Audition CS 5.5 and the future of Audition

[_durin_]

Good morning Audition fans.

As promised, I wanted to share the news and state of Adobe Audition as well as answer your questions about the new release and what the future holds. 

First, Adobe announced the release of CS 5.5 Monday morning to coincide with our presence at the NAB convention in Las Vegas, NV.  Among the updates to the other applications in the Production Premium suite, the big news from my perspective was the inclusion of Audition into the Production Premium and Master Collection suites.  Soundbooth, the previous audio tool offered in the Suite, has been discontinued.

Next, a little bit of history:  Adobe purchased Syntrillium 8 years ago in order to provide an audio solution to their video and broadcast production users.  At the time, Premiere Pro was a Windows-only NLE and Cool Edit, now Audition, was a great fit in the original Video Suite.  However, as Adobe recognized the value in the Suite model for users and the bottom-line, the other applications were updated to support Apple and Windows users.  The Audition team looked at the 15 years of legacy Windows code and were not confident the application could be ported quickly enough to satisfy the CS release schedule.  As an audio editor was necessary in the suite package, we created Soundbooth which was a simple audio editor built on top of Premiere Pro's media playback engine.  This enabled the team to provide value to the Suite, but the limitations of a playback engine crafted to handle large video files was not ideal for detailed audio production.  As a tool to assist with basic audio editing and restoration needs for a primarily video and motion graphics audience, it did find a userbase who appreciated the simplicity and ease of use, although leaving audio professionals and more savvy users wanting more.

Immediately after each release of Soundbooth, the team continued working on Audition but it was apparent that Adobe did not need two audio tools in production and the more popular application was absolutely Audition.  We made the commitment to build Audition as a fully cross-platform solution and replace Soundbooth in the line-up, offering the power and fidelity of Audition without making the transition for Soundbooth fans too jarring.  For at least the past 7 years that I've been with the team, the most-requested feature has unequivocably been "Bring Audition to the Mac!"  There are numerous on-line petitions and forum threads demanding this happen.

So we've spent the past two years re-writing Audition from the ground-up, preserving or updating our core DSP, modernizing the code to take advantage of current hardware and operating system technology, and emphasizing increased productivity and speed with every feature.  Updating or completely rewriting 15 years of C++ code takes time, and we recognized rather quickly that we were not going to reach feature parity with Audition 3.01 with this release.  We continuously prioritized our feature database based on our visits with customers big and small, and our awesome, secret, pre-release team.  Our core userbase has always been broadcast - radio, podcast, and video - and our focus for the CS 5.5 release was to build a platform that supported those workflows but remained open and flexible enough that expanding the application to support other audio users would be simple and straightforward.  As we approached the end of our development cycle, I think everyone on the team and in our pre-release program recognized how strong this application is and will be moving forward, even if some of our pet features did not make it into this release yet.

In the next post, I'll describe what's new in Audition CS 5.5, what didn't make it into the application yet, and what we hope to accomplish in the next release.  As I mentioned before, Adobe has publicly committed to a more open release schedule with a major release approximately every 24 months with an additional mid-cycle release.  Not only will this allow us to bring more features to you more quickly, but will help with any hardware updates and purchasing decisions our users may encounter.  Additionally, and currently Audition is not part of this program yet, Adobe is offering installations on a subscription model with all upgrades rolled into the cost.  It will be interesting to hear feedback from our users how this solution works for their needs.

[Steve C2]

Hi Durin,

My guess, from recent news is that If you do not collect the lattitude and longitude of the pc or, if you do, refrain from storing it in an unencrypted file, you might not get complaints.  JK.

Steve

[_durin_]

Hi Alex,

We're already working on some of the effects you mentioned.  I did copy your message into one of the items in the feature database to bolster support for the other tools, but it's still very early in the CS 6 development cycle, so I don't have much to report yet. 

[Paul_Ferguson]

Durin has previously listed the scientific group you identify as one of the user bases, so he knows about it.  As for the features you list in your post above, this would be an excellent time to make a formal request for their inclusion in 7 in the Feature Request Forum, because the team is getting ideas together for the next release.  You can reach it by clicking on the 'Audition' link at the top of this page, which will then display a menu containing the Feature Request Forum.  I've found this development team to be receptive to feature requests that are:

* popular

* likely to be sustainable in the future

[Paul_Ferguson]

Dumb. 

[MusicConductor]

therealdobro wrote:

Dumb.

Wha... huh?  Sorry, was daydreaming.  You talkin to me here?

[Paul_Ferguson]

Gee, I've done it again!  No, not you.  Me.  The 'dumb' comment was being applied to myself for having responded to an old post.  I think I'll just crawl into a hole. 

[_durin_]

Properties Panel

The new properties panel displays detailed information about the currently selected clip or active session, as well as asset-specific parameters.  The "Time Display" options allow you to customize the ruler display per file or use the global defaults.

Surround Track Panner

Dockable 5.1 Surround track panner for use in multitrack session mixing.

[_durin_]

Effects shipped with Audition CS 5.5

Amplitude and Compression >

     Amplify

     Channel Mixer

     De-Esser

     Dynamics Processing

     Hard Limiter

     Normalize (process)

     Multiband Compressor

     Single-Band Compressor

     Tube-Modeled Compressor

     Speech Volume Leveler

     Volume Envelope (process)

Delay and Echo >

     Analog Delay

     Delay

     Echo

Diagonistics >

     DeClicker (process)

     DeClipper (process)

     Delete Silence (process)

     Mark Audio (process)

Filter and EQ >

     Parametric Equalizer

     Graphic Equalizer (10 Band)

     Graphic Equalizer (20 Band)

     Graphic Equalizer (30 Band)

     FFT Filter

Modulation >

     Chorus

     Flanger

     Chorus/Flanger

     Phaser

Noise Reduction / Restoration >

     Capture Noise Print

     Noise Reduction (process)

     Adaptive Noise Reduction

     Automatic Click Remover

     Automatic Phase Correction (process)

     DeHummer

     Hiss Reduction (process)

Reverb >

     Convolution Reverb

     Full Reverb

     Reverb

     Studio Reverb

     Surround Reverb

Special >

     Distortion

     Guitar Suite

     Mastering

     Vocal Enhancer

Stereo Imagery >

     Center Channel Extractor

Time and Pitch >

     Stretch and Pitch (process)

Any effect not indicated as a (process) effect can be used in real-time, though for high-CPU effects you may wish to enable Track Pre-render (I'll mention this later, but it's more or less a dynamic, track-specific return to Background Mix.)  Real-time effects can also be applied to entire tracks, or to specific clips, or a combination of both.

[_durin_]

Track Panel View and Controls

Input / Output View:  Adjust input and output assignments, add buses or access Audio Hardware settings.

Track Effects Rack View:  Mini, in-track effects rack.  Note the lightning bolt button which allows you to enable "Track Pre-Render" mode on a per-track basis.  This toggle silently prepares a background mix of each enabled track to accomodate resource-intensive effects and minimize performance or playback issues.

Sends View:  Each track may be assigned to up to 16 separate Send outputs

Track EQ View:  Each track has the full 5-band Parametric EQ at its disposal.  A thumbnail representation of the EQ curve is displayed in this panel providing quick, visual feedback.

[MYX]

This was not a previous feature, but I would love to see a way to use one track as the source for the launching of effects on another track. More to the point, being able to do things like gated reverbs (for killer drums), or distortion effects on a guitar triggered by a snare... Just a thought.

Similar (but entirely different ) I would like to see the ability to add expressions like in Aftere Effects. This way, if the above feature was not made available I could write an expression to do it... If amplitude == such and such level raise input level to such and such for such and such amount of time.

[RonNovy]

I think some VST effects can do that already.  I'm pretty sure that Drumagog can gate or duck other tracks when setup right on both tracks but it would be a nice built in feature for audition...

[Paul_Ferguson]

I've been interested in ducking for a while, but too slow to pick it up.  Good thing, if Audition can't do it anyway.

[Michael_Putrino]

I am a mastering engineer in Austin, TX and have been extensively using Audition since it was Cool Edit Pro. I have purchase every upgrade since.

Some of the effects that I would like to see moved from Audition 3.0 to CS 6, would be the following (I use them extensively in the Edit window)

Also, I would love to retain use of the DX effects that I own.

·         Amplify/Fade (process) – used for gradually changing levels in the middle of a song

·         Envelope (process) – for changing levels, fades, etc. in mid song.

·         FIR Filter, include the Time-variable settings – this is great to remove buzz in a fadeout.  You can transition from a full-pass to low-pass during the fade. It can be used for many surgical fixes in mastering. In once case, I used it to change the timber of a piano where it started solo requireing a much fuler EQ, then as other instruments came into the song, the piano required less depth. Time-variable FIR made this easy to accomplish.

·         Stereo Expander

·         Stretch, constant stretch and with gliding stretch – to gradually change tempo of a song (or part of a song) over time.

·         Pitch Shifter and Pitch Correction (process)

One thing I'd like fixed is the use of IK Multimedia VST mastering effects. None of them work with Audition, but they work very well with other editing applications. It may be that IK's effect don't follow the VST letter of the law, but if other editing applications can deal with them, I'd love Audition to as well.

I would like Audition to add to its metering, VU capabilities conforming to Bob Katz K-System metering. I own a VST plugin from Roger Nichols Digital that does this, but it would be better as part of the Audition application.

[_durin_]

Hi Michael,

While much of your list is still a work-in-progress or TBD for CS 6, several items are already in CS 5.5, although in new locations.

Amplify/Fade (process) and Envelope (process) merged and are now available under Effects > Amplitude and Compression > Volume Envelope (process)

Stretch and Pitch Shifter (process) can now be found under Effects > Time and Pitch > Stretch and Pitch (process)

The Volume Envelope allows you to easily draw your curve directly on the waveform and quickly scale it to arbitrary selections.  The updated Stretch & Pitch tool allows you to choose the native Audition stretch or the iZotope Radius stretch algorithms.  Audition's allows for gliding stretch and both now allow stretching to specific durations.

The issue with certain versions of the IK Multimedia effects was found to be a problem internal to the IK tools which they've fixed in more recent versions.  We've submitted a bug fix request to IK to address the earlier versions, but I'm unaware if we've received a response from them.  I'll add your VU request to our feature database.

Thanks!

Durin

[Michael_Putrino]

Hi Durin,

Thanks. I'll check those location; I don't know how I missed them. And thank you for such a wonderful mastering suite.

Mike

[Michael_Putrino]

Hi Durin,

One issue that I found in CS 5.5 is that for VST effects, I can't save presets. Well, I can save them, but when re-opened, I can't recall them.

Thanks,

Mike

[Michael_Putrino]

Hi Durin,

The Volume Envelope and Stretch and Pitch processes are great. I hadn't found them previously because I didn't expet the menu-bar Effects menu to be different from the rack effect menu. No problem...thanks for pointing it out.

Regarding the IK Multimedia VST mastering effects: I downloaded the updated versions, but am still having the same issue. I can load them and open them, but when I try to turn one of their knobs, it stutters and goes back to its original position. Then, when I try to close the effect, Audition freezes and I have to kill it with the task manager.

Thanks,

Mike

[_durin_]

Thanks, Michael.  The known issues with some of the IK effects invoke a crash on initial scan with some versions, so you're definitely not seeing the problem I'm talking about.  This behavior occurs in T-Racks on Windows, I assume?  Which edition?  If you can provide clear repro steps (here or directly to audbugs@adobe.com) I'll see if we can reproduce the behavior here and determine the cause.

You also mentioned presets not working properly.  Does this only occur with 3rd party VSTs, or do you have the same trouble with native Audition effects?  When you relaunch Audition, do the presets exist but simply not change the effect parameters, or do you not see the presets listed with the effects at all?

Thanks

[Michael_Putrino]

Hi Durin,

I just tried the IK Multimedia TRacks 3 Vintage Compressor 670, version 3.1.2.

I loaded a song, selected the VST preset via the Effects Rack.

It opens, but when I try to move any of the effects' knobs, they move but spring back to their original position.

This time I was able to close the effect, but when I tried to remove it from the Effects Rack, Audition froze for 2 minutes before I killed it with the Windows task manager. I am using Windows XP professional.

Regarding presets: They work great with Audition native effects. But, I am having trouble with 3rd Party VST effects. I can save presets and see them when I reload the effect. But, when I try selecting a preset, it does nothing. Again, the presets are there when I re-launch Audition, but when selected, they do not change the parameters of the VST effect.

Thanks again,

Mike

[Michael_Putrino]

Update on saving presets for VST effects:

I found that I am able to save VST effect presets when I use the VST effects from the "Effects" pull-down menu at the top of the window.

Saving VST effects presets does not work only when done via the Effects rack.

Hope this helps.

Also, is there a way to add icon buttons for selected effects that I use often? This is available from Audition 3.0, but i can't find it in CS5.5. It would be even better if I can do this for selected VST effects as well.

Thanks,

Mike

[_The_Preacher_]

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[Michael_Putrino]

Any update on the IK Multimedia T-Racks "singles" VST effects?

These still don't work.

[Guest]

Without midi and rewire, Audition loses much of its appeal. I don't understand what problems you had with it in 3 because I use 3 all the time with Reason rewired in to the multitracker and midi VSTis sequenced into the mix. Sometimes it was a little buggy and would crash and lose all its VSTs but they came back after a reboot. I was really looking forward to the new Audition and now the 30 day trial won't even be on my machine 24 hours because I can't use it without midi or rewire.Having help and the manual only available online is useless, too. My production machine isn't networked and is a pure music composition DAW.

Very disappointing. Audition 3 was a very serviceable, easy to use multitasking software that I did my recording, mixing and mastering in. I'll keep using 3 until something better comes along.

[MusicConductor]

Complaining about the same thing in 5 threads does make it clear that you're not satisfied, wavecapsule.  And Durin has already made it clear that staying with AA3 will be what some are going to prefer, but they're all ears to hear your reasons why.

[aomahana]

Hello Durin,

Thank you for your involvement with the forum.

I have been using Audition since CE2K.

I can see from the various comments that the move to CS5.5 fits people less or more according to their perspective.

I pre-ordered the new version immediately, but as yet haven't actually received it, so my comments are based on what has been presented here.

I use 2X other software editors, Pyramix, and Protools.

Primarily for music production.

So, in spite of the inconvenience, it is possible for me to shift between these and Audition 3, if there any required missing features in CS5.5.

Like some of the others here, I am slowly moving towards incorporating Video editing and production into my studio.

So for me, the positive aspects of this change are ....

OMF Import and Export.

Integration with Premiere.

Overall RMS level average per track.

What I miss ,..

Generate Silence.

I use this as a quick and simple method to clean and create correct spacing between CD Tracks.

Also, if Premiere Elements integrated with Audition, it would be a good way to test the waters before extending to the cost of Premiere Pro.

Although I don't use midi a lot, I enjoyed the implementation of it in Audition, and was looking forward to the development of any deficiencies.

All the best,

Onward and upwards.

Bye for now,

aomahana.