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.

[Charles VW]

aomahana wrote:

What I miss ,..

Generate Silence.

Edit > Insert Silence... will achieve you the same results.   Please check it out when you get your hands on the release.

aomahana wrote:

...

I use 2X other software editors, Pyramix, and Protools.

...

So for me, the positive aspects of this change are ....

OMF Import and Export.

...

Please let us know how the OMF exchange works with Pyramix.   We've done intensive in-house testing on sending OMFs to/from Pro Tools, but not as much with Pyramix.  I spoke to one of the engineers at Merging while at AES this past fall about OMF interchange with Pyramix, so feel free to ask your support representative at Merging to also do some in-house testing with interchange with Audition.

[Playtime22]

Thanks for the continuous feedbacks from me too, Durin. It really means much to see that Adobe actually listen to their customer base.

I am in the radio production business and AA is number one "weapon of choice" for me and so many people from the same branch. All those things members mentioned as a wish list in this thread will hopefully implemented in next release.

Cheers!

Peter

[sir_c]

Hi, I'm delighted that Audition has finally got an overhaul at last, and I agree that it starts super-fast which is nice. I also love the fact that fx are applied in a dynamic rack like Soundbooth which is so much more sensible! However, can I ask about a couple of features that I liked in Soundbooth that aren't in 5.5?

Firstly, creating mp3s from wav files, in Soundbooth there were 2 features I really liked. One was that I could play a preview from the save setting dialogue box which was great to judge quality verses size. The second was an estimate of the actual file size which again is quite important for some applications. Could they come back in for CS6?

Secondly, I really liked the snap-shot feature in Soundbooth and the asnd file type. I know it was large and heavy, but it was a great way of getting back to things and very helpful if for some reason or other you cleared out your history! Any chance we can have that back or do too many people hate it?

Thanks

Andrew

[Guest]

Hello durin,

I'm missing the feature to edit single samples by right-clicking on them in the waveform in CS5.5.

Do I need to change some magic option or was this feature removed?

I'd also like to see the tone/noise generators coming back with an update.

[_durin_]

You can still edit the value of a single sample.  Zoom in, select the sample (or samples) you wish to modify, then use the on-screen HUD amplitude control to adjust their position.

[Guest]

As per your request:

Audition CS 5.5 will not have every feature available in  Audition 3, and if you find that it does not suit your particular needs,  please let us know exactly what is missing that prevents you from  upgrading and using it so that we can do our best to make certain these  areas are addressed and improved for CS 6.

We make radio and TV shows for global distribution.

I am requesting that you bring back the Play Preroll and Postroll option under the right-click menu of the playback button.  Now my editor has to cut the selection out, play it back, find out it's wrong, hit undo, cut again, play it back, etc.  The Play Preroll and Postroll option from Audition 3 would allow her to fine tune the selection to be cut before it is cut.  The other option in 5.5 is very crude, and that is to try to hit the Move CTI to Next button or use the keyboard shortcut at precisely the right moment when the CTI is about to start playing the selection.  This is imprecise and not worthy of professional audio editing software.  I also contend that features like this relationg to being able to cut out pieces of audio for cleanup and fix audio should be a basic function of this software and should take priority over things such as special effects, especially when the software is being marketed in Production Premium as a tool for video use as well.

I also don't understand why the CS5.5 help documentation for Adobe Audition still states that this option is present by right-clicking the playback button.  I suppose that either the Help manual for Audition 5.5 is the same as Audition 3 or that this is one section that should have been cut from the manual but wasn't.

Thank you for listening.

Kendal Rasnake

[emmrecs]

Perhaps you might like to add a +1 to this thread in the Requested Features forum?

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/859421?tstart=0

[_durin_]

Thanks for the requests.  Skip Selection behavior, with pre and post roll, and Tone Generation are two features we're painfully aware are missing in CS 5.5.  I would expect to see these tools addressed in CS 6.

I'm not sure what's up with the help except that the online help may be pulling some search words from older versions if it didn't find a match in the latest.  I'll look into it and contact the documentation team. 

[Guest]

But all the HUD can do is amplify, right? In v3 I could enter 1.0 or -1.0 as sample value. Amplifying by x dB is not a replacement for this, because what if the sample value is zero. Gain will not change that.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

cs5crack@mailinator.com wrote:

But all the HUD can do is amplify, right? In v3 I could enter 1.0 or -1.0 as sample value. Amplifying by x dB is not a replacement for this, because what if the sample value is zero. Gain will not change that.

Whilst that's all true, I'd like to know what your legitimate reason for being able to manipulate individual samples is. I've been working with audio for over 45 years now, and I've never found one.

[epsilonfilms]

There are many reasons to adjust samples.  I do it quite frequently.   The most common would be to fix a single sample that is out of place do to a recording glitch, However I also have on many occasions rebuilt clipped sections of my audio.

Also, using amplify on a single sample is not a real workaround.  besicids the problem already mentioned, there is also the problem that with amplify you can't cross from positive to negative.  You have to use the invert command on it first.  Sure you can do it, but it's slow and cumbersome, and when you have to fix 30 odd samples...

Also, I'm putting in my vote for Grouping and Control Surface Support.   Without the former I will be working all complex projects in AA3. Actually, without grouping, the multitrack editor is almost useless to me

I'd love the ability to nest projects in AA6, and also for me to control the way AA imports multitrack WAVs. Right now, I can ether have them treated as 7.1 sound, or 8 completely independent tracks. (less if I don't use all the tracks on my 788T)  I would like to be able to edit them separately, with the tracks grouped together in the files panel, and to be able to edit them altogether the way we can now, but with other playback options then just surround sound. If I map all the tracks to the Stereo speakers, I still have some tracks in one ear, and some in the other, when in reality, I need to be able to treat them as 8 mono tracks.  And If I split them up, I can't do wholesale edits to all of them at once anymore.   I could ofcourse stick them all into a multitrack, but then I can't groupe them .

[_The_Preacher_]

Hi,

since I only have a limited number of activations for external plugins, I'd like to know some things before installing 5.5:

- Will the VST plugins from iZotope, i.e. Ozone4 and RX2 work with this release, or maybe even better (live view, just like on ProTools)?

- Will the VST "TT-DR-Meter" (Dynamic Range Meter) work as live view or will it still open in an exclusive window without the possibility to stay on Audition's interface?

- Since I use Audition mainly for Mastering, are there any specific limitations over v.3?

Thanks,

Message was edited by: _The_Preacher_, reason: typos

[Steve C2]

Hi _The_Preacher_

Ozone and RX 2 work.  That is, Ozone's latest versions work for me.  I have not tested with earlier versions.  Expect that the answer for other plugins will not necessarily be the same as for AA 3.  For example, many Voxengo plugins that worked with AA 3 do not work with the new Audition.  You might check with your plugin vendors to determine if their plugins are supported with AA CS 5.5.

Steve

[_The_Preacher_]

Thanks, Steve!

[_mark3]

I also don't understand why the CS5.5 help documentation for Adobe Audition still states that this option is present by right-clicking the playback button.  I suppose that either the Help manual for Audition 5.5 is the same as Audition 3 or that this is one section that should have been cut from the manual but wasn't.

Hi Kendal,

Preroll and postroll are not mentioned in CS5.5 Help. To limit search to that version, be sure to select "This reference only" to the right of the search box. If that's deselected, search will return results from additional websites, including older versions of Help (as Durin guessed).

In search results, the prefix "Audition 3.0" appears in titles to better distinguish older Help content.

Please let us know if you still experience this issue.

[Guest]

Thanks for the clarification.

Kendal

[andi_urra]

Hi, a small but helpfull feature that I was surprised not to find anymore is the crop handles. Those were introduced in Soundbooth and sped up my workflow quite a bit. Slicing one large file (e.g. an interview) into lots of smaller ones (e.g. single statements or words) was greatly enhanced by that feature: Copy selection to new file ... crop left&right ... do-other-stuff ... save.

Any chance to get that back?

Thanks and regards,

Andreas

[TL2121]

Durin

thanks for the update -just wish Adobe would have gone down this path before CS3 instead of implementing 3 versions of soundbooth which dosen't stack up to what Audition was and is (i.e.  Soundbooth can't even do simple things without a crazy workaround like copying the right channel in a stereo track to the left- just like Premiere Pro fill left/right effect)

anyways

Pleas make sure they include center channel extractor as early as possible- I loved this effect in Audition CS2 it was great for repairing audio recorded with the on cam mic- (for run and gun applications)

Thanks for the update- It's been tough not having Audition around in the suite for the last 3 versions-

Viva Audition!

Tony

[_durin_]

Hi Tony,

The Center Channel Extractor is already in Audition CS 5.5, under Effects > Stereo Imagery > Center Channel Extractor.  In fact, it's now a potentially real-time effect (it has a high CPU requirement, but as tracks can be enabled for real-time background pre-render, you can adjust it as needed and the pre-render will update and reduce CPU overhead) as well as offering a few additional tools such as Side Channel Levels adjustment.

Durin

[Guest]

Durin, I do lots of audio restoration and desperately depend on using additional DirectX plugins from Sony. I already tried a third party VST wrapper which would only cause problems with the filter output, not mentioning the inconvenient workflow.

The missing DirectX plugin support has rendered the current version totally useless for me. Any chance that it will return in the upcoming Windows versions?

Thanks, Norman

ps. I personally could not care less about a ported Mac edition, however, one for Ubuntu with a possible DirectX port for Win plugins would be great.

[Edit]:

Hello, anyone there??

Message was edited by: norman000

[Michael_Putrino]

Whatever you guys did to the Center Channel Extractor, you did it very well. It is now extrememly usefull for raising or lowering lead vocals in mastering.

Also, the hard limiter is much improved. With the adjustable look-ahead, it is invisible even when used to greatly boost levels.

Gret job on both counts!

Thanks,

Mike

[sikter]

Hello to everyone,

I just couldn't sort it out if MIDI will or will not be included in version 6.

If not, what is solution for the drum track?

I've been a loyal user since Cool Edit 1,2 or something.

When I'm supposed to record/mix new song I always start with”Open a new session" and then I start from the scratch.

I play all instruments and never use loops or anything what's pre-done but to do so I am depending of a simple drum track.

I program those in Cubase today since I found MIDI editing in AA3,0 not very efficient.

Metronome is of course very useful and it could actually be enough but I play always better both guitar and the bass with a little action on the drum track.

I'll need that drum track eventually anyway so how am I going to make it in AA6?

I need to mention that I use MIDI for my piano, strings, pad and brass tracks but my main instrument is the guitar.

I LOVE AA, please, please, make me stick with it for ever...

sikter

[_durin_]

Hi guys,

I cannot go on the record to say that specific features will or won't be in CS 6 since it's still under development and our feature priorities can always shift.  However, knowing where we are and what our focus is for the next release I feel confident that full MIDI Sequencing and VSTi support will not be available in time for CS 6.  Basic MTC and Metronome support are in the feature backlog, and prioritized near the upper range, but I cannot say for certain where they'll fall in the development cycle.

With regards to support for DirectX effects, I feel support is unlikely to make it into CS 6.  I'd be curious to learn, however, what the status of this format in the market is.  Are new effects being released in DX format?  If I have some data about the level of demand and support for these, I might be able to influence the priority for this feature in the backlog.

[Guest]

That's exceptionally disappointing to hear. What WILL CS6 have? I think the majority of us just want the same features as AA3 had before ANYTHING else is brought in. Isn't CS6 still a year away anyway? And wouldn't the next release be 12-18 months after that? Are you implying that we'll have to wait 2+ years before Audition has MIDI support again... and possibly that long for DirectX support and even a metronome!?!?! Yikes! How long WILL it take for Audition's features to catch back up to AA3?

I don't know what features Adobe IS working on, but it's looking like Adobe is about to jump the shark.

[Guest]

Also, most people aren't overly concerned which format NEW effects are being released in if they can't make use of effects that have been out and reliable for some time. In the music industry, certain gear has been a staple of most studios and added to new studios for literally decades. Some plugins have comparable value and longevity, including some Waves plugins, which I'm currently using through DirectX support. Who cares about the latest new plugins if I can't make use of $$$ worth of old ones? Nobody wants to throw out all their old gear when it's all still more useful than the latest bells and whistles. A half decent set of plugins costs multiple times a new version of Audition, so it's cheaper and easier to change DAWs than it is to forgo the use of myriad effects. DirectX support is amongst many other featuers that are a MUST HAVE for Audition to be useful to many of us. If for some reason Adobe is having trouble reinstating features in a timely manner, they should probably hire more (or more suitable) staff.

This really feels like Adobe is using a slight efficiency improvement to resell all the same old features multiple times by spreading them out amongst numerous "upgrades". It's appalling.