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January 9, 2020
Question

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

  • January 9, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 5680 views

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.

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2 replies

November 30, 2022

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
Participating Frequently
December 6, 2022

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.

 

derek273646078qv5
Participating Frequently
December 12, 2022

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?


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
January 9, 2020

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_
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 9, 2020

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.

January 10, 2020

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.