I don't get it? Why can't you save Project Files in Audition?

i feel like i could've written this frustrated question. Whether 'saving as' or exporting the file it will be invariably gone the following day's work or the media player won't play it inexplicably calling it 'corrupted' or saved wrong. i work in radio and frequently save calls that i hope to use later or edit and keep in a file but will not find them or can't open them.  What is the Jedi Mind Trick that will clear up this detrimental issue? 

I cannot believe that in 10 years this has not been adequately addressed. I didn't particularly appreciate using Adobe Audition and have only begun to use it because I'm now working on a podcast. Coming from the visual side of the Adobe Creative Suite, I'm used to After Effects and Premiere Pro. I wonder why Audition doesn't function more like After Effects, or even Premiere Pro when managing files, sessions, and CD layouts. I'd love to create a project file, create a bunch of sessions to handle my interviews, then combine them in a master session where I can do any final tweaks to the audio, add music, and intro/outro segments. The current workflow in Audition to do this is, and there is no other way to say this, a true cluster#*@%.

In my AE example, the project would be a file to manage everything in your podcast or album. Sessions and CD layouts would be a lot like comps; this way you would organize an entire album or podcast in a project and quickly jump between songs or interviews/segments. Everything else would be imported "footage" that you would organize however you wanted. There should also be a tabbed interface so it's easier to see what files are open and easily switch between them. The "files" palette is pure garbage for this sort of thing, especially since you can apparently close a file down and offline it in your multitrack session, and there's not even a simple way to figure out which tracks belong to which files. At least in AE I can right-click a layer in my comp and have it show me where the source exists in my project.

This app is sorely in need of an entire UI overhaul. While you're at it, make it possible to roundtrip between Premiere Pro/After Effects and Audition more efficiently so I don't have to redo everything just because a client wants to change something last minute.

It's now 2018, it might be time for Adobe to enable this functionality to keep up with the FREE software on the market.

Chiming in here. Coming from Premiere Pro (and slowly, Davince Resolve, because Premiere Pro's wheels are coming off, at least for me and I'll be exiting that program this year), Audition is my go to for audio editing, for single Render and Replace. Mixing is another story. I am a newbie at audio editing and mixing, but like most of the detractors here, I am at best confused about the UX design/philosophy concerning audition's file organization, or lack thereof.

I am trying to use audition for podcasting. This involves sound effects, music, interviews, and other bits and pieces. Again, coming from Premiere Pro, where you gather up your pieces first and then edit them together - and this being an Adobe product - thought it would act somewhat like... any of their other products.

I was wrong, as this thread shows.

I too am confused about how audition approaches organization. Take for example, podcast narrating. You don't just automatically take the first read, or maybe some of the first, but then have re-takes to patch over parts that were lacking. And you'd rather get into the flow of narrating, then go back and listen and choose the best of the retakes, and make notes of the others, than the stop and go that Audition prefers. And when you do get the retake right: there's zero file organization management/method to highlight/mark/rename that file for later use. imo, this is inane. It seems audition expects you to stop. edit in the new line. make sure its kind of proper. check. continue. repeat as necessary. also of note again: there's no way to rename the file to note "paragraph one, retake 3", just [multiwave track name]_XXX. This is nearly useless when working through a ten page script.

If someone can point me to a youtube/blog/article that has an example workflow that addresses file organization, please contact me. I don't prefer being this negative, but coming from Premiere Pro, where you have, like 5 different ways to rename assets (via tracks, files, files on a timeline, subclips, in and out points, notes, comments, "Good" markers, markers with notes, just off the top of my head) coming to a program that gives you one chance to name a file (and none to rename within the program), and markers (that aren't quite as smart as I think PPro's are, but that could just be due to familiarity).

And so you say, well, you know what you're keeping, why not just remove the files from the session? Because I have editors and other stakeholders, who might say, "I don't like that take". Then what? I have to dig back through XXs of retakes hunting and pecking to find it, instead of having them within reach and organized. From UI/UX design when do you ever want your users to actively, consciously have a reason to leave your app? That's like... McDonald's telling you if you want fries, go to Wendy's. I mean, that works, but you just lost a customer, for no particularly good reason. It's a known fact, McDonald's makes fries (e.g. Premiere Pro, After Effects, heck even Photoshop/InDesign/Illustrator have their own ways to nest/folder-then-hide design elements w capabilities to rename and other organization methods).

Adobe: please make an attempt to unify some of your UX, at least within your AV NLE/After Effects/DAW suite. It's turning me away from you software, and in Audition's case, it looks like that's the point. At least, that's what fellow users seem to be advising ("organize footage within the OS, not the program). If that's not the case, please guide me to where I can learn the correct workflow.

Thank you.

I'm with you. It just makes no sense that pressing save would not, you know, save it.

I agree that media management in Audition is perplexing at best.  The fact that you have to enable an obscure check mark in prefs for "Reference all open audio and video files when saving sessions" is highly non-intuitive compared to the way 99% of all A/V editing programs work.  Every other program saves any media links that you bring into the bin until the next session.  I really don't care semantically whether its called a session, a project or a jimmy-jam, most people expect their files to be there when they get back. There's no good reason to not do that, as far as I can tell.

While we're on the subject, here are a couple of media management issues I have:

1) Why is there no search function in the Media Browser, only in the File tab?  If you have a gazillion sound effects on multiple hard drives, its highly inefficient to manually search for them one at a time or to exit to some other program like Bridge (don't get me started on why that's a bad idea). 

2) Once you've culled your media and placed in the Files area, why are there no Folders or ability to tag media in order to put things in order?  Premiere has it, so does After Effects.  Why is Audition's file tab a big dumping ground?

That helps. Thanks.

I'm adding my voice to those calling for some kind of project file format. It would just be convenient. The project file should save bins (folders) that I've sorted my files into. It should let me save an Effects Rack before applying it, so I can make changes tomorrow and re-export a different mix.

That said, I'm getting a lot done this week in Audition and I'm really loving the selection tools and the ability to edit sound in the spectral view. Great for removing noises.

This does not suffice. It saves the Multitrack session data, but what we and I’m pretty sure many others need is the ability to save a project involving a single audio file and the current status of any and all non-destructive actions (Effects Rack, just for starters) performed on it.

Apple’s SoundTrack Pro has been able to do this since Day One (.stap files, SoundTrack Audio Project). Heck, even the freeware open-source Audacity can do it (.aup, Audacity Audio Project)!

After six major versions under the name “Audition” and Adobe’s ownership, not to mention its days as Cool Edit Pro, why the heck can Audition not do such an extremely basic thing, even in the latest Auditon CC!? Please add this. I recommend “.aap” (Audition Audio Project)  or “.aaap” (Adobe Audition Audio Project) to avoid conflicts with Audacity.

To add some more functionality that Apple’s Final Cut Studio has had all along, such .aaap files should also be able to be imported directly as clips into a Premiere Pro timeline. When rendering, Premiere Pro would call on Audition in the background (without launching the user interface if Audition is closed at the time) to actually render the audio in its current state. This way, if the project file is further edited (including non-destructive effects parameters, ordering, enabling / disabling, etc.) then the .aaap is re-saved without having to export any audio, then the Premiere Pro timelines that reference it will automatically be updated as well the next time they render (and those clips would be flagged as needing rendering). This is a very efficient workflow.

Frankly, the lack of this should be considered a showstopper for the use of Adobe software in any kind of A/V production. The fact that it went this long without being done gives me reason to question the use of Adobe software at all, with the possible exception of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Acrobat. It tells me that at least some of your development teams just aren’t thinking right.

In fact, speaking of those more basic apps, imagine if there were no .psd/.psb or .ai or .indd file formats. Imagine if you could only save from Photoshop to .png or .jpg or .tiff or whatever, or from Illustrator to .wmf/emf or .pct (PICT) or .dwg or even .eps (without saving AI editing data) or whatever, or from InDesign to .pdf or other prepress formats. Imagine if you could not keep your Smart Layers and Smart Filter settings in Photoshop files, etc. This is basically the situation that Audition has been in for six major versions now (again, not to mention its Cool Edit Pro days).

I assume you are refering to an Audition 'project' (actually referred to as a 'session') and not importing a 'project' from Premiere.

So if that is correct then the way to do that is to switch to the Multitrack view (rather than the Edit View)

Press the number "0" for MT and "9" for Edit (or use the menu)

In MT view you can import or record your audio and then save it as a session/project to work on again later

If I have misunderstood then let me know