Adobe Audition Review: Polished, Powerful, and Pricey

Adobe Audition Review: Polished, Powerful, and Pricey | PCMag

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3.5 Good this.$refs.template.innerHTML, onCreate: (instance) => this.tippyInstance = instance, onShow: (instance) => { this.escapeHandler = (e) => { if (e.key === 'Escape') instance.hide(); }; window.addEventListener('keydown', this.escapeHandler); }, onHide: (instance) => { if (this.escapeHandler) { window.removeEventListener('keydown', this.escapeHandler); this.escapeHandler = null; } }, onMount: (instance) => { const closeBtn = instance.popper.querySelector('[data-tooltip-close]'); if (closeBtn) closeBtn.addEventListener('click', () => instance.hide()); }, }; }, }">   What Our Ratings Mean 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies. The Bottom Line Adobe Audition is a capable audio editor for video postproduction, podcasts, and audio restoration, but it's expensive for what you get. Per Month, Starts at $22.99 Get Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps for $59.99/Month See It PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

Pros & Cons Strong audio restoration, sound removal, and noise reduction tools Useful visualization modes Adheres to film and television broadcast standards for audio Available only via an expensive monthly subscription Lacks MIDI and virtual instrument support Limited scoring facilities Adobe Audition Specs Name Value tr:nth-of-type(n+6)]:hidden" :class="{ '[&>tr:nth-of-type(n+6)]:!table-row': open }"> Free Version Subscription Plan Audio Tracks 128 Instruments Effects 50 Bundled Content 8GB Notation Pitch Correction Mixer View More Specs

Adobe Audition is powerful, cross-platform audio editing software in a category of its own. It has specialized tools for cleaning up and restoring audio, offers precise, nondestructive editing for corporate and commercial video and podcasts, and is stellar in postproduction. Audition also functions as a digital audio workstation (DAW), though it's too limited and expensive for that role, given its lack of music-composition tools. From sitting your audio clips just right in a video project or podcast to crafting sound effects for video games to ducking music to spotlight voice-overs, Audition is a pleasure to use. But our Editors' Choice winners for multitrack recording and mixing, Apple Logic Pro, Avid Pro Tools, and Steinberg Cubase, are more capable audio production tools in a much wider array of contexts.Pricing: A Costly Subscription With Questionable ValueAudition began life as a program called Cool Edit by Syntrillium Software. I remember it from its Cool Edit Pro days, when it was multitrack-enabled. Adobe bought the product from Syntrillium in 2003, relaunched it as Audition soon after, and has continued to develop it ever since.As with other Adobe software, Audition is available only via subscription. Prices have gone up since our last test. Audition now costs $22.99 per month with an annual commitment, $34.49 on a month-to-month plan, or $263.88 for a prepaid annual plan. It's