Download manual for Audition?

[Ed_O_Reilly]

Hi

I would like information (link) of where I can download the manual for Audition.

Thank you

Ed

[Moved from the non-technical Lounge Forum to the Program forum... Mod]

[Here is the list of all Adobe forums... https://forums.adobe.com/welcome]

[ryclark]

There isn't an actual manual. But there is a lot of online help and tutorials. To start you off:

Adobe Audition Help | Audition User Guide

[Bob_Howes]

As ryclark says, there aren't any downloadable manuals just now, just the online stuff (some of which is pretty good).  However, from an answer I saw posted in another forum I believe there may be a .pdf manual planned but not for a while.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Bob+Howes  wrote

(some of which is pretty good)

And unfortunately, the rest is rather variable. Which can cause confusion, as the good stuff can lead you into a false sense of security about the rest of it, which simply isn't justified. So if in doubt, or you suspect that there's more to an issue than the help files say, then feel free to ask questions here, as your suspicions may well be justified!

[liebnitz]

No, I do not have time to wait for an answer. I need a downloadable manual I can read off line. (A complete manual would be even more useful.)

The response below is not practical.

"So if in doubt, or you suspect that there's more to an issue than the help files say, then feel free to ask questions here, as your suspicions may well be justified!"

[ryclark]

Well unfortunately the online help and various tutorials are all that are available. So however impractical I'm afraid that Steve's answer is the only way extra help is possible at the moment.

[Bob_Howes]

I’m with the OP on this.  Many’s the time that 30 seconds with a printed index would be all I need instead if a 7 minute tutorial.

From a previous thread, I believe Adobe has this under discussion (for all software, not just Audition so may I suggest you submit this as a formal Feature Reqest.  These forums are “user to user” so a formal request would be the best way to get some notice at Adobe.

[SplineTimeLine]

"There isn't an actual manual. But there is a lot of online help and tutorials. To start you off:"

Sad commentary.

I had recently stumbled across links to the PDF manuals for PPro and AE in the twitter Adobe Customer service feed. I was stunned and thrilled. It is the single most important feature of any software package. I've been begging and bitching for them ever since Adobe made the massive mistake of stopping their inclusion.The materials were hidden, unless you had the direct link.

While I sometimes enjoy taking the time to indulge in the "online" materials as a casual endeavor, it is useless for a mission critical need to get the pertinent reference, now (90% of why I am going to help). Today I wanted a quick answer on track bounce mechanics.

Used F1, typed in bounce (after specifying I did not want all the superfluous forum/community/tutorial clutter in my search) it did not offer Audition (HEY ADOBE! when I'm in a program, using the help requester, I ONLY WANT TO SEE material relevant to that program) a lot of useless references to marketing, metrics, after effects.

Stop everything else you are doing and issue "complete, referenced, current" manuals for your software. Users should not have to be making a special request for the most important, fundamental "feature" of any software.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

SplineTimeLine  wrote

Stop everything else you are doing and issue "complete, referenced, current" manuals for your software. Users should not have to be making a special request for the most important, fundamental "feature" of any software.

Stop everything and do a specialist job that you're not really equipped to do?

The huge problem with manuals is that to do them well is a specialist job, and costs a lot of money because, inevitably, you have to buy in specialists. And Adobe corporate ditched that idea a while ago in favour of employing coders to produce stuff that people could purchase, and paying shareholders dividends. And that, I'm afraid, is the harsh reality of life. We are fully aware that we get loads of questions from potentially irate users such as yourself on the forum - most of which could be answered by a comprehensive manual of the type you are proposing, but even if it existed, it would have to be rewritten on an almost constant basis - even more cost. And these costs are not insignificant; if you had the manual you desired, you'd end up paying significantly more for the software.

We do our best - we are, effectively, the 'explanation' bit of the on-line 'manual'... No you don't get instant answers, as we have lives as well.

[SplineTimeLine]

1-Stop everything and do a specialist job that you're not really equipped to do:

There are people documenting things in the online help, it is just a mess in collation and accessibility. My whole point is the need to be equipped, they used to be equipped. Great software with poor documentation is greatly diminished in value.

2-huge problem with manuals is that to do them well is a specialist job:

and there is a ready market of highly skilled people who can do this work, the cost is a reasonable part of documentation, much of the core material is already written in the coders outline of the program. There are a number of software solutions for tracking and cataloging this material for a technical writer

3-costs a lot of money:

Adobe is a very profitable company, and the cost of well executed documentation is not prohibitive.Most companies actually write it.

4-And these costs are not insignificant; if you had the manual you desired, you'd end up paying significantly more for the software.

Simply not true

5-it would have to be rewritten on an almost constant basis:

No it would not. You write the core manual and then issue the "whats new addendum" With the exception of Adobe, almost all of my technical, production software has usable and effective documentation.

Companies whose products I use with decent documentation (PDF or online); Newtek Lightwave, Cakewalk by Bandlab, iZotope plugins, Resolve, Syntheyes, Sound Forge, Falcon synth, Hybrid synth, Plexus particles, Stardust,Red Giant trapcode, ViaCad, blender, Dogwaffle Howler, Handbrake, Spyder color management, Acronis True Image, Roland Cloud, Directory Opus, SyncBack, Mocha Pro, DJI Phantom, 3D Coat, BOME Midi translator, VUE 9, KORG Soft Synths, LoopCloud, SynthMaster, Native Instruments, Stienberg, Video CoPilot..... on & on! Several of these are one man bands. Adobe does not need defending for poor product documentation.

I appreciate fellow users and moderators on forums. Utilize user groups. View tutorials and go to online training... all of these. None of them are a substitute for proper documentation. The PDF manuals issued in the spring of 2018 for Premiere and After Effects prove that adobe is quite capable of producing them. What's lacking is the decency to treat the end user with respect.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Well, you'd be entitled to your views, I suppose, even though they are a little bit idealistic.

Ultimately though, if you ask users whether they'd rather have some posh manual instead of feature development, virtually all of them will come down in favour of the latter. It's also unfortunately the case that even if you get somebody else to collate a manual, they're going to have to do rather more than that - they'll have to rewrite it completely, just to compensate for the stylistic differences between the people who wrote the original notes. Most of these were written by the very clever people who are coders first, writers a rather distant second, and what they write isn't always a model of clarity to everybody else.

So you end up in a situation where the poor soul trying to rearrange what's there has to spend some time talking to these people (which stops them being productive), and then learn it for themselves in order to write anything sensible at all. Been tried, not cheap.

SplineTimeLine  wrote

4-And these costs are not insignificant; if you had the manual you desired, you'd end up paying significantly more for the software.

Simply not true

5-it would have to be rewritten on an almost constant basis:

No it would not. You write the core manual and then issue the "whats new addendum"

I've already shown why the costs are significant. And as for the idea that you could write a core manual and update it - well, let me tell you that this has already been tried, and if I recall correctly, for a number of reasons found to be effectively unworkable. It only takes a core change for this to be a monster task, simply because of changed interactions, and that's just the start of it.

The last bit of this you really won't like. Despite the lack of manuals, Adobe is profitable - the CC product clearly is, from last year's figures. So, the bean counters will say that it's obvious that you won't improve this situation by adding manuals, and you may actually make it worse - most of these users are professionals who can figure this stuff out anyway, and there's always the forums to ask for help on if you're desperate, and they're much cheaper to run*. And they know from research what the corporate users think, and it goes something along the lines of not wanting their staff to sit around reading glossy manuals when they should be working. They say 'learn by doing, and only ask questions when you're desperate'. And they'd also rather the developers put effort into making it as bug-free as possible, rather than writing about it for them...

*Believe me, they are. If they weren't, Adobe would drop them like a stone.

[Trevor_Asq]

I'm not entirely sure I buy the 'producing a manual is too expensive' line - there's a cost, to be sure, but we are paying monthly subscriptions so there is an income stream. More so than Blackmagic - who do seem to manage to get a decent searchable manual out for their free & low-cost perpetual products, albeit a while after the product launches.

I'm in absolute agreement that if I do use the 'help' dropdown it should help me search for answers for that particular application.

As a newbie to this app (well been using bits of it for several years, but trying to use the multitrack editor in anger for the first time) it's infuriating to try and use the Adobe help ecosystem.

On the other hand, despite relatively low traffic, there is prompt and useful responses on this forum. Plus it's the most likely to give something approximating the answer in google searches. So thanks to all who do give up time for that.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

It's much easier to produce a manual for a relatively stable product, where a lot of development isn't going on. But as you've noted, even then they don't always turn up until some - often considerable - time after launch. The implications of this should be obvious.

[ryclark]

There is an Audition CC .pdf downloadable manual at https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/audition_reference.pdf . Not sure how up to date it is but it does mention CC 2017 and 2018. Give it a try to see if it is of any assistance.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

This is fine as a reference guide, but it's not what most people think of as a manual, as such. It appears to have last been updated in June 2018. The other thing about it (sort-of inevitable really) is that it doesn't tell you what you can't do - which is where the forum is a little more useful. And unless I've missed something, it doesn't really do workflows either. I'd describe it as a professional users reference guide rather than a manual - although it does contain some stuff that isn't directly about Audition at all - like the whole of chapter three!

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

liebnitz  wrote

The response below is not practical.

It's perfectly practical - just not instantaneous...

[Ed_O_Reilly]

Thank you for your responses!!

[SplineTimeLine]

I need to clarify my terms. Manual, Reference guide.... doesn't matter what we are calling it.

Thank you Ryclark: This is exactly all I'm asking for. I don't need a living, breathing comprehensive manual/reference guide/training/tutorial book that is all encompassing. I know how to go online and look for resources. I use creative cow,Lynda.com, Creative Live and a host of others. I use and appreciate the forums, I also use the the "online help" when time permits. I am not a newbie (started out with Sony umatics and an edit controller) began using premiere in 1993... So I am not a new user desperately wanting to have my hand held. I am working editor who needs to find a particular point about a particular function in the least amount of time.

All I have been griping about s the exact document that Ryclark pointed out. It does not to be updated real time as I'm reading it, nor contain all of the Meyer's AE training as they release it. I know where to find the "whats new".

So the distillation of my complaint (thanks to all here for helping me to refine it) is: PUT THE LINK TO PDF MANUALS FOR EACH PRODUCT ON THE HELP LANDING PAGE. Maybe even go crazy and have a section with a readily located link to all the PDF's.

An old curmudgeon can always dream And thank you to all for the helpful and thoughtful discourse on this matter.

That is all

[ryclark]

Yes it's a pity that the latest versions of Audition don't point to the PDF reference from the Help menu anymore. I'm sure that they used to on earlier versions.