modernizing the code to take advantage of current hardware and operating system technology, and emphasizing increased productivity and speed with every feature.  Updating or completely rewriting 15 years of C++ code takes time, and we recognized rather quickly that we were not going to reach feature parity with Audition 3.01 with this release.  We continuously prioritized our feature database based on our visits with customers big and small, and our awesome, secret, pre-release team.  Our core userbase has always been broadcast - radio, podcast, and video - and our focus for the CS 5.5 release was to build a platform that supported those workflows but remained open and flexible enough that expanding the application to support other audio users would be simple and straightforward.  As we approached the end of our development cycle, I think everyone on the team and in our pre-release program recognized how strong this application is and will be moving forward, even if some of our pet features did not make it into this release yet.

In the next post, I'll describe what's new in Audition CS 5.5, what didn't make it into the application yet, and what we hope to accomplish in the next release.  As I mentioned before, Adobe has publicly committed to a more open release schedule with a major release approximately every 24 months with an additional mid-cycle release.  Not only will this allow us to bring more features to you more quickly, but will help with any hardware updates and purchasing decisions our users may encounter.  Additionally, and currently Audition is not part of this program yet, Adobe is offering installations on a subscription model with all upgrades rolled into the cost.  It will be interesting to hear feedback from our users how this solution works for their needs.

[SuiteSpot]

"This may seem a bit anal but I'd like to be able to select the "key frames" in the automation lane and enter an exact numerical value, sometimes the ol mouse just doesn't cut it."

IMO nothing anal about it - I don't know how many times I could have used that feature.

[Paul_Ferguson]

A feature I'd love to see but probably never will: Instead of clicking on automation envelopes and then clicking again and dragging the envelope to where you'd like it to be (very difficult to be precise unless the track has been fully expanded first), I'd like to be able to click on the automation envelope and use the arrow keys to raise or lower values, like you can do with values in the parametric eq.

[epsilonfilms]

I found a rather crippling missing future last night that hasn't been mentioned yet as far as I know.

In the multitrack editor, you cannot add to or subtract from a selection of clips using the marquee selection method, only by clicking clips one at a time.

This became rather a problem in a project I was working on last night which has a couple hundred clips. Every time I needed to select a bunch of them I had to start over, because I couldn't just drag a selection around the dozen or so I needed to add to the existing selection.

This obviously wouldn't have been as much of a problem if we could group clips....

[Guest]

Audition is CRIPPLED without metronome.  It would have been the perfect solution to a project I am working on and now I have to abandon and go with one of your competitors over lack of a ridiculously fundamental click track.  NO I will NOT download and use other software to export click tracks and other such tricks to justify continuing to use your Audition product.  It disgusts me to be honest that some of the absolute best programmers on the planet didn't understand or care enough about the workflow of the audio mixing world to consider keeping metronome functionality in the product.  The fool or fools who decided to leave that out should be fired and replaced immediately... and I want to know their names and have their pictures because if I pulled up at a mcdonalds drive thru and saw them, I would burn rubber out of there... don't even want them engineering my cheeseburger and fries.

PUT METRONOME BACK morons... NOT as a "wait for the next release" ... fools... how about a simple patch that can be downloaded and installed over our current version?  How about an addon/plugin (a whole separate little utility) that lets us at least continue to operate within Audition and not abandon this crippled version??  Or play around exporting click tracks from other software...  what were you really thinking here?  What a pile of audio amateurs... you should be ashamed.

PUT IT BACK.  FAST.

end of rant...

good day

[SuiteSpot]

Yeah I don't know what these guys were thinking.

Wasting all that dev time on x-platform functionality, superior performance, unbelivable OMF conversion capability, improved vst capability etc etc etc. when all that was required was something that would make a ticking sound for musicians who can't keep time.

Shame on you Adobe.

[Guest]

SuiteSpot - I can't take you seriously if you don't recognize the value of a metronome in this type of software. Or for musicians in general. Especially when looping functionality is so horribly limited in CS5.5 that using a loop isn't even much of an option.

I recognize your appreciation for Adobe, and I see that you want to stick by them and support them through this, but truly, this release was pretty damn bad. I've long supported this software. I've talked up this software above ALL others, countless times. For a decade I've touted CEP and AA as the best on the market. This release just left me ashamed on their behalf. I was personally embarassed by this release.

You can support them all you like, but don't ignore the reality of it. This release really should have been beta. It's an insult to charge their existing customers for this.

[Paul_Ferguson]

Suite Spot wrote:

Yeah I don't know what these guys were thinking.

Wasting all that dev time on x-platform functionality, superior performance, unbelivable OMF conversion capability, improved vst capability etc etc etc. when all that was required was something that would make a ticking sound for musicians who can't keep time.

Shame on you Adobe.

[Guest]

And also, what good is a faster engine in a car that no longer has a radio, a/c, the ability to roll down the windows, a rear view mirror, a glove box, turn signals, passenger seats, a trunk or a full sized gas tank? Sure drag racing is fun, but it ain't gonna get me to work everyday.

[Guest]

ohhh look at how much they did... they put new fuel superior fuel injection, better stereo system, dual exhaust and a sunroof... so what they forgot the brakes??

c'mon man... stop playing devil's advocate out here.  I know very well guys like you who take the flip side of the coin just because they have nothing better to do.  You know damn well the stuff they left out of this version is a mistake that could kill this product.  A quick google search gave me 3 FREE options that get my project done.... Adobe needs to fix this quick or consider throwing this product in the garbage while others take the lead... stick to jpegs and website design... obviously they can't comprehend the needs of REAL musicians and producers who would like to utilize more than just motor-skills to keep accurate timing.

no excuses no alibis no BS... this is a lame version and there's not a damn thing anyone can say to support the other wonderful things about the product that will make me say "ohhh ok... guess you're right... I guess i can do without the stuff they left out" .. so save it for less intelligent beings please.

Thanks for putting all the ketchup, pickels and onions on my burger... but umm... where's the meat adobe??  lol

[Paul_Ferguson]

LDFox77 wrote:

no excuses no alibis no BS... this is a lame version and there's not a damn thing anyone can say to support the other wonderful things about the product that will make me say "ohhh ok... guess you're right... I guess i can do without the stuff they left out" .. so save it for less intelligent beings please.

He wasn't making excuses, he was yanking your chain and making fun of your whining.  It worked.

[SuiteSpot]

Okay maybe a little insensitive for a Sunday afternoon but I'm at a bit of a loss to understand a couple of things.

Adobe were pretty up front about what was/wasn't in CS5.5 and no one was forced to upgrade and I know that AA3 didn't suddenly stop working or become less of the great app that it is.

So I really can't understand the rant and certainly not to this current level.

If CS5.5 is not where it should be for anyone then they shouldn't buy it full stop.

If they are using AA3 then they should continue to use it.

If they want to influence what goes into a next version then there are ways (other than rants).

CS5.5 is not yet where I need it to be and I continue to use AA3 for a lot of things.  Why? Because it is no less of an app than it was before I got CS5.5.

What I get from CS5.5 which I didn't have before its release was a committment from Adobe that they were continuing with Audition and that is a good thing!

Because without it I would have jumped ship - except that I have looked and nothing even comes close that suits me.

Now if I knew that ranting and references to that Scottish food chain were going to help than I guess I'd jump in but I suspect not.

Granted that not having a metronome is inconvenient take heart for many others that can't pitch correct or stretch clips.

I'm sure that Adobe are working to add in both new and 'missing' functionality (which is what they have said publicly) so have your say in an appropriate way but likewise you can be sure that there will be things that wont be added and I suspect DirectX would probably be one of them.

[Guest]

therealdobro: For starters, Midi works just fine in AA3 for me, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. I use it both for controllers (limited functionality there, granted), and more importantly for me, VSTi. And if this post is any indication, CS6 still won't be better than AA3.

Suite Spot: For the last time, Adobe was NOT up front about missing features. They had a page hidden in the site that mentioned missing features, and after nearly half a year of me mentioning it and Durin acknowledging the ridiculousness of it, they STILL haven't updated the main product page to link to the missing features info. Even in the FAQ, there's just one mention of missing features, and again no link to the hidden clarifying page. Except for frequent forum readers and posters, which is an exceptionally small percentage of the software's userbase, nobody had any idea what was missing until after purchasing it. This is deceptive behavior. I wish I didn't have to say anything, but I'm betting this will happen again if the stink that was raised starts to dissipate.

As much as I don't personally want to bash Adobe with the particular language some other posters use, I support their sentiment. I'd support it if I worked for Adobe. They have a right to be pissed. I run a studio, and many of the people coming through know and use the software (AA3). When I told them the missing features, they thought it was stupid. When I ended off by telling them that even the metronome was gone, they couldn't help but laugh. This is absolutely ridiculous. You could probably make a metronome app for a Commadore 64. It's a basic staple of any music creation process, and relied upon in 98% of modern music recordings. The missing features are definitely something to make a stink about, and you should have the jewels to join in on the stink and let Adobe know anything less than the AA3 feature list is unacceptable moving forward with CS6. If they're supposedly releasing it in less than a year and it doesn't have the features, they're better off just not releasing it. To have nothing would be better than another insult.

[SuiteSpot]

If you truly believed that you have been deceived then like any other product you really should ask for your money back.

Now as far as having 'the jewels' I have made it quite clear to all and sundry as to what is missing from the latest release as it affects me.

But ranting & raving is not my style and I'm sure it carries very little weight.

What does carry weight is the numbers of users asking for the missing features through the proper channels.

Now as it happens I also run a studio and most of my clients have never heard of Audition - if it aint PT how can it be any good?

Well funny enough they come back because its not what you use but how you use it.

And as I said not having a metronome (while the least of my problems on the list of missing features) is inconvenient for me I manage to get around it.

Does that make it right?

No but I deal with it but maybe others aren't able to for whatever reason.  Mind you they probably dont care that manual pitch correction isn't there but I do and there ain't no getting around that.

Now as far as "anything less than the AA3 feature list is unacceptable" moving forward - well I can't agree.  Sure its ideal but we don't live in an ideal world so help Adobe make the right decisions by going through the right channels and adding to the numbers for things that affect you.

But someone really can't be pissed unless they bought it under false pretences (as it seems in your case).

BTW I love how you do them hyperlink things

[Guest]

Listen guys... don't take this stuff so personal.  GREAT you are adobe soldiers who can not understand the dissatisfactions.  But understand at leat this... change iis never compelled by those are satisfied.  If nothing were said of the issue, nothing would get done.  Power of the consumer is only felt through our complaints and only exercised through our voice/opinions.  Knowledge is NOT power.  Knowledge is potential power.  Knowledge outwardly expressed becomes power and power is work being done.  Whether they have heard it already 400 times is irrelevant.  They need to hear it 401 and 402 and on and on until something is fixed.  Waiting for new versions for missing fundamental mission critical funcionality is an unacceptable solution.  Yes maybe for a small mom and pop shop but for Adobe?  NO... They could, if they gave a damn, produce a patch to resolve this UNTIL the next version.

Some of us never had AA3 and went straight to 5.  Who on earth would THINK to read the small print and expect something like metronome to be missing??  lol

You look at OS compatibility and mem/vid reuirements and such... you don't expect something like this.  You should relax and understand that even I am a SERIOUS adobe customer.  Maybe more so than you guys .. who knows... I have in my possession over $3,300 of adobe software including the master suite... I LOVE the products but it is in this LOVE of Adobe products where I absolutely MUST be heard on this.  The funny thing is all of us have the same root love for the company and products.  We are all saying the same things but you guys are saying we shouldn't be bickering... I say that's nonsense.  You are telling me stay home and have no vote... I am telling you if not for people like me, change would never take place.  If they thought they did a good thing here you'd never see metronome and other missing functionality return.  Trust me on that... why focus company resources and efforts on something that hasn't stirred any issue??

They have to hear it... and I'm sure they WILL hear it (I will personally be sure of it) UNTIL it is fixed... and while I'm sure their intentions are to fix in the next version, there are a couple of serious problems I have with that.  I don't believe it's necessary first of all.  Second, will the new version be free upgrade to the current?  If not, they just lost a customer... can't speak for anyone else but I won't be treated that way. 

C'mon guys... you don't see what this is?  This is either pressure from the top to get the product out and some fool (not engineers) at the top of the chain, when advised that it wasn't ready or working yet, said " I don't give a damn get it out the door NOW"  OR... this is "oops... we didn't include the blahblah module when we compiled the final product and it already went to mass production".  Either way I simply do NOT believe they CHOSE to leave out the functionality being complained about.  And THAT is unacceptable.  This version I feel deserves a full recall... a public apology... and a more immediate fix.  Nobody here is saying they don't like the product... we are saying Adobe has produced a blunder of a version of what was a great product and severely inconvenienced and disappointed their serious customer base.

Now, while I may have been a bit harsh towards any of you personally/directly and apologize for that... (you stepped in the way and got hit in the crossfire) I do NOT apologize for having a strong opinion and voice towards those responsible for the dev and release of this product.  The shame of it lies with them and their company and it needs to be resolved better than  "next version" .

Personally I have said all I care to say on it.  If you want to throw bricks at me for being this disappointed... well... have at it friends... but it will not change a thing and I am certain that Adobe will continue to hear this from disappointed customers.

This week I will actually be taking my complaint offline ... making phone calls and sending letters/emails to the top of the chain to stir up the pot even more.

Stay tuned... good afternoon, good evening and goodnight (Truman Show.. LOL)

[Guest]

Ha, yeah the names showed up as hyperlinks when I copied and pasted from your previous comments. The rest is just an extension of my Wordpress use.

Suite Spot, I did ask for my money back, within hours of the "upgrade" being released (I ordered pre-release). Part of the reason I've been upset about this is that I had to jump through hoops to get my money back, which actually took a couple weeks due to a bunch of internal policy that really isn't my problem. I bought a product which I feel I was deceived into thinking was superior (it was definitely inferior for my use), and within hours I tried to get my money back, and was lead on a 2 week escapade with poor customer service and extended hold times on the phone. Not nearly worth the price of the upgrade. If it wasn't a matter of principle, I wouldn't have bothered. It was very aggravating to say the least.

But anyway, I don't think I could say it as well as LDFox77 did in his last comment. This whole thing is a pisser, and I really do hope that being a thorn in their side will go above and beyond making the requests through their desired channels (which I have also done). So from time to time I'll chime in to support the newly aggravated in hopes that Adobe will come to realize that a full feature fix is the only thing that will settle this, instead of throwing the dog a bone by bringing back just some of the features in the next release.

[Guest]

I think it's a marketing ploy to make money, kind of like the "in app

purchase" beginning to catch on with the iDevices...

Just a thought

[Paul_Ferguson]

Uh... *everything* Adobe sells is a ploy to make money.  Just a thought.

But the question you have to ask yourself is whether you want to spend YOUR money on it.

[Guest]

While not an authority on legalities, I'm thinking there must be a licensing

agreement with the original dev of CE so Adobe can break the agreement of

payout percentage and "redesign from the ground up" does this. Adobe has

probably paid quite a sum of money to the original dev and now wants all the

money, sorta makes sense in this economy. Given this maybe the original dev

CE will now be free as well to offer something superior, cool edit was

exactly that...cool!

[Bob_Howes]

I don't claim any insider knowledge but, as far as I know, Adobe didn't just do a licensing deal.  They actually bought Syntrillium (the company that wrote Cool Edit) and most of the original developers are now work for Adobe.

[Paul_Ferguson]

Of course they did.  Guy's a moron.  Don't listen to him.

[Paul_Ferguson]

Inity Arts & Music wrote:

therealdobro: For starters, Midi works just fine in AA3 for me, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. I use it both for controllers (limited functionality there, granted), and more importantly for me, VSTi. And if this post is any indication, CS6 still won't be better than AA3.

MIDI didn't work for me on my machine - there were tons of glitches, and other users had a similar experience, if the MIDI forum was any indication.  But it's interesting that it works for you - maybe I'll try it again on my new machine and see if there's joy.  It would save me doing all my MIDI stuff in Reaper and swapping files back and forth between the two programs.  Do you edit MIDI in AA3 as well?

And yes, it looks like AA6/CS6 won't have MIDI.  I think they're still playing catchup for the next version and don't have time to develop working MIDI yet.

[Guest]

Yep. I don't think we should have to wait 'til the next release either. But if we do, basically if CS6 doesn't have a metronome, direct x plugin support, clip grouping, looping (fully functional), and midi support, and basically everything else that was in AA3 but not included in CS5.5, it's on to greener pastures for this previously decade-long customer. Funny how thinking of all of this again nearly half a year later still leaves me feeling insulted and cheated. What an aggravation.

[Paul_Ferguson]

Inity Arts & Music wrote:

Yep. I don't think we should have to wait 'til the next release either. But if we do, basically if CS6 doesn't have a metronome, direct x plugin support, clip grouping, looping (fully functional), and midi support, and basically everything else that was in AA3 but not included in CS5.5, it's on to greener pastures for this previously decade-long customer. Funny how thinking of all of this again nearly half a year later still leaves me feeling insulted and cheated. What an aggravation.

Direct X is old-fashioned these days, and software has to look to the future to survive, so I doubt you'll see Direct X support in the next version.  But I agree with you about MIDI.  That's a biggie.  MIDI is absolutely central to modern music-making.  However, loop functionality is more debatable - you could argue that if you're really into loops, you're better off with a software that specializes in loops.  Get Acid or something. 

[Guest]

Acid leads to bad trips.

Fully functional software is the way to go. I make a blend of reggae hip-hop music. I use live instruments, midi, and loops, all together. To use different programs wouldn't be efficient. And we're talking about functionality that existed in AA3. I ain't asking for something special. Just don't destroy my work space. And definately don't charge money for something that does.

[Paul_Ferguson]

Inity Arts & Music wrote:

Fully functional software is the way to go. I make a blend of reggae hip-hop music. I use live instruments, midi, and loops, all together. To use different programs wouldn't be efficient. And we're talking about functionality that existed in AA3. I ain't asking for something special. Just don't destroy my work space. And definately don't charge money for something that does.

Your work space hasn't been destroyed - it still exists in Audition 3.  If you don't like 5.5, then don't buy it - use AA3.

And as for 'functionality that existed in AA3', MIDI didn't work in AA3, so 5.5 loses nothing by not including it.

Yeah, I'd like Audition to do everything I want in a music recorder/editor too.  You're not the only one.  But ragging on and on about it isn't going to tell Adobe anything they haven't heard like 400 times already.  If you don't like 5.5 then wait for 6, cuz it'll be better than AA3, and if reports can be believed, AA6 will be out in less than a year.