Is there a how to walkthrough or video for setting up a MIDI controller in Audition 13?

[Dud Studly]

I recently bought an Arturia Keystep 32-key USB MIDI controller. I am looking for some walkthrough or video instructions on how to add/setup a MIDI controller to Audition. I am quite new to this so simple instructions would be most welcome.

[Dud Studly]

Sadly after working with Adobe Support, they informed me Audition 13 does not support MIDI controllers. I have received a full refund for my one year subscription and now the hunt continues for full functioning sound design software for video. I will likely next try the much more expensive Avid Pro Tools. Very dissappointing as Audition seemed so much easier to use and Adobe has a very good reputation.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Interesting. Here is a screen grab of the contoller protocols that Audition 13 supports. If you have a device that can use these protocols, then you should be able to use it without too much difficulty, although I have no idea whether there's any supporting documentation for them, I'm afraid:

That said, these are only controller protocols. Audition itself doesn't inherently support MIDI, as it's an audio editor, not a music generation program as such.

[Dud Studly]

Thanks, Steve. I wouldn't know what to do with that. I couldn't find anything online that would help including in this community.

As part of creating/editing audio for web, film and TV, I will need to create occasional background music for dramatic effect. It's a huge part of the effect audio can have on video as I am sure you well know. A MIDI controller makes creating quick background music much easier. I don't want to have to have buy a second sound editor just to do that and have to transfer files back and forth every time I need to use a MIDI controller. There are other editors that already do both so I don't see why I would choose Audition until Adobe addresses this short coming.

I've already downloaded Avid's Pro Tools First (the free version) for the music production course I am currently taking. If I find it usable by my beginner self, I will likely upgrade to the standard version which has full video support. As I dig deeper, Pro Tools seems to be the current film and television standard and I am starting to see why. I really liked the more usuable interface of Audition so I really hope they add MIDI support soon.

[Brian5E84]

I have been working with Audition since it was Cool Edit, starting in radio in 1992. Just wanting a simple USB midi input capability for Audition seems like a simple thing to accomodate for those of us that don't want another software subscription (or time for pro tools) at home. The ability to use Audition to make a music bed with a midi for a video in premiere seems like a logical request. Not sure why you in particular are so dismissive about this feature. Reading all these threads makes me seriously reconsider my subscription despite decades of using Audition. 

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

There's nothing dismissive here at all - there's a simple statement of fact; Audition is not music creation software. Another fact is that all the time that its development is driven by the major corporate users, who couldn't give a stuff about MIDI (in it's original form, a rather outdated protocol now anyway), then music creation is very unlikely to appear in it. And this is despite some of the developers being quite keen on the idea in one form or another. Personally I don't think it's necessary, and that what would be a rather better idea would be to get Rewire to work properly. But there appears to be no real enthusiasm for that idea either. If you look at the bigger picture here, I suspect that the major players in the video world, which is really where Audition is heading, tend to buy in music. And some of their music content creators may have even said to them that they don't want MIDI in Audition, as potentially, they'd lose work because of it.

The hard reality, borne out over many years now, is that individual users are very unlikely indeed to be able to influence the direction that Audition takes, as it won't influence sales. And that's what keeps the developers employed. So not dismissive, just realistic.

[Brian5E84]

This isn't even about music creation. It's about AUDIO creation. I work in radio - RADIO. I still work in radio. I want the ability to take the logical next step in my video graphics by being able to use Audition to create the soundtrack without having to leave the Adobe CS. Using multiple digital inputs from a variety of sources whether midi or not is a feature that Adobe users have wanted for several years now and should be a no brainer. The entire point of using CS was an all-in one suite. Why would I continue using the suite at work either if the company doesn't ever make simple code adjustments users want? Again, whether at Cox Media, Cumulus Media, Townsquare Media or any other of the corporations I have worked at since 1992, we have always had to work around the limitations of audition at some point. Just annoying as hell now that they have multiple threads on the subject in their support forums over a series of years and act like it's not important. Especially since a lot of us aren't at work all the time these days and work at home. Most radio stations aren't even big corporations, they are local small businesses. And to act like their needs are the same at iHeartmedia is just a flawed business model.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

These are not 'support' forums - they are U2U forums where if you are lucky, you might get some useful advice, generally after you've visited Adobe's actual support, which is phone-based, and they send you here. The developers rarely visit the forums - generally they only do when asked specifically to. Ranting on about things that you think are wrong may make you feel better, but ultimately they won't make any difference to anything.

And there is no such thing as a simple code adjustment - never has been, especially in software that's both deep, and linked into other parts of the suite. Even small changes have been known to cause a lot of upset down the line. Linking in itself has been one of the more troublesome things to get right - that's why features like the round trip between Premiere and Audition will only work with versions that have been specifically partnered. If you start adding requirements for partnering with even more of the suite, the problems simply multiply. Adobe have gradually gone some way towards attempting to get this better, but it's a long-term project.

[Dud Studly]

I'd add that for the very high cost of Audition, it should have MIDI support if it wants to compete with other DAWs. Perhaps Adobe has no interest in competing in that space.

As an update, I found Pro Tools far too difficult to learn and have settled on Reaper. It manages audio editing for video well. It seems to have more abilities than Audition while costing only $60 which is less than two months of an Adobe Audition subscription cost. Their support is more responsive to users as well. I am very happy I didn't stick with Audition.

[derek273646078qv5]

I find it odd that they have vts3 effects but you can't use a MIDI controller/keyboard to use the knobs as pan pots for the parameters of the vst effects. So strange.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Audition does support MIDI controllers - whatever support told Dud was either misinterpreted or plain wrong. As I said early on in the thread, there is a list of protocols that is supported, and they are all MIDI-based protocols. What Audition doesn't support is MIDI music contollers (keyboards) or, in the same league, VSTi plugins.

[Henrik Heigl]

Hi,

as Steve mentioned there is the possibility that some DAW Controllers will work. See also https://helpx.adobe.com/audition/using/control-surface-support.html

Also there are some Links on how Adobe Audition can work with MIDI https://www.cinemasound.com/audition-midi-hack/ and often you need the Tool Midi2LR and others to edit the MIDI Chanels and assign the controls to the specific knobs. But that is normally not what everybody wanted to fiddle around with Tools instead of editing music in Audition.
So I'm afraid because of all that said you can only use SOME DAW Controllers that are uses the Midi Protocol to control but no Midi Keyboard to produce Sonds. Hope that helps.

[derek273646078qv5]

Thanks for this!!! I have DAWs but I really love using audition. I will download that program and give it a try. I was puzzled,so I really appreciate this bit of knowledge!!!!! Turning knobs by hand just gives audio a little more humanity.

[Dud Studly]

Update: I have been using Reaper for over 2 years now and I love it. Audition is extremely overpriced for what it is. It appears to be one of the only DAWs that doesn't support MIDI keyboards while being one of the most expensive to subcribe to. I paid $60 one time for Reaper and it is good for two major releases before I have to pay that again. Tiny releases come about every other week yet so far no new major releases have come during the past two years. Also, I own Reaper, unlike Audition that keeps wanting high monthly payments or you lose it. I can see if one has an Adobe Creative Cloud suscription bundle and Audition comes with it then it might make sense for you though you may still require an additional full DAW to fill Audition's missing gaps. For everyone else, Audition just looks like a cash cow for Adobe to get money from their loyal followers.

2 years with Reaper = $60US

2 years with Audition = $21.99US x 24 months = $527.76US

Why on earth would one pay more money for fewer features?

[derek273646078qv5]

Jeskola Buzz is a FREE DAW. And it was a collaborative project created by many designers and app/program coders. A ton of people since 2000ish collectively added machines (instruments and effects) to it over the years. They simplified everything to save processing power, so it is efficient and clear and easy to use. A really well-designed program that can do all kinds of things in intuitive ways. And it has always been FREE.

[Dud Studly]

Thanks, Derek. I just looked Jeskola Buzz up to see what it is all about. I believe it is only really for music. I don't see any video support. Reviews point out that it is quite buggy and crashes a lot. It also doesn't seem to be supported with no new releases in 6 years. It does look like a good option to Audacity in the free DAW world. It is not at all in the same league as Reaper. Reaper is also well known for using very low resources to run and has a fantastic community. If you do go down the Reaper road, make sure you check out the Reaper Mania YouTube channel by Kenny Gioia. His how to videos are legend.

[derek273646078qv5]

Most DAWs do the same things for the most part, but slightly differ in where to do what you want to do and how to do what you want to do. Reaper is also considered a "tracker" as "buzz" is as well if I remember correctly. They're similar. Stick with what you know instead of waste time relearning a whole new thing to accomplish the same thing. I recently bought Serato Studio and I find myself using it for the stems (only available in the beta version) option, but I use it a lot because the stem splitting is superior to any other stem splitting app or website I have tried. I have never had anything less than perfect result from Serato. I now juggle between Acid, Mixed in Key, Platinum Notes, Serato, and Audition (I save the mastering process for Audition.) This fractured workflow seems to be working for me. Each one of these I utilize for the task it does the best. Anyhow, thanks for your advice and time! I appreciate it.

[Dud Studly]

Sure, for the most part all the modern DAWs do the same thing although the reason I started this thread was because Audition doesn't support MIDI keyboards and in general is not meant for music creation. There can still be some huge gaps though. I also found several DAWs which do not support video which can be a showstopper for many folks.

You mentioned that you believe Reaper might be a tracker. I am not sure what you mean by that. I did see that Buzz is considered a tracker as in a type of interface popular in the '90's. If you mean either tracker vs sequencer or tracker vs DAW, I could not find anything that suppoerted that being the case. Everything I could find labels Reaper as a full functioning DAW and specifically as a sequencer. There was mention of a separate 3rd party software called Renoise that can be combined with Reaper to help simulate a tracker-like experience within Reaper. Is that that you meant?

[derek273646078qv5]

That sounds like what I read about it years ago in Sound on Sound.
Excellent research skills! I'm impressed!

--
"Each day do something you can be proud of. Each night take pleasure in
remembering it." -Dr. Ira Greenberg