Learn Series Part 2: Difference between Waveform and Multitrack Editor

Report · Jun 24, 2020

This is a part of the ongoing Learn series with Mike Russell which will help you get started with Adobe Audition. We've some interesting articles & videos coming up weekly where we will talk about the tools, workflow & some really cool effects. Let us know how you use Audition & what you want to learn about Adobe Audition. We're here to help

In this video, you will understand the difference between the Waveform and Multitrack Editor and when to use one over the other. Learn the concept of Destructive and Non Destructive editing.

0:13 - What is the Adobe Audition Waveform view best for?

0:26 - What is the Multitrack used for?

0:37 - How to mix multiple audio clips together?

1:00 - Example of mixing multiple audio clips together

1:53 - Destructive audio editing in Waveform view

2:18 - Non-destructive audio editing in Multitrack view

3:04 - Adobe Audition Multitrack podcast editing example

4:02 - Ripple delete in Multitrack view is great for podcast editors

4:23 - Why would you use Waveform instead of Multitrack?

4:43 - Spectral frequency display in Waveform view

Allows to edit a single audio file with higher precision.	Allows mixing multiple audio tracks in a layer-based composition.
It's destructive In nature. Saving any changes or applied effects overwrites the original audio file.	It's non-destructive in nature. This editor uses existing media or creates new media files but never makes changes to the original media file.
Useful for in-depth analysis and sample-accurate selections and processing	Good for creating musical compositions, podcasts, and video post-production which require multiple audio tracks to be modified independently.

Learn more about these editors

An intro to Waveform Editor

An intro to Multitrack Editor

Difference between the two editors

Hope it helps in understanding the two audio editing workflows in Audition. Refer to this page to explore the other videos of this series. Let us know if you have any questions.

<< Part 1 ∥ Part 3 >>

Report · Jun 25, 2020

I looked through this, and there are a couple of things that may be worth pointing out: the first is that there's a good reason for not EQing a file before compressing it - compression will effectively alter the relative level of any EQ you apply before it, and this can sound very strange, especially at extreme settings. It's also the reason why, on 'real' mixers, the channel insert point (where you'd insert a compressor) is always before the EQ. Whilst it might be alright to do this for some sort of effect, I think it's as well to know what's actually going on here.

The other thing is that despite the impression you might get above, Multitrack view is perfectly capable of sample-accurate editing - I do it on a regular basis when concatenating long files for subsequent editing.

I realise that these are introductory videos, but even at this level, details are important; first impressions often count a lot.

Report · Jun 26, 2020

Thanks for taking the time to watch my video Steve. You contribute so much value here I'm honoured you would watch and respect your feedback!

That's a great point on EQ before compression (or the opposite) and, like you say, there are some cases you'd want to do one way and other cases you'd do it the other way.

Compression for me keeps dialogue at a consistent level. If I then go ahead and add EQ on after compression it alters my dynamic range creating peaks in my lovely compressed waveform (as shown in the screenshot - before EQ on the left and after EQ on the right with arrows to show new volume spikes).

That's interesting on the precise editing capability of multitrack. I remember the days you could zoom right in on waveform view and actually alter the waveform with a pen tool. The multitrack seems to get better and cleaner with each Audition update so, it's true, you could choose to do precise (and non-destructive) editing in multitrack view. That would be especially true if you know all the zoom shortcuts as I'm sure you do Steve 🙂

It's a good conversation and I'm glad you started it. I hope we'll get others chiming in on how they do things with EQ, compression and using waveform vs multitrack.

Thanks again!