Record and edit music
Record, edit, and apply effects to audio clips, as well as record and adjust multitrack sessions in Adobe Audition and work directly with audio tracks in Adobe Premiere Pro.
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Explore the Audition user interface
In this video, you’ll learn about the Audition user interface and get an overview of the Waveform and Multitrack modes.
Adobe Audition CC has two modes, accessible by clicking on the Waveform or Multitrack buttons here at the top, or by double clicking to open an audio file or multitrack session in the Files panel.
To follow along, copy the assets that accompany this tutorial to your Creative Cloud account.
Waveform editing
I’m opening this file to view the waveform.
There’s a long gap at the beginning.
You can remove this by selecting it and pressing Delete.
You can also selectively increase or lower the amplitude of an audio file by choosing the part you want to adjust and adjusting the level.
Effects can be applied one at a time by selecting them in the Effects menu, or by adding them as a list in the Effects Rack, which allows you to experiment with effect combinations before applying them. [audio sample] Effects help you get started, with detailed controls to finesse your adjustments.
You can also batch-process audio files, to remove issues like 60 Hz hum or match the amplitude of clips, using a range of measures, including industry standard Broadcast Loudness options.
Multitrack editing
The Multitrack view offers a comprehensive set of non-destructive tools for mixing and editing audio.
Changes you make in this mode do not modify your original audio files.
Clips added to a multitrack session can be moved to blend them together.
They can be edited and adjusted. [♪ music ♪] You can make several adjustments to multitrack clips directly, making it really easy to adjust a mix quickly.
For example, adjust a clip level to make it more audible. [♪ music ♪] The Multitrack Effects Rack is non-destructive, and functions in a similar way to the Waveform Editor Effects Rack. [♪ music ♪]
Essential Sound panel
The Essential Sound panel provides access to useful effect presets and clip adjustments based on particular tasks. [♪ music ♪] Audition has a number of panels, each providing different functionality.
Workspaces make it simple to organize panels for different activities, like Radio Production, or Mastering and Analysis.
So that’s an overview of the Adobe Audition user interface, as well as its Waveform and Multitrack modes.
Record, edit, and apply effects to audio clips
In this video, you’ll record a sample audio track, change the volume, apply a fade-in and fade-out effect, add a Studio Reverb, and then save your edited audio file.
Adobe Audition CC provides comprehensive tools to record, edit, and apply effects to audio files.
There’s a difference between opening a file in Audition and importing one.
When you open a file, it’s added to the Files panel and opened in the Editor panel.
When you import a file, it’s added to the Files panel without opening it in the Editor.
To follow along, copy the assets that accompany this tutorial to your Creative Cloud account.
Record audio file
You can import files by clicking the button, double clicking in a blank area in the Files panel, or even by dragging them directly from Windows Explorer or the Finder in Mac OS.
To make a recording from a USB microphone or built-in microphone, first create an audio file.
You can leave the other settings at their default values in the New Audio File dialog box.
Click the record button to begin recording.
This is a new voice over created with Adobe Audition.
A waveform display shows audio amplitude over time, going from left to right.
The taller the waveform, the louder the sound.
You can zoom in and out using the navigator at the top of the Editor panel.
Edit audio files
Change the overall volume using the HUD control.
Apply similar adjustments to parts of your audio by making a selection first.
Apply a fade in and fade out using the on-screen controls.
Apply an effect using the Effects menu.
This Parametric EQ effect allows you to adjust the audio level at particular frequencies.
You can preview the before and after versions of the audio by playing the file file and toggling the power state button in the Effect dialog box.
This is a new voice over created with Adobe Audition.
This is a new voice over created with Adobe Audition.
Playback will loop if the Toggle Loop button is on, as it is now.
Apply effects
Apply and preview multiple effects using the Effects Rack.
Here’s that Parametric EQ effect again.
This time, let’s use a preset.
I’ll choose the Loudness Maximizer here.
Now here’s a Studio Reverb to add presence to a vocal.
I’ll select Room Ambience 2 this time.
You can preview up to 16 effects.
This is a new voice over created with Adobe Audition.
And when you’re happy with the result, click the Apply button.
Save a file
You can save a file in a number of formats, such as MP3 or M4A.
Go to the File menu, and choose Save As...
Choose a filename, output location, format, sample type, and format settings, and click OK.
A new file is created with the effects you applied incorporated into it.
So that’s how you record a sample audio track, change the volume, apply a fade-in and fade-out effect, add a studio reverb, and then save your edited audio file.
Record and adjust multitrack sessions
In this video, you’ll combine multiple audio files into a complete composition using the Multitrack editor. You’ll also use a Dynamics Processing effect that automatically lowers the audio level of one track when there’s a voiceover track present — an effect called “music ducking.”
Adobe Audition CC allows you to combine multiple audio files into a complete composition with the Multitrack editor.
Create multitrack session
When you create a new multitrack session, you have the option to begin with default settings, track names, and no effects — or to use one of several template session types, which have pre-named tracks with useful effects already applied.
Let’s use a template: Radio VO with Music Ducking.
To follow along, copy the assets that accompany this tutorial to your Creative Cloud account.
Multitrack session effects can be applied to individual clips, or to the tracks on which the clips are located.
Using track-based effects is an extremely efficient way to make adjustments to multiple clips, though you’ll need to organize your session to make sure clips are added to the correct tracks.
In this template session, tracks are named to make it easier to organize your session — in this case, add music to the Music track and lower the track level to about –18 dB because it’s likely to be generally too loud otherwise.
Music ducking
The Music track already has an effect applied called Dynamics Processing, which is pre-configured to reduce the audio level for clips on this track when there is audio on the voiceover track.
This is called “music ducking.”
This system of using the contents of one track to change the way an effect is applied on another track is called side-chaining.
A good example of using this effect is in radio broadcasting, where music gets quieter while the DJ speaks.
Let’s try this out by recording my voice directly into the multitrack session.
You can record audio from any hardware inputs you have directly onto a track.
In this example, I’m going to record my microphone alone, but you could easily configure multiple tracks to record different inputs at the same time.
This might be a music performance with multiple instruments, or multiple microphones.
I’m choosing my microphone . . . and arming the track for recording by clicking this button.
Notice the meter now shows the level as I’m speaking.
This helps you verify that you have the correct input selected.
Let’s record now.
Because the Voice Over track is armed for recording, when I click the record button at the bottom of the Editor panel, new audio will be recorded onto the track.
The recording begins at the location of the playhead, which is this line. [♪ music ♪] This is some voice over.
You'll notice I'm leaving some gaps in my speech because this demonstrates music ducking.
Let’s listen to that, with the ducking now applied to the music. [♪ music ♪] This is some voice over.
You'll notice I'm leaving some gaps in my speech because this demonstrates music ducking.
View track effects by clicking on the Effects button.
Change track effects
If the music level needs to be reduced more or less, then by double-clicking on the effect name you can change the effects in the Dynamics Processing effect.
These controls change the relationship between the original audio level and the output audio level.
In this case, I’m making a dramatic change to the output so you can hear a more exaggerated effect.
Let’s play this over again and hear how the sound changes. [♪ music ♪] This is some voice over.
You'll notice I'm leaving some gaps in my speech because this demonstrates music ducking.
If you don’t like the way things sound, you can always go back to the Dynamics Processing effect and make further adjustments.
I’m going to use the Razor tool to separate the sections of voiceover, and reposition them to change the timing.
Group clips
Now that I’m happy with the new timing, I’m going to choose the Move tool, select them, right-click, and choose Groups > Group Clips.
Notice the keyboard shortcut is Control-G; that’s Command-G on Mac OS.
Now, when I move any of these clips, they move together.
Ungroup by right-clicking and choosing Group > Group Clips again to deselect it.
Customize track colors
You can customize track colors which, by default, will automatically update clip colors.
You can also change individual clip colors.
Large multitrack sessions can become complex, and one way to stay organized is to use specific colors for particular kinds of audio.
So that’s how you combine multiple audio files into a complete composition with the Multitrack editor, as well as apply a “music ducking” effect that automatically lowers the audio level of a clip when there’s a voiceover track present.
Work with multitrack sessions
In this video, you’ll produce a multitrack session using a video as a reference. After adding a crossfade between two pieces of music, you’ll use the Essential Sound panel to adjust the clarity of the sound and reduce the volume by adjusting the level of the entire track, rather than the individual clips.
Adobe Audition CC allows you to produce a multitrack session with video as a reference.
For example, you might produce a mix for a film, or clean up some interview audio.
To follow along, copy the assets that accompany this tutorial to your Creative Cloud account.
Multitrack session with reference video
This multitrack session was created for video, so let’s add a video track and a reference clip.
You can easily add tracks to a multitrack session by going to the multitrack menu and choosing Track.
There are a number of options, with each track type giving you controls suitable for different audio clip types.
There’s Mono, Stereo, and 5.1, for example.
For this exercise, let’s choose Video.
Now let’s add a video clip.
Audition supports a wide range of video formats, and has a Video panel to display content.
We can access the Video panel in the Window menu, but I’m going to switch to the Edit Audio to Video workspace to take us straight to it.
Now as I play the multitrack session, we can see the reference video. [♪ music ♪] Are you hurt?
Add cross-fade
This multitrack session has two pieces of music, and I’d like them to crossfade.
By default, when you overlap clips, a crossfade is applied automatically. [♪ music ♪] One move out of place and you're ground to a pulp. [♪ music ♪] But isn't it?
>> Pulp Emo!
Is that what you want?
Pulp?
There are several options when creating crossfades.
For example, you might want the first piece of music stay audible for longer, while the second piece builds more slowly.
To do this, we’ll create an asymmetrical crossfade.
Right-click on the crossfade icon to select Asymmetrical.
Now you can adjust the crossfade icons separately.
These are the same icons you use when applying a fade-in or fade-out to an audio file in the Waveform view. [♪ music ♪] One move out of place and you're ground to a pulp. [♪ music ♪] But isn't it?
>> Pulp Emo!
Is that what you want?
Pulp?
A voice track in this mix would benefit from more clarity.
First I’m going to solo the track, to hear it more clearly – soloing a track means you only hear that track.
Dialogue options in Essential Sound panel
I’m going to select the voice clip, then go to the Dialogue options in the Essential Sound panel.
Notice you can expand or collapse sections in the Essential Sound panel by clicking on the headings.
I’m going to play the audio, while adjusting the Dynamics control to improve the sound.
Let’s have a listen.
One move out of place, and you're ground to a pulp.
You’ll notice a Dynamics effect is added to the Effects rack, which is giving us our new clarity.
You can adjust the settings in that effect for more precise control by double-clicking on it in the Effects rack.
Turn off the solo option to hear the whole mix again.
Multitrack mixer
The music is a little too loud.
I’m going to reduce the volume by adjusting the track level, rather than changing the individual clips.
If you are organized, and keep particular kinds of audio on dedicated tracks, you can use this more efficient approach to make your adjustments.
By default, the multitrack mixer shares a frame with the multitrack editor.
Let’s take a look at it.
In fact, let’s make a little change to the interface so we can see exactly what’s going on.
Panels in Audition can be moved between areas of the interface, called frames, by dragging them.
Click on a panel tab, and when you drag the interface, it will highlight new locations for you to place it.
I’m going to place the mixer next to the multitrack editor so we can see both at once.
Scroll with the mouse cursor over the track headers to change their height.
Notice the tracks displayed in the mixer have the same names as the tracks in the multitrack editor.
That’s because they are the same tracks.
The multitrack mixer displays several controls for each track, using the space tracks take up in the multitrack editor to display everything, all at once.
In addition, there’s a fader control that makes it easier to apply nuanced adjustments to levels.
Let’s play the mix and adjust the fader for our music to improve things. [♪ music ♪] Emo, your goal in life.
>> Pulp!
Of course, you can also adjust the audio level for individual clips.
This voice clip is a little quiet.
This line controls volume, so I’m going to drag it up a little. [♪ music ♪] Pulp!
Once you’re happy with your mix, you just need to export it.
Export the mix
Choose File > Export > Multitrack Mixdown.
Then choose Entire Session.
Choose a name, and browse to select a location.
Then pick a format – I’m going to choose a Wave file.
You can choose file format settings, and the specific audio settings you want to apply to the mix.
When you’re happy with the settings, click OK and a new file is created from your multitrack session.
So that’s how you produce a multitrack session using a video as a reference.
Dynamic link to Premiere Pro
In this video, you’ll learn how Audition integrates seamlessly with Premiere Pro. Starting with a Premiere Pro sequence that contains a noisy voice recording, you’ll use the noise reduction features offered by Audition to clean up this audio track.
Not only does Adobe Audition CC provide advanced audio cleanup, effects, and mixing tools— but it also integrates seamlessly with Adobe Premiere Pro CC.
There are a couple of approaches to this.
Let’s take a look at the options.
To follow along, copy the assets that accompany this tutorial to your Creative Cloud account.
Here we’re in Premiere Pro with a sequence that contains a voice recording that’s noisy.
Let’s listen to what we have – I’m going to click into the Timeline and use the Spacebar to start and stop playback.
This is some voice over.
You'll notice I'm leaving some gaps.
Send Premiere Pro clip to Audition
Let’s use the advanced noise reduction features offered by Audition to clean this up.
To send a clip to Audition, select it, go to the Edit menu and choose Edit in Adobe Audition > Clip.
Notice that I’m choosing the individual Clip option rather than the Sequence option, which I’ll cover later.
Clean up audio
Now we’re in Audition.
Use the Time selection tool to select the part of the audio that’s noisy but shouldn’t be.
We’re going to use this selection to tell Audition which audio to remove.
Go to Effects > Noise Reduction and Restoration > Capture noise print.
After you see the confirmation dialog box, you’re ready to apply noise reduction.
Deselect by clicking anywhere on the audio once.
Because you haven’t kept a selection, the change you’re about to make will be applied to the whole audio file.
Go back to the Effects menu and this time choose the Noise reduction category, and then Noise Reduction.
Right away, if you play from within this dialog box, you can hear an improvement.
This is some voice over.
You'll notice I'm leaving some gaps.
There are advanced controls you can use to finesse the result, but I’m happy with the default settings for now, so let’s click Apply.
This media file is now shared by Premiere Pro and Audition, so all you need to do to hear the result in Premiere Pro is save it.
The asterisk next to the filename in the Files panel shows that changes have been made to the file but they haven’t been saved.
I’m going to press Control-S now to save – that would be Command-S on Mac OS.
Now let’s switch back to Premiere Pro to listen to it.
This is some voice over.
You'll notice I'm leaving some gaps.
Much better.
Send Premiere Pro sequence to Audition
You can also send a complete sequence from Premiere Pro to Audition to create an advanced mix.
Let’s do that now.
Go to the Edit menu and choose Edit in Adobe Audition > Sequence.
There are some pretty straightforward options in this dialog box.
I want to draw your attention to just one menu: Video.
Keep this menu set to Dynamic Link.
Choosing this option means that Premiere Pro will send the video part of this sequence to Audition as a live stream, meaning that changes made in Premiere Pro will update dynamically in Audition.
When you click OK in this dialog box, Premiere Pro creates copies of every audio clip in the sequence and produces an XML file based on that sequence, which Audition will open, with the clips all in position, ready to continue working.
The Premiere Pro sequence opens in Audition as a multitrack session, and you’re ready to work on the mix.
Several of these voice clips have differing audio levels, so select them and go to the Essential Sound panel, which provides several advanced audio adjustments in a unified panel.
Select Dialogue as an audio type, then click on the Unify Loudness heading to display the Auto Match option.
Click the Auto Match button to automatically apply a nondestructive ITU Loudness standard clip gain adjustment to all the selected clips so they match.
The music was digitized from an LP and it contains some clicks and pops from damage to the original vinyl record.
I'm going to solo the music track so we just hear the music.
Let’s listen to what we have. [♪ music ♪]
Diagnostics panel
To clean up those clicks and pops in the audio, first double-click on the music, so it opens in the Waveform view.
The Diagnostics panel provides a number of tools to analyze and fix audio files.
Choose the DeClicker effect.
For this complex audio, set the Threshold low to identify more noise and the Complexity high to expand the analysis.
Click Scan to begin the analysis.
The DeClicker has found a number of clicks and pops, so select Repair All to repair them.
And let's listen again - [♪ music ♪] much better.
If you don’t get perfect results the first time, you can adjust the Threshold and Complexity controls, which vary the sensitivity to noise, and guide the analysis by establishing the complexity of the original audio.
It can take trial and error to find the ideal settings for a particular audio clip.
It would be fun if this music gradually slowed down at the end, in the way an old-style record player might wind down if it ran out of power.
To achieve this effect, go to the Effects menu and choose Time and Pitch, then Pitch Bender.
Choose the Turntable Losing Power preset.
As soon as you do, you can see the blue pitch control line updating in the waveform display.
You can reshape that line manually too, but for now let's stick to the preset.
Click Apply and let’s listen — back in the context of our multitrack session. [♪ music ♪] Once you’re happy with the mix, you can output it.
Export to Media Encoder
You might save the multitrack session as a file by going to the Multitrack Mixdown options.
You might also choose to export it to Premiere Pro.
In this instance, if you are running Premiere Pro on the same machine, after choosing the format you’d like, the audio will automatically be imported to Premiere Pro and added to your timeline.
The option I want to show you is Export to Adobe Media Encoder.
Notice there’s no opening title on this video.
Well, we used Dynamic Link to send the video from Premiere Pro to Audition, so now we can go back to Premiere Pro and add that title.
I’m going to drag it into the sequence.
Now, back in Audition, you can see the result right away.
Let’s go to File > Export > Export with Adobe Media Encoder.
Choose a Media Encoder format – H.264 is fine — and then choose the preset “Match Source – High bitrate.”
When you click OK, the completed audio mix and the dynamically linked video are sent to Adobe Media Encoder to be encoded as a new file.
This means you can produce your sequence in Premiere Pro, send it to Audition for fine audio finishing, and then send it on to Adobe Media Encoder for final output and automatic publishing to a number of video hosting and social media platforms.
Understand the visual displays
In this video, you’ll learn the differences between the waveform display, which indicates amplitude over time, and the spectral frequency display, which indicates amplitude at specific frequencies and is great for adjusting — and removing — the amplitude of specific frequencies.
Adobe Audition CC can display a waveform to indicate amplitude over time,
Waveform vs. Spectral Frequency display
or a Spectral Frequency display that indicates amplitude at specific frequencies.
The Spectral Frequency display allows you to make selections and adjustments with very high precision.
To follow along, copy the assets that accompany this tutorial to your Creative Cloud account.
Let’s compare these two displays.
The waveform shows time moving left to right.
The louder the audio is, the taller the waveform is.
You’ll find the waveform useful for locating sections of audio, and for making time selections. [♪ music ♪] The Spectral Frequency display is accessible by clicking the button at the top of the interface here, or by adjusting the size of the display beneath the waveform.
In this display, time still moves left to right, but now the vertical axis indicates frequency.
The amplitude is indicated by the brightness of the dots.
This more painterly approach makes it possible to identify sections of audio based on their frequency and, importantly, to make frequency-based selections.
Let’s try a couple of examples. [♪ music ♪] If you use the Waveform to make a time selection, when you use the HUD control to adjust the amplitude, the change is applied to all frequencies. [♪ music ♪] Now see what happens when you use the Marquee selection tool to choose some frequencies in the Spectral Frequency Display. [♪ music ♪] You can adjust the amplitude for just those frequencies. [♪ music ♪]
Remove telephone rings from audio
Just as effects are limited to selections in the waveform, you can limit them to specific frequencies in the Spectral Frequency display.
You can also quickly remove certain frequencies.
This clip has a telephone ringing in the background.
It’s easy to see where the telephone ring is. [telephone rings] —company committed to health and fitness— Select the telephone ring and press Delete to remove it.
Let’s listen again. —company committed to health and fitness— You’ll notice there’s a Paintbrush Selection tool to make very precise selections in the spectral frequency display.
There’s also a Spot Healing Brush tool.
Listen to this clip. [♪ music ♪] [telephone rings] Select the ringtone with the Spot Healing Brush tool — and in one step, it’s removed. [♪ music ♪] So that’s the differences between the Waveform display and the Spectral Frequency display, which indicates amplitude at specific frequencies and is great for removing unwanted sounds from your audio.
