No ReWire just cost me a session. Midi squencing and native soft instruments are not needed in Audition, because there are plenty of these programs out there. However, lack of the simple, no frills, and ESSENTIAL ability to ReWire to Reason (or other software) is unacceptable. ALL of my video/film soundtrack work involves either Reason or Live, and with ReWire missing from 5.5, my clients are missing as well. Maybe I am to blame for not checking if ReWire in a feature on 5.5, but I also didn't check if you could still record audio because that is a given. A no-brainer. Man, I am bummed.

10) Effects/Amplitude and Compression/Amplify Fade In/Out are now available in the Favourites list and can also be accessed using the Volume Envelope effect.

I upgraded a few days ago. I hate to be such a downer (yes, add another to the long, long list), but after reading all of the countless threads about what's missing from the "new" Audition (not to mention the countless things NOT mentioned which I'm finding), as well as the reasons why, I can't help but feel like this software is either in a coma or dead for the forseeable future.

All of the responses from Adobe team members have not justified the end result to me. None of the new features apply to me (excepting the Macintosh port which is mindlessly long overdue), many of the missing features apply to me and the application is fundamentally slower for me irregardless of whatever has been rewritten for multi-core processors -- not just from a computational standpoint (waveform rendering/zooming/scrolling is much slower), but most especially from a usability standpoint (like dumbed-down effects/tools, lack of prior pop-up windows/keyboard shortcuts, meticulous details that made the app great before).

David Johnson and Syntrillium Software made Cool Edit the best sound editing application nearly 10 years prior to Adobe's acquisition. The "15 years of original C++ code" is likely going to take more than a couple product cycles to rewrite and mature. I quote "15 years" because this software has its roots close to 20 years back (1993-1994). It took all those years for Audition to mature and become great. Fundamental issues with this rewrite feel as though it's going to take at LEAST another 5+ years -- if ever -- before things even come close to what we in Adobe Audition 3.0.

The last few versions of Cool Edit Pro/Adobe Audition were the ultimate Frankeinstein lab -- with the crazy, sick, demented surgical tools to be as good or evil as you wanted. And the doctors who had been using it for 10-15+ years were very comfortable in the old lab. Now it feels like the surgeons lab, tools and devices have been replaced with a generic pharmacy. This new pharmacy might be at "home" on the Macintosh, but I'd be a lot happier working in my old lab down the road.

Audition 3.0 was the surgeons tools that would fix your problems. This new version is the pharmacy that simply numbs your symptoms by clumsily drugging you up.

I used to be a Syntrillium Beta Tester for Cool Edit Pro. I contacted Adobe about becoming a member of a similar program for Audition and never heard back. Definitely feels like a downward spiral to the point that my voice won't be heard amongst all others.

I would have gladly "upgraded" for a Macintosh version of Audition 3.0 instead of what Adobe offers today (and likely in the foreseeable future).

I'm really trying to use what's there but nearly all my shortcuts no longer work -- so I'm fumbling to the point of wanting to give up, get a refund and take a hike. I fumbled with many other applications before Audition came to the Mac. Unfortunately I am literally fumbling with this current version now. It's truly saddening after having used it for so long. Such a shame.

SteveG(AudioMasters) wrote:

 

I think that a lot of people think (and I'd include myself with them) that the original codebase reached its peak with Audition 1.5. For many people, this has been the most stable version there's been. But when it came to Audition 2, the codebase was completely changed - it used a completely different engine; it had to because it became ASIO-based, rather than using the Windows API's, etc and the OS to do recording/playback.

I'm mostly talking about tangible front-end stuff, (not back-end). I know their separation can be blurred at times, but my focus has always been user-facing (examples like improvements to spectral editing, adding the sequencer to multitrack, etc). Those are tangible things that we can touch and use (I understand that the new audio engine allowed for Audition to venture in to the multitrack/sequencer arena in the first place).

My primary focus has always been in the areas of destructive sound editing and sound design, but I have made use of the multitrack features and non-destructive editing/recording capabilities from time to time. From the destructive sound editing point of view the engine doesn't matter. The tools at my disposal are the most important.

The mentality of "a 3rd party plug-in can do it for you" is awful. I've used these tools and their built-in effects for years and years. There are special things that only Cool Edit/Audition could do as a destructive sound editor that a plug-in made for real-time non-destructive processing cannot.

I don't think that Adobe listens to their customers. It took them 8+ years to "bring Audition to the Mac" (Soundbooth was not Audition) -- and in doing so, they've not even brought what Audition was, but a "rewrite" that discards a LOT of what made prior Audition versions great. In that time there was an interim rewrite just to stub in ASIO -- which doesn't even apply to the Mac platform.

Even/Odd version numbers aren't much of an indication. Cool Edit Pro 1.0 was the first major milestone for Cool Edit bringing multitrack editing. CEP2 was a minor release in scope. Audition 1.0 and 1.5 are essentially CEP2 (even becomes odd). Audition 2 was a major release (by your own words - ASIO). Audition 3 was minor compared to 2. Audition 4 is major as a rewrite.

Audition 5 will likely be minor -- given that 4 has only been out 9 months, and it sounds like CS6 is coming out in the first half of this year which leaves Audition 4 being barely 1 year old before another release?

I do apologize if my perspective might sound harsh, but are they not true? As hilarious as it sounds, you could probably say I'm venting through some stages of greif... ; )

"Cool Edit Pro 1.0 was the first major milestone for Cool Edit bringing multitrack editing. CEP2 was a minor release in scope. Audition 1.0 and 1.5 are essentially CEP2 (even becomes odd). Audition 2 was a major release (by your own words - ASIO). Audition 3 was minor compared to 2. Audition 4 is major as a rewrite.

FWIW there were more versions than most people realise.  The ones that I can recall off the top of my head are:

CEP 1.0

CEP 1.1

CEP 1.1a

CEP 1.2

CEP 1.2a

CEP 2.00

CEP 2.1

CEP 2.1a (not sure if there was CEP 2.1b, and c)

CEP 2.1d

AA 1.0

AA 1.5

AA 2.0

AA 3.0

My reference is the ses files themselves and from those I can determine internally what IMO has been 'major' or 'minor' changes and I can tell you that there were very few changes that I would determine as 'minor' but even so the 'major' ones are nothing in comparison to the jump to 'Audition 4'.

"Audition 5 will likely be minor -- given that 4 has only been out 9 months"

I'm sure that is far from the truth.

Unfortunately, those not involved in the actual development have no real idea of how easy or hard anything is and some of us can only guess.  I mean how hard could it have been to add in clip grouping?

To ask a question like that means that person has no idea what is involved and what would need to be in place in order to pull it off.

We have a Harbour Bridge which has 6 lanes on it and everyone wants a 7th lane - how hard could that be?

I have nothing but respect for the developers based on what I can see under the hood.

But of course not only does none of this matter nor does it change anything as all that matters is what you can see or use.

I would guess that Adobe realise the importance of their next release so it's really a waiting game now - either quietly or noisily ;-)

Anyway my fingers are crossed.

Despite all the mystery about AAx.x  I’m curious as to the future what with all the cutbacks at Adobe, will AAx.x ever survive?

And since it was just added to Production Premium CS 5.5 suite,  I would assume it will be around awhile.   I'll be upgrading to the CS6 suite in May 2012, mostly for any improvements in Audition and not the other products.

I rather like it, after having been a Cakewalk/Sonar user since 1999.   Yeah, Audi CS5.5 is a cut-down version but I'm warming up to it.  But will Audi CS5.5 handle the speeds on the German Autobahn?  ;-)  hehe

cheerio,

Petey

Durin,

First, a tremendous applause on the development of a Mac OS X compatible Audition.  I've been using Audition since 1.5 and love it.  I've recently switched to Mac so the new version is wonderful news.  Unfortunately I have one requirement that is absolutely critical to me that has not yet been met.  I desperately hope that it can be met in CS 6.

In older versions of Audition I could time stretch a clip (not the full track, just the clip) in multitrack view.  This allowed me to take a small clip maybe 2 to 4 measures long and visually time stretch it to match another clip.  Once the timing was correct I could then grab the clip boundary and extend it to play more of the track.  This is absolutely critical to me.  There are times when I need to a) beat match tracks that are so far apart they cannot be matched on turntables, and b) match an a capella to an instrumental.

CS 5.5 only allows time stretch by numerical input (i.e. percentage or duration change).  The afformentioned tasks require a more visual/less exact approach.  Unfortunately, until this requirment is met I will be stuck running Audition 3 in a Windows virtual machine using VMware Fusion on my Mac.  Needless to say this is a less than desirable solution.  I really hope the Audition team can resolve this as Audition has been the heart and soul of my studio for years.

One word: ReWire.

I am having trouble getting information about using superior drummer with my AU 3      what other software drum will work in AU 3??? I really like superior drummer...

Good morning, Durin. First off, I want to thank you for all the attention these issues have been given. Good job! Second, an apology. I have told you about my gripes with the lack of ReWire/MIDI/Sync control, but I have failed to say that I love everything else. Sounds great, has never crashed, looks great, works great with Premiere, no hiccups. Great job, just need to sync up to my music production software! Pleeeeeeese

Audition CS6 is now out the door. This release addresses many longstanding customer requests and includes some really impressive new features (Spectral Pitch Display, Automatic Speech Alignment, and Effects Side-Chaining to name a few).

Here's a high-level list of new features.

And here are details about where to find new functionality in the app.

Having used CE Pro and Audition for longer than I can remember, while I am impressed with the new interface of 5.5/6, I mourn the loss of numerous features I used every single day.  Scientifc filters?  Gone!  Yes, there is a workaround, but it is far from being efficient.  Now I see that control over all color aspects is gone from the spectral display.  Anyone using spectrograms extensively understands the importance of user control over spectral settings.  Will this return or is this yet another former feature that is dust in the wind?  There is a similar post on the feature request forum with no response.

Xav8tor wrote:

 

Having used CE Pro and Audition for longer than I can remember, while I am impressed with the new interface of 5.5/6, I mourn the loss of numerous features I used every single day.  Scientifc filters?  Gone!  Yes, there is a workaround, but it is far from being efficient.  Now I see that control over all color aspects is gone from the spectral display.  Anyone using spectrograms extensively understands the importance of user control over spectral settings.  Will this return or is this yet another former feature that is dust in the wind?  There is a similar post on the feature request forum with no response.

Some of these features aren't 'lost' - they just aren't implemented yet, for reasons thoroughly discussed elsewhere. I must admit though that the inflexibility with the way things are displayed does seem to be something of an ongoing issue... and I agree about the spectral options entirely. I'm not exactly a huge fan of varying shades of grey either, come to that, but I can live with it.

Kost7, as you are no doubt aware, DirectX is a victim of not being Mac compatible. Since the idea is to make the program functionally (although not quite operationally, I believe) identical on both platforms, it had to go. So unless you can persuade Apple to implement a Windows plugin feature in their OS , I think that DirectX really has gone permanently.

Sooooo..... Still no ReWire or any Midi. Should I finally abandon Adobe and move on to greener pastures? To re-state my aggrivation: Adobe states that Audition is not a music production software. I have no problem with that. HOWEVER, Audition provides me with no way to sync up to my music production software. Silly.

Lowe-Fi wrote:

 

Sooooo..... Still no ReWire or any Midi. Should I finally abandon Adobe and move on to greener pastures? To re-state my aggrivation: Adobe states that Audition is not a music production software. I have no problem with that. HOWEVER, Audition provides me with no way to sync up to my music production software. Silly.

While, as a sound designer, I jump back and forth between Audition and Vegas on an hourly basis, I can't say I see the same need when I'm composing music. Just curious about your workflow here -- what aspects of Audition are you looking to utilize in music production, and how would you go about it? If Audition doesn't feature a sequencer component, what would be on your wish list?

I'm asking, since I consider DAW:s like Cubase or Ableton Live to be more of a "cauldron" -- you pour stuff in, but you don't really take anything out except the finished meal.

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

No, unfortunately this is not back, nor is the ability to right-click-and-drag on the amplitude scale to zoom in on any portion of the amplitude range.  Both are important for restoration and mastering troubleshooting, so I agree seeing this -- eventually -- would be really helpful.