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 By
Dale Farris, Vice President
Golden Triangle PC Club
March 2005
Adobe Audition 1.5 software is a professional audio editing environment.
Designed for demanding audio and video professionals, Adobe Audition
offers advanced audio mixing, editing, and effects processing
capabilities. Its flexible workflow, combined with exceptional ease of use
and precise tools, gives you the power to create rich, nuanced audio of
the highest possible quality.
What's New in 1.5?
Upgrade to Adobe Audition 1.5 software and take advantage of integrated CD
burning, VST plug-ins, ReWire support, frequency space editing, and much
more.
Integrated CD burning
Create quick reference masters of your compositions by burning gapless
audio CDs directly from Adobe Audition
ReWire support
Stream full-resolution audio data in real time between Adobe Audition and
other audio software, such as Propellerhead Reason and Ableton Live
VST plug-in support
Expand your options with integrated support for third-party VST effects,
which can also be used in Adobe Premiere Pro software
Frequency space editing
Visually isolate and select sounds in frequency and time using a marquee
selection tool in the spectral editing view, and then clean up, modify, or
apply effects to the selected sound
Pitch correction
Correct off-pitch performances and create pitch-based effects using the
new pitch correction effects. Use the automatic mode for quick results or
the manual mode for precise control
Enhanced support for video
Edit video soundtracks more easily with the ability to view video frames
in the Timeline and import a wide range of file formats, including AVI,
native DV, MPEG, and WMV
Clip time stretching
Visually drag the edge of any audio clip in a multitrack mix to fit a
specific length of time with or without affecting the clip's pitch; this
is ideal for making sound effects and dialog fit a given video clip
Automatic click/pop elimination
Quickly and easily restore digital recordings of vinyl source material,
wireless mikes, DV cameras, and other production audio
New sample sessions
Get up to speed quickly by using any of the 20 sample sessions included
with Adobe Audition, or modify the sample sessions to create your own
music
Vocal/instrumental extraction
Reduce the vocal or instrumental portions of a track and create a cappella
and karaoke-ready tracks while preserving the stereo image with the new
Center Channel Extractor tool
New royalty-free loops
Create your own music using more than 500 new production music loops — for
a total of more than 5,000 — in a variety of styles including '70s disco,
rumba, and loops for weddings and events
Save custom keyboard shortcuts
Create customized keyboard shortcut sets to suit your working style
Flexible envelope scaling
Rescale points on pan, volume, and effect envelopes to make changes to a
clip in a multitrack mix. Scale all points while maintaining relative or
absolute relationships between points
Keen Features
Designed for audio and video professionals in studios, broadcast
facilities, and post-production houses, Adobe Audition software offers a
flexible and well-integrated set of tools for advanced audio mixing,
editing, mastering, and effects processing. With the introduction of
version 1.5, Adobe Audition adds broader third-party compatibility, and
important new functionality such as integrated CD burning and powerful new
audio effects.
Greater flexibility and precision in editing and preview functions, along
with more than 500 new production audio loops (for a total of over 5,000)
enable you to produce stunning audio creations.
Use Integrated Tools—Adobe Audition provides an all-in-one audio editing
and mixing solution. Adobe Audition 1.5 adds support for ReWire technology
to provide better workflow when using Adobe Audition with other ReWire-enabled
audio soware, support for thousands of available VST audio plug-ins, and
enhancements that make editing audio for video easier than ever.
Sound Your Best—Adobe Audition provides high-fidelity processing and
precise editing, supporting up to 32-bit files and sample rates up to 10
MHz. Adobe Audition 1.5 enhances an already impressive set of audio tools
with frequency space editing, new effects, sample sessions, and more than
500 new royalty-free production music loops, for a total of over 5,000
loops in a wide range of genres.
Work Efficiently—Adobe Audition puts all the tools you need at your
fingertips with an interface that is easy to learn and use. Adobe Audition
1.5 adds customizable keyboard shortcut sets and clip time stretching to
make production easier, as well as expanded audio preview options that
make monitoring your work more efficient. Expanded format support ensures
greater compatibility with your complete professional work environment,
and improved integration with Adobe’s other video products helps ensure a
smooth workflow when editing audio for your video projects. is document
introduces key new features in Adobe Audition 1.5. For more information,
please visit
www.adobe.com/audition.
ReWire support—Stream full-resolution audio data from ReWire-enabled
applications, such as Propellerhead Reason or Ableton Live, directly into
tracks in Adobe Audition. Once ReWire content is assigned to a track in
your session, you can create, add, or edit content in either application
independently. ReWire technology, acting as a virtual audio cable, feeds
modified digital audio from the other application directly into your Adobe
Audition session. ReWire also keeps transport controls synchronized, so
that moving the play position in either application updates the play
position in the other.
VST plug-in support—Expand your options with integrated support for
third-party VST effects. VST is a major industry standard for audio
effects plug-ins, and is also used in Adobe Premiere Pro. Thousands of
commercial, shareware, and free VST-compliant effects are available,
addressing a wide range of audio processing needs. Adobe Audition 1.5 can
scan multiple folders on your computer for VST plug-ins, making it easy to
work with VST effects from other applications.
Enhanced support for video—Work with soundtracks more easily thanks to
improved video support. View multiple thumbnails in the video track of the
Multitrack View, and work with a wider range of video file formats,
including AVI, MPEG, native digital video (DV), and Windows Media Video (WMV).
Frequency space editing—Use a Marquee Selection tool to visually isolate
sounds that span time and frequency in the Spectral View, and then apply
effects or make edits to clean up, modify, or enhance only the selected
sound. With frequency space editing, you can diminish or remove an
unwanted noise such as a cough or chair-squeak from a live recording,
while leaving audio at all other frequencies unaffected. Or, you can apply
different effects to different ranges. For example, compress bass
frequencies to tighten a kick drum, and for the same time period at a
higher frequency range, add reverb to vocals to give them a fuller
quality. Adobe® Audition Microsoft Windows 2000/Windows XP The essential
tool for professional digital audio At A Glance version 1.5
Pitch correction—Fix off-pitch performances and create pitch-based effects
using the powerful new Pitch Correction tool. Use automatic settings for
quick results or manual options for more precise control. Preview options
allow you to check your corrections before you apply them.
Automatic click/pop elimination—Use the new automatic version of the
Click/Pop Eliminator to quickly and easily restore digital audio from
vinyl recordings, wireless mikes, DV cameras, and other production audio
sources. Take advantage of preview options to confirm your edits before
they are applied.
Studio reverb—The new Studio Reverb effect in Adobe Audition 1.5 offers a
high-quality reverb sound that is also real-time capable in both the Edit
View and the Multitrack View. Studio Reverb offers higher-quality sound
and more controls in real time than the real-time QuickVerb effect found
in Adobe Audition 1.0, but at about the same level of CPU utilization,
thus making its real-time operation possible.
New sample sessions—Get up to speed quickly by using any of the 20 sample
sessions included with the product. Modify sessions to create your own
music. Samples include a bebop session, a ska session, a classical
session, and more.
New royalty-free loops—Adobe Audition 1.5 adds more than 500 new
production music loops, for a total collection of over 5,000, each
designed to help you more quickly create your music. New loops are offered
in a wide range of styles, including 70s disco, classic rhumba, lounge,
reggae, alternative rock, country drum and bass, techno, funk, jazz, and
more. Loops specifically designed for weddings, celebrations, and even
corporate events are included. Many variations are offered within each
style, making it easy for you to create unique new music.
Vocal/instrumental extraction—Reduce or eliminate the center channel from
a stereo audio track, or keep the center channel and eliminate all other
audio signals. For source audio that locates vocals in the center channel,
this feature makes it easy to adjust the relative volume of vocals and
instrumental accompaniment.
Flexible envelope scaling—Simultaneously rescale all points on a pan,
volume, or effect envelope to quickly make changes to a clip in the
Multitrack View. Easily create headroom for greater differentiation in
envelope adjustments by first globally moving all points lower, then
adjusting one or more points back up in the space created. Keyboard
shortcuts allow you to scale the points while maintaining either relative
or absolute relationships between them.
Integrated CD burning—Adobe Audition 1.5 makes it easy to burn one-off
discs for a quick and sure check of your current project, or to produce an
audio CD from whatever audio files you choose. Any file format you can
import into Audition can be included in your CD project—Audition
automatically converts it to the appropriate format while leaving the
original file untouched. Use the CD Project View to easily organize your
tracks and set properties such as title, pause duration, and copy
protection.
Clip time stretching—Visually drag the edge of any audio clip in the
Multitrack View to stretch the audio to fit a specific length of time,
with or without affecting the clip’s pitch. is feature is ideal for
synchronizing audio with a video clip sequence.
Preroll and postroll playback options—Speed the process of performing
edits by listening to the audio preceding and following a selection you
plan to cut. Preroll and postroll preview is available in all effects
dialog boxes that include preview options, as well as in the Edit View.
You can also customize duration and what combination of preroll,
selection, and postroll you wish to hear.
Improved workflow with other Adobe video products—Work more smoothly with
Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Encore DVD, thanks to
updated user interface conventions in Audition that more closely match the
interface of these other Adobe applications. Areas affected include mouse
behavior, menu arrangement, and the naming of commands and other user
interface elements.
Customizable keyboard shortcut sets—Save multiple sets of customized
keyboard shortcuts in Adobe Audition 1.5. Multiple sets are especially
useful for situations in which different users may share the same
workstation.
In-time loop file previews—Use a full set of preview options in the
Organizer window to preview loops even before adding them to your mix.
Auto-play, loop, and volume controls are included, and in the Multitrack
View you can opt to play clips using the same tempo and pitch as that of
the current session.
Professional Uses
Shipping as part of the Adobe Video Collection 2.5, which also includes
Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5, After Effects 6.5, Adobe Encore DVD 1.5, Audition
1.5 has enhanced its video-friendly features, with support for AVI markers
and multiple thumbnail displays from Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 and After
Effects 6.5. There's also a new clip time stretching feature for
soundtrack editing. Adobe’s video apps could already exchange Edit
Original files with Audition, and the new tools make Audition a more
seamless component in the video workflow.
To audio-only users, the increasing video functionality will doubtless
prove handy at some point, but what they care most about is that all this
video stuff doesn’t overshadow development of the audio toolset. They
should be happy -- it hasn’t. There are several significant new features
that greatly improve the use of Audition as a standalone audio
application.
Adobe is positioning Audition as a core app for both audio and video
users. It meets both media in the middle with an array of powerful
features, capable of handling just about any audio editing, mixing and
recording task, whether the project is standalone or part of a video
production.
Being able to burn CDs directly from Audition is a great timesaver -- you
no longer need to fire up a third-party burning application. The function
is integrated directly into the interface with a new tab that you click to
enter the CD Project View. This tab sits beside the Edit and Multitrack
View tabs just above the main screen, part of a slight reorganization of
the interface. Its simple select-and-burn functionality works like a charm
-- and still provides access to all the editing functions after files have
been dropped into the CD Project View for burning. This allows you to make
last-minute changes to any file in the queue -- adjusting EQ, volume,
effects, or any of Audition’s functions. You can easily reorder files in
the list with Move Up and Move Down buttons, or adjust the space between
tracks. The drop down Insert menu at the top lets you insert Audio files
or Audio from Video files. Under the file menu at the top, additional
options allow you to insert any file or Extract audio from a CD.
Users who migrated over from Cool Edit Pro 2.2 should be particularly
happy with the new CD burning feature, because it was planned by original
developer Syntrillium but didn't make it into Adobe's release of Audition
1.0 last fall. Audition's freshly added VST plug-in compatibility opens up
many effects and processing options. Although Audition comes with a
quality selection of built-in effects covering compression, EQ, reverb and
special fx, there's a whole world of VST plug-ins that Audition users can
now employ, in addition to the wide range of previously compatible Direct
X (DX) plug-ins. It's now possible to mix and match effects from UAD-1 or
Powercore host cards, or any software-based VST or DX plug-ins.
Not only that, but by adding support for Propellerhead's ReWire, Audition
gains massive flexibility for working with other plug-ins, soft synths and
applications, as long as they're also ReWire compatible. What ReWire does
is pass audio signal and transport control data to ReWire-compatible
applications in real time. The addition of ReWire's virtual patchbay and
synth/effects workstation compatibility keeps Audition's toolset
competitive -- other ReWire-compatible apps include Pro Tools, Logic
Audio, SONAR, ACID , Digital Performer and Nuendo /Cubase.
When you right click on a waveform, there are several new editing options
in the drop down window, including "Rescale Volume Options," which opens
the Flexible Envelope Scaling tool. A different process than simply
raising or lowering the overall track volume, this tool changes the scale
of the volume. What it does is boost the top volume value in a track by
two decibels, scaling the envelope down so that every point on the
envelope has the same absolute value that it did before. The result is
more headroom, and more possibilities to adjust a track's volume than you
have when an envelope is already peaking the top of the volume scale. This
works remarkably well, and is perfect for raising the apparent volume of a
track without distortion.
The other major new editing tool is the Frequency Space Editing, with
which you can isolate a sound within a certain frequency and then alter
it, by cutting it completely, pasting it somewhere else or adding an
effect. This is effective for eliminating external noises in a recording,
as a tutorial supplied by Adobe demonstrates.
The tutorial includes a file of orchestral music punctuated by two loud
coughs. To get rid of the coughs, you open the file in the Edit View, and
choose View > Spectral View. The whole file then takes on a Northern
Lights appearance, with purple, yellow and red hues representing the
various frequencies. Next, you press the new "Marquee" button at the top
of the screen, which enables a cursor you can use to drag a rectangular
area around bright orange spikes representing the coughs. Then you choose
Favorites > Repair Transient. The big orange spikes become practically
invisible. Afterwards, you boost the decibels slightly to restore a more
natural sound, by choosing Effects > Amplitude > Amplify/Fade, and
selecting the 3dB Boost preset. Upon playback, the coughs have been
rendered virtually indistinguishable.
Frequency Space Editing is a unique precision tool that can be used in
many ways, not just for cough removal. Any function that can be applied to
audio in time space can also be applied in frequency space. For example,
it could be used to apply different effects to different frequency ranges
-- adding reverb to one track while compressing bass frequencies on
another.
Another new editing tool is Automatic Pitch Correction, which is best when
used for subtle corrections of small pitch variations and warbles by a
singer or instrumentalist. When it's dialed in too aggressively, you risk
making the source sound synthetic (performances that are way off key
should probably be rerecorded, perhaps with a better singer). Manual pitch
correction controls also exist, but the automatic options are safer and
easier to use. The process is straightforward; go to Effects > Pitch
Correction, and enter the key, adjusting Attack and Sensitivity to taste.
If you want deeper control, you can try the manual settings for a
graphical representation of the track, with Envelope editing of pitch
controls.
Vocal/instrumental extraction (aka Center Channel Extraction) can be used
to remove center panned vocals for Karaoke purposes, but its applications
actually range far beyond that. Using it on a centered lead vocal, you can
adjust the volume to decrease the vocal track -- or to increase it if you
want to strengthen the track. Instead of just inverting the sound, the
Center Channel Extractor lets you control relative levels between any
spatial location in the audio, anywhere in the stereo or surround field.
This is a versatile tool that can also be used to target audio at any
phase, pan position or delay location between the left and right channels.
For example, you could set it to isolate only audio material that is
panned 25 degrees left or right of the center.
Automatic click/pop elimination has been simplified and upgraded from
Audition 1.0. Although the old Click/Pop Eliminator still exists, the new
module is built for speed, and can quickly get rid of clicks, pops, and
other surface noises on an LP. It can also be used to remove microphone
noise from live recordings. It's an effective way to eliminate audio
anomalies without ruining the overall dynamics.
There are also numerous small upgrades sprinkled throughout Audition 1.5,
notably preview controls in the Organizer window that allow you to preview
individual clips more quickly. There's also the newly added ability to
save customized keyboard shortcut sets, and some user interface changes
that make the interface function more like other applications in the Adobe
Video Collection.
Finally, one of the great benefits of Audition is its looping ability,
augmented by a huge variety of included loops. Version 1.5 includes 500
new royalty-free loops, raising the total number of included loops to more
than 5,000. There are also 20 new sample sessions.
With this release, Audition has become a much stronger tool, and the way
that Adobe has added both audio and video features is a good indication of
the program's future development path. As part of the Adobe Video
Collection, Audition has really come into its own, taking a big step
toward seamless interoperability and video integration. But the program's
audio and video development are proceeding in parallel. The new audio
features secure Audition's place as a complete application for audio-only
users, and admirably continue the Cool Edit Pro legacy.
Whatever your intended use, Audition 1.5 is well worth the price, whether
you're upgrading from Version 1.0 or starting off as a new user.
Price
$299 - retail
$249 - competitive upgrade
System Configuration Requirements
400MHz or faster processor (2GHz or faster
recommended)
Windows 2000, XP Pro, XP Home
64MB RAM (512MB or more recommended)
75MB free hard disk space (700MB recommended for installing optional audio
clips)
800 x 600 color display (1,024x768 display recommended)
Stereo sound card (multi-track sound card recommended)
CD-ROM drive
CD-RW drive for audio CD creation
Microsoft DirectX 9 software required for video import
Speakers or headphones recommended
Microphone (optional)
Additional requirements for the Multichannel Encoder
For multichannel WMA import: Windows XP
For surround preview: DirectX 8, a multi-channel sound card, and
DirectSound driver
Contact
Adobe Systems, Incorporated
Corporate Headquarters
345 Park Avenue
San Jose, California 95110-2704
408-536-6000
800-833-6687
FAX 408-537-6000
Order Online at
Adobe Corporation
www.adobe.com/store/main.jhtml
You can also order from other retailers or online vendors.
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Adobe Audition 1.5