Podcast Gear and Podcast Audio is HERE! …New Media Gear

For me, Audition has been, and still is, the Gold Standard in multi-track editor/recorders. Just looking back at the long lineage of this product brings back many years of memories.

Audition (formerly Cool Edit) has been built upon and tweaked over the years. Version 3 builds upon that foundation with many new features.

What I like best about the latest, version 3, of Audition is what wasn’t done to the program. In todays software market of bloatware, Audition continues to perform well on medium-to-high-end workstations. It packs a lot of multi-track horsepower without being sluggish.

Opening the box, I was quite happy to find a nicely written users guide; an actual manual! Inside the program box is a disc containing the program, the Loopology DVD and a data disc containing training videos for a wide range of Adobe products that, surprisingly, excluded Audition.

Just what does version 3 bring to the table and is it worth upgrading?

The first thing that struck me when launching 3 is that the user interface was left intact. As a version 1.5 and 2 veteran, I was able to be productive within minutes of opening the program. New interfaces are nice, …sometimes, but the clean overall layout of Audition was already good, so I was happy to be greeted with the same familiar looking layouts, toolboxes and workflow.

Of course, under the hood, many things have changed. Per Adobe, here are the top ten new features in version 3:

• VSTi virtual instrument support
Not a biggie for the average Podcaster or voice talent, but a great addition if you want to utilize your own ’soft’ instruments.

• Enhanced spectral editing
The spectral editing feature is growing on me. Instead of just looking at an audio waveform as time and amplitude, frequency …and even phasing is now available as a color-spectrum display allowing you to see (and edit with) a new dimension to audio.

• Improved multitrack editing
The new multi-track grouping feature, which allows you to selectively work with groups of tracks is a small, but time-saving feature. I also liked the amplitude control that appears when when audio is selected, so you can adjust levels, in real time, without leaving the workspace.

• New effects such as Convolution Reverb
I don’t use this one much, but you can never have too many effect options.

• Radius Time Stretching from iZotope
Very useful for making that 31 second spot a true 30 without noticeably altering pitch. This algorithm has been tweaked by iZotope and works very nicely.

• Guitar Suite effects
Since I am not a guitar player, I can only say that these effects are also fun when applied to vocals, beds or backing tracks.

• Top/Tail view
This feature allows you get a glimpse of the beginning and end of a track at the same time. A neat idea.

• Noise reduction and phase correction
tools
Phase correction can be very important. Out of phase audio can sound thin and sounds can cancel themselves out. Being able to glance at phase and amplitude, in color, is a nice touch. Being able to correct out-of-phase audio in software is invaluable.

• Superior performance
Performance is a critical factor. For pros, time is money. Audition 3 requires a CPU with SSE2 extensions. This basically used to mean Pentium4 class and above. However, AMD now offers SSE2 capable CPU’s as well. Check Adobes System Requirements for Audition 3 and your chip-maker to be sure.

• Waveform editing tools
…never thought I’d be using a paintbrush or lasso tool to edit audio! The spectral views are a little strange if you’re an old X/Y person like me, but there are definite advantages to seeing and editing your audio in another dimension.

Some of those bullet points are important to the Podcaster, and some aren’t. The most important factor in my upgrade is actually the multi-core CPU support allowing the latest version of Audition to load balance. Perhaps that is why I didn’t notice a drop in speed, even though 3 packs more features?

I also liked the new included VST’s (especially tube modeling) and appreciate that my DirectX effects worked flawlessly. This is the first time that I didn’t add 3rd party effects. With Audition and our standard 2-track recorder, all the effects I need are provided by these 2 programs.

In the US, Audition 3 is currently $349 and $99 as an upgrade. Download and buy the full version from Adobe, get the boxed package, or you can download a 30 day test drive of Audition. The program does require activation.

Audition is a staple in Studio1A for production. It offers traditional Adobe stability and quality. For broadcast, voiceovers, production or even composition, you may want to check out Audition 3.

Best,
MarkJensen

Adobe, the Adobe logo, Adobe Audition are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks and company references are the property of their respective owners.

Filed under: Podcasts