Opinions on the new Adobe Audition

[ianvix]

Please do not mistake this thread for a dupe of the other thread of a similar topic, I'd like to give a more in depth opinion of the new version of Audition compared to its predecessor.

For the past five years I have spent many hours of most days experimenting with audio, specifically audio restoration. I tried countless other applications before discovering Audition and none could offer what I was looking for. When I did discover Audition (version 3), about 3 years ago, it is one of the very few pieces of software I have since installed on every computer I use. It was extremely easy to use whilst having an incredible array of functions. The help manual was extremely comprehensive, giving detailed instructions and explanation of every single option in Audition, this alone I thought deserves praise. The program constantly delighted me; it seemed tailored to the needs of someone who would be using it to its full potential. I was constantly discovering new levels of potential that Audition offered and it has been the invaluable in allowing me to provide much needed audio restoration for vinyl rips of tunes that would otherwise become lost forever. With all that Audition v3 offered I could master even the worst, hiss-filled, click-ridden, muffled vinyl rips to recordings that would sound perfectly acceptable to be released on professional CDs.

I could not fault Audition v3, but I could, however, think of improvements, albeit very few. For years I eagerly awaited a new version and now it has arrived, I have to admit I am a quite disappointed.

The improvements that I had hoped would have been applied, have not. Instead, it seems to be a basic edition of version 3 except with a makeover. It does indeed work slightly faster, for example, instead of taking 6-7 seconds to load a track in version 3, it only seems to take 3-4 in version 4. Unfortunately this is about the only thing I can praise it for. The layout is unnecessarily complicated. I always valued audition for its extremely ergonomic layout, making it an extremely unconfusing application to work with. The new layout is clustered and unnecessary. I appreciate that I can alter the layout to what I would like, but it's unnecessary hassle to have to make it usable - I have never had to alter the layout of version 3 from its default. The available effects of the new version are the same as the old version, this alone was a little disheartening as I was anticipating numerous new abilities, but I can't really think of what else could be added, so I overlooked this. I can't, however, overlook that the processes are far more basic than what they were in version 3 and do not offer the ability to alter them to my exact needs, the declick effect being a prime example. Version 3's declick process had a vast array of settings allowing me to amend them to my exact requirements, the new version simply has 2 sliders, not even a "fix single click" option. I also feel that the help file is marginally more difficult to navigate than in the previous version.

I have to say that I agree with what was said in the previous thread, this new version simply appears to be a rehash of Soundbooth, which I have always perceived (as do many other people I have spoken to) to be a layman's version of Audition v3.

In conclusion, I regret to say that I'm sticking to v3. The new version only offers slightly faster processing, but at the cost of most of its functioning.

What's going on? Surely this is the reverse of how updates work?

[jerry.ibbotson]

Thanks for the reply. On the Preview issue, I'm not 100% sure what you mean, I have run 3.0 on XP, Vista and 7 and it worked on all three. I've just checked on the machine I'm on now (a Win & VAIO) and it's there.

I'm glad you like my balance of good and bad. Overall, I am a huge fan of Audition and always have been.

Look at my Portfolio; all the audio there was produced in Audition.

www.mediamill.co.uk

[Jiffster0101010]

Hi there

Been keeping an eye out ont he Pitch bender issue that has been mentioned many times, and was wondering when a version would be released for Mac that has the old pitch bender back in?

Almost a year has passed since this particular thread suggested it was being worked on, so I was wondering when we could expect these features to be available?

[Guest]

They have not fixed a single issue with AA CS5.5... they have really dropped the ball

[jackatnite]

I've figured the best way to go is to keep Audition 3 on my machine to do the things 5.5 won't. Quick preview is the single most sorely missed feature. Yes, the time stretch / pitch on 5.5 is quite awful. I use the one on 3. While being able to sync Quicktime videos to audio is a godsend in 5.5, it comes at the cost of losing the ability to do the same with wmv...even though that feature leaves much to be desired in Audition 3.

Jack Anthony

Studio at the End of the Universe

(803)517-6150

[Guest]

I ditto everything you just said... After years of perfecting the ability to record my voice and mute my errors in real time with AA3... and the having that end with 5.5 was disappointing. And that Adobe said they would be patching 5.5 and never did so... very lame

[Todd_Kopriva]

> And that Adobe said they would be patching 5.5 and never did so... very lame

Please point me to the place where an Adobe employee promised something that hasn't been delivered on. I need to make sure that if someone did promise something that wasn't done, that we deal with it.

[Guest]

How about the promise to deliver a product that fits the needs of its users? You know that the radio industry has a big usership of Audition and we have needs that have not been met. It has been almost a year and still no Auto Play?! Do you have any idea how much time is wasted by not having this feature?

So you force us to use Audion 3... So I guess things get fixed with 6... so much for paying for 5.5 and

hoping it would get an update.. Why even ask us to fill out a survey?  Again... very lame!

[ryclark]

Well you could have read and contributed to this thread which has been going almost as long as Audition CS 5.5 has been available:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/838570?tstart=0

as well as the Feature Request part of this forum:

http://forums.adobe.com/community/audition/audition_general/audition_feature_requests

[Guest]

How do you think I got into this thread? Don't act like this is the first

time you have heard this. It is a problem that has not been addressed. Go

ahead... open a file and try to find it when you know what it sounds like

and not what it is called!! You have to open everything you think it is!!!!

This I a Huge Deal!!! And look it up! I did do the survey!

[Jiffster0101010]

Unfortunately, there is no Mac version of 3.0 so those of us who aren't PC based are at the mercy of Adobe doing something about the promised implementation of key features.

Would be really great to get some sort of update from Adobe on this...?

[Todd_Kopriva]

We've announced publicly that there will be a new version of Creative Suite software in the first half of this year. Stay tuned for details.

[Jiffster0101010]

Great news Todd.

Can you confirm that the Pitch bender and preview on open functions will be available again for Mac? Or at least that the featureset will be the same for both mac and pc?

[Todd_Kopriva]

I can't comment on specific features in upcoming releases.

[Jiffster0101010]

Ok, thank's Todd

Can you comment on when you'll be able to announce the featureset in any greater detail than the first half of this year?

[Todd_Kopriva]

I can say that we'll certainly be able to talk about it in the first half of this year. That's all for right now.

[Jiffster0101010]

Ok Thanks Todd.

I don't know if it helps much to shift things along a little, but since I can't get any official word one way or another from Adobe, I will be officially freezing our Audition licenses at 3.0 and not upgrading.

Whils we await some clearer information from Adobe, we will be looking to other sample/multitrack editors that provide for our needs.

Thanks

-Alan McDermott

Sony Computer Entertainment

[Guest]

Jiffster0101010 wrote:

Ok Thanks Todd.

I don't know if it helps much to shift things along a little, but since I can't get any official word one way or another from Adobe, I will be officially freezing our Audition licenses at 3.0 and not upgrading.

Whils we await some clearer information from Adobe, we will be looking to other sample/multitrack editors that provide for our needs.

Thanks

-Alan McDermott

Sony Computer Entertainment

I normally try to add to the signal rather than the noise around here, but this strikes me as a pretty depressing post.

First off, I ran the trial of CS5.5 ages ago, and "froze my licence at 3.0" or, in normal language, didn't bother to upgrade. I'm happy to accept the assurances that 6 will be worth evaluating and will wait to see if it meets my needs any better thn 3.0 or even 1.5.

Secondly, surely before replacing any working software with a different, re-written, version, any responsible purchaser looks around at alternatives and chooses what provides for their needs before spending the shareholders cash on something unsuitable.

Thirdly, I always thought that some parts of Sony were involved in the lobbying that has affected the hardware/firmware within computers and that has so restricted their usefulness to so many professional journalists and other users. Things like the removal of the "Stereo Mix" facility.

[Jiffster0101010]

Hi Wild Duck

Just to clarify a couple of things -

We did evaluate 5.5 and found it to be sub-par for our needs. In fact, much like many other regular users of Audition, we found it considerably lacking when compared to 3.0. As such, we will not be upgrading.

Further to this, without any official information on what the future holds for Audition, I don't really have any alternative but to start looking at other software solutions for my team.

I'm not sure what you mean about Sony being involved as lobbyists in affecting Hardware or Software. Me and my team here have no say whatsoever that extends beyond the say of any other customer when it comes to Adobe Audition, or whoever manufactures their hardware for that matter. We do, of course, consider ourselves to be customers of some value, but again, no more valuable to Adobe than you or any other customer would consider themselves.

The bottom line for me, is likely much the same as it is for you and your colleagues... I need the software that my team uses to evolve along with their creativity. Even to push and challenge their creativity... Sadly, this doesn't appear to be happening with Audition

All that being said, I remain hopeful for 6.0...

Thanks

-Alan

[SuiteSpot]

From what I'm reading from Todd's post ("We've announced publicly that there will be a new version of Creative Suite software in the first half of this year. Stay tuned for details") is that some time in the next 3 to 4 months there will be a release of CS6 (happy to be corrected - well not that happy). 

And yes for some CS5.5 was all they ever needed, some not so much and others it wasn't worth a pinch of poo.

Of course in all that time AA3 is still as good as it ever was - well not quite true because if you have upgraded your hardware it actually screams (and even more so does CS5.5).

Given that we waited so long for a CS5.5 and what looks like an earlier than usual release cycle a few months really shouldn't be a deal breaker - I know I've worked for some organisations which took that long to organise a purchase order 😉

Like most here my hopes are high and my fingers are crossed.

[Lighthope]

> I don't know if it helps much to shift things along a little, but since I can't get any official word one way or another from Adobe,

>I will be officially freezing our Audition licenses at 3.0 and not upgrading.

Oh we long ago stopped licencing Audition.  Each upgrade was relatively minor compared to the upgrade cost (I know some will debate that) and 5.5 was actually a downgrade.

We look forward to the next edition, but we promise we will be looking over it VERY carefully.

[Guest]

Downgrade!!That is true!! And upgrade that takes away features would be a downgrade!! You nailed this one!! Adobe, You ever hear of a patch?!!!!

[MusicConductor]

Nice post, Jerry.  I couldn't agree more -- both plusses and minuses.

[jerry.ibbotson]

I was wrong on one thing - playing video in AA CS 5.5 is a nightmare! The same .avi that plays beautifully in 3.0 is all blurry in 5.5 and it won't even touch .wmvs. An MP4 that is supposed to play won't. I'm working on a promo video of a game for E3 and it's a nightmare. After using 5.5 solidly for two weeks I have to go back to 3.0. Can anyone help on this? I need to get it to either play the MP4 I have been sent, or play a wmv version, or play an avi that I spat out of Premiere as crisply as 3.0 does.

Thanks

[jds7]

I mostly use AA for creating archive recordings from live concerts and some session work.  I like a few things about the new version; it seems much faster, overall.

Since there isn't a conversion available from the previous session files I attempted to setup a session with the same settings as a session in AA 3 now I find what is missing.  Hopefully I'm not familiar to find these features in the new version and someone could chime in.

Input Gain on mixer

Stereo Expander Effect missing

Mix Paste, unable to Mix Paste from a File, used this quite a bit in AA 3

"Transport" Record/Play not on Mixer tab, unless you enable, then you have two "Transports" on the Editor tab, taking up screen space

The new phase meter, is nice that it is available in Multitrack, but I want the more detailed Phase Analysis back

Right click to add Marker in Multitrack

CD Burning

Noise shaping completely different - probably a good thing!

David

[jackatnite]

I got Audition CS 5.5 when my new computer got the BSOD several times during normal editing on Audition 3. My new system is 64 bit, 8 core. The new Audition definitely takes advantage of the extra processing power. The one sore spot for me is the multitrack workflow. In my opinion, the multitrack workflow on Audition 3 was close to perfect. Now, I have to go through extra steps to accomplish the same thing. Usually, I am quick to adapt to new technology. This is giving me fits.

First off, the mouse wheel horizontal zoom is intact on the waveform screen, but has changed to vertical scrolling on the multitrack when editing clips. This is extremely annoying, as I now have to go to the timeline at the top of the screen to zoom in horizontally. When working with multiple tracks, this is cumbersome and time consuming. The scroll bar on the right was adequate as it was...so I see no need to change the mouse wheel scrolling from horizontal to vertical. In addition, the funtionality of being able to zoom into tracks vertically on the scroll bar to the right has moved to the track controls on the left of the screen.

Being able to move forward by grabbing the timeline at the top and moving is also gone. I like the zoom window at the top which allows me to widen or narrow the view, but not at the cost of prior functionality.

The loss of the hybrid tool, and proliferation of the "Time Selection", Moving Tool" and Razor Tool" is devastating. Now, I have to set additional keyboard shortcuts to get the full functionality of what used to be the hybrid tool. Now, I must toggle between the  "Time Selection" tool and the "Move" tool to accomplish what used to amount to pressing  "control", grabbing the audio and moving it wherever I like. It has slowed down the workflow tremendously in that respect. While the razor tool is ok, it is redundant to anyone who uses "split" for the same function.

Pros: I like the History window. I also like being able to  "reveal in explorer". I like having the dropdown list of recent sessions and files when opening sessions/files. Being able to sync Quicktime files in the video window is a godsend.

As for the touted "improved workflow", I have to take issue with that. After all the iterations of Audition, there are still the unexplained crashes. Definite advantages. Absolute disadvantages. I'm about evenly split. As for all of the alleged "missing stuff", I really haven't found anything glaring that has impeded me. It's the added stuff in the multitrack workflow that provides the stick in the spokes.

In the waveform view, it's weird not to be able to simply click on a channel to disable the other to change the amplitude ,etc. The up and down arrow shortcut (which only works in the waveform view) can't be modified with custom shortcuts, as I use the arrows for zoom functions in my custom shortcuts. I never have used the default shortcuts. This has messed with the uniformity of my custom shortcuts, and I have been forced to find a workaround. 

I recommend the developers take a good long look at what made the multitrack editing in 3.0 so effortless, and implement it in the next version. perhaps a patch to restore the prior functionalities?