Problem with distorted sound when using microphone in Adobe Audition CC

Report · Mar 04, 2019

Recently purchased Adobe Audition CC 2019. Currently using both Adobe Audition and Garageband for recording music and vocals. Using Zoom R24 and Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 as my interfaces on both software programs.

Problem: Using both an omnidirectional mic and a condenser mic. When I record a vocal track with either mic through either interface in the Garageband software, the vocals come out sharp, clear and normal sounding, no issues or problems. HOWEVER, when I do the same using Adobe Audition, the resulting vocal tracks sound somewhat distorted, not at all normal sounding. The best way to describe it is they come out sounding almost slightly doubled and as if they were recorded in a closet.

Discussion: I have examined all the settings etc. that I am aware of on Adobe Audition as well as my interfaces to see if I am doing something wrong, but I can't find anything obvious.

Question: Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions on how to solve this? Adobe Audition won't do me any good if I can't record without the track sounding distorted.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Report · Mar 04, 2019

Does this happen with both recording into the Waveform view and the Multitrack view? You don't happen to have tried starting a brand new session in Audition using one of the Template s provided have you? Some of them contain rather coarse application of effects by default unfortunately.

Report · Mar 04, 2019

Hi.

I have not recorded yet into a single wave form view. I record into what I set up to be a voice track in a "new session". The resulting recording has the distortion. I can hear that distortion in both the multitrack and waveform views. I did not use a Template, just set up a "new session" from the basic menu.

Very puzzling as I do essentially the same thing when I use Garageband and there is no problem.

Report · Mar 04, 2019

MisterBill593 wrote
HOWEVER, when I do the same using Adobe Audition, the resulting vocal tracks sound somewhat distorted, not at all normal sounding. The best way to describe it is they come out sounding almost slightly doubled and as if they were recorded in a closet.

One possibility is that somehow, you've got Smart Monitoring enabled when it shouldn't be. You can check this out easily by following the advice in the FAQ about it. I realise that the FAQ appears to relate to the 2018 release where it was accidentally switched on by default, but it still applies whenever it's switched on. Anyway it's easy to check - information here: I'm getting strange feedback and monitoring issues with the Audition 2018 release - can I fix this?

Report · Mar 05, 2019

Thanks for the tip. However, when I followed the instructions in the FAQ, I found that the Smart Monitoring was NOT checked to be on, so I'm thinking that was not the cause of the problem. Any other ideas?

Report · Aug 13, 2019

I'm having a similar issue. Using a USB mic to record in Audition for the 1st time and my voice sounds bad, repeated the same exercise in Camtasia and it was crystal clear. Since I did not change a single setting on my laptop or microphone, I'm certain the issue is with Audition.

Hoping someone has figured this out because splitting the audio from the screen recording in Camtasia is not an ideal work around and I am not too keen on installing more software when I've already paid for the CC suite.

Report · Aug 14, 2019

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Almita+from+Texas wrote
I'm having a similar issue. Using a USB mic to record in Audition for the 1st time and my voice sounds bad, repeated the same exercise in Camtasia and it was crystal clear. Since I did not change a single setting on my laptop or microphone, I'm certain the issue is with Audition.

Actually, Audition records very faithfully what it's sent. But that does give us a clue, because there's a pretty good chance that Camtasia doesn't use an ASIO engine, whilst natively Audition does - and that's what sends the audio to be recorded. The obvious thing to try here, because it's free and gives good diagnostics, is ASIO4ALL as a driver, because this is known to work well as an interface that can get around some of these problems. The other option is simply to change the driver model in Edit>Preferences>Audio Hardware - especially if it's set to WASAPI. If it is, then try MME instead. If you install ASIO4ALL that will also show up under ASIO in the driver types list, and that's where you select it. It has its own control panel, which will show you very clearly what's working and what isn't.

You need to try that first, at least.

Report · Aug 14, 2019

Amaza-zazing difference! So I took your advice and installed the ASIO driver.

Interesting piece though: after installing and rebooting, I selected ASIO from the Audio Hardware Panel, and the Input/Output options were chosen for me. I assumed this was by design, so I went with it. I recorded audio, but the playback didn't come through my headphones which are connected through the USB mic, so I'm not sure if the sample got recorded through the USB mic or the Computer's mic using the ASIO hardware setting. I also couldn't select my Yeti Microphone as the Default Input / Output hardware, so I reverted back to MME.

The interesting part though, is that this time when I recorded a sampling of my voice in Audition, it worked! It didn't sound at all distorted like yesterday. Is it doing something magical in the background?

Report · Aug 14, 2019

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Almita+from+Texas wrote
The interesting part though, is that this time when I recorded a sampling of my voice in Audition, it worked! It didn't sound at all distorted like yesterday. Is it doing something magical in the background?

Yes, it's called working!

WASAPI is a very old driver - a legacy product. And it's never worked very well, or really been supported by M$. MME generally works fine, but sometimes if you're using internal hardware in your computer, it gets its underwear in a twist and tries to re-sample the result according to what your computer's sound device was previously set to. If, for instance, it's been playing system sounds, or even something simply at a different sample rate, then the results can sound awful until something resets it. Sometimes just playing the file again is enough to do that.

And, I shouldn't have called ASIO4ALL a 'driver' as such - it's an interface between ASIO-based software and existing PC drivers, provided for when a manufacturer doesn't provide their own ASIO solution. As for everything else, you might like to have a look at another thread concerning Blue Yeti mics: problem with mic and asio drivers.

Report · Jan 15, 2020

Did you ever get your problem resolved? Running into this issue right now as well, with my 2 Procasters, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and my Macbook air.

Report · Jun 27, 2020

I just bought a Procaster and a Focusrite Scarlett Solo, and am having this issue also. In OBS softward the microphone is crystal clear but in audition there is a static and it sounds like I'm under water. I just can't figure out what this issue is.

Did you ever figure it out?

Report · Jun 27, 2020

This is generally all down to drivers - as the others discovered last year; this is an old thread.

What I suggest is that if you are having difficulties, the best thing to do is to start a new thread about your specific problem. On the home page there's a button marked 'Post to community' at the top, under where you sign in - that will start a new thread. The more information you put in your post, the better the chances that we can figure out what's going on. Especially tell us whether this is with a Mac, or a PC - the sound systems are significantly different.

Report · Nov 26, 2020

I got the same!

Report · Sep 21, 2022

I fixed it by just resetting all the settings. Did this by closing then opening Audition while holding down the "Shift" key. NOTE: This will get rid of any preset data you added, like hotkeys and settings. But it worked for me.