Adobe Soundbooth vs Audition

Adobe Audition is the replacement for Soundbooth that has been around since 2011. It is currently included in the Adobe Creative Cloud, so a simple subscription will give you access to it and every other Adobe creative app. If you’re looking for a modern audio editing tool, then here are the key advantages you can expect to see if you upgrade from Soundbooth to Audition.

1. It offers multitrack editing.

You can add effects to specific tracks or sections without changing the actual audio through destructive editing. This means you can make ongoing changes to the audio as well to make sure that you get things right. Exporting to the multitrack workflow interface does take some getting used to doing, especially if you need to change your bit depth exports to match your encoding settings, but it is a definite upgrade from Soundbooth. You also gain access to music loops and there’s an allowance for low-latency multitrack recording.

Soundbooth never allowed for multitrack editing. You had to edit every individual track instead.

2. It incorporates recording markers.

When you’re editing audio, it can be difficult to know exactly where you are with the track. Audition has allowed for the ability to add external markers during the editing process so that you can keep track of your location. This makes it a whole lot easier to perform spot editing. If you’re used to tracking audio based on timestamps, you’ll be happy to see how Audition performs.

Soundbooth never incorporated this type of feature into their interface, even though it was often promised.

3. It allows for complex audio editing to occur with simple functionality.

Maybe you’ve tried a tool like Audacity, which requires you to follow numerous steps in order to perform a simple edit, like the incorporation of a crossfade. In Audition, the steps are incredibly simple. Just import the clips or edit the audio, overlap your tracks to get the crossfade that you want, and you’re done. You can then move your crossfade whenever you want, which other tools don’t always make possible.

4. It compresses your work files so they aren’t super massive.

Many audio editing programs require you to embed raw audio into an effect file so that you’re left with an uncompressed WAV file. This means you can often see audio files top 2 GB in size for a basic podcast. With Audition, compression happens within the tracks and clips because there isn’t audio destruction. Your audio is processed live, so the raw audio doesn’t need to be changed. This means the audio files produced by Audition are up to 70% smaller than in similar programs.

This fact is true even when comparing Soundbooth to Audition. If your HDD space is limited, then Audition is the tool you are going to want to use.

5. It still offers video-centric integration.

If you’re working with video production, then Audition has kept one of the best features from Soundbooth. You can use Audition with After Effects, Premiere Pro, and other video apps. Even your presets or extra audio effects come along during the transition, letting you have a good idea of what your audio will sound like before full publication.

There are some disadvantages which must be considered as well.

You can subscribe to the full Adobe Creative Suite for about $19.99 per month. This will give you access to Audition and all of the other creative tools, but you need to sign a contract in order to get this pricing. You can also purchase it for $349 outright. In comparison, there are some other audio editing tools that are low- or no-cost.

Audition is also a professional-quality audio editing tool, but it won’t upgrade the quality of your recorded audio. Although there are several compressors which can be incorporated onto your raw audio, a poor sound recording is not going to be saved by this tool.

It also has workflow learning that may require a time investment that not everyone may be willing or able to make. For many audio editors, the only real job they need their software to do is process some basic cutting, copying, and pasting while adding a few effects here or there.

If you need an immediate audio editing tool, Adobe Audition offers a number of benefits to consider. As long as the disadvantages are accounted for, in the Audition vs Soundbooth debate, Audition will almost always win – unless you’re editing on an older computer.