Adobe Audition, a professional audio program for recording, mixing, editing, and mastering will soon be available for the Mac.
The software, now at version 3.0 on the Windows platform, offers an audio editing environment for fine-tuning single files or creating multi-track mixes. It also features audio restoration tools, enabling users to transform problem recordings into usable soundtracks.
“Audition has long been a favorite tool for audio editing because of its audio restoration features and the ability to edit audio visually,” said Elaine Montoya, CEO and founder of Zocoloco Studios. “Because I work on a Mac, I’ve been limited to what ProTools has to offer. Now that Audition is going to be on the Mac, it will definitely be my tool of choice for creating high-end audio for our studio’s motion graphics and video projects.”
The Mac version of Audition will not be available immediately. Adobe intends to make a public beta available on the Adobe Labs Website by the end of this year (Winter, 2010) to solicit feedback from the Mac community before finalizing the software for commercial release. Customers can sign up today to be notified when the beta is available. Adobe has not specified a timetable for when a commercial version will be ready. The Mac version of Audition will be Intel-only and compatible with OS X 10.5, 10.6, and any future updates of the Mac OS.
Key features of the upcoming Adobe Audition for Mac will include: Multi-channel support for 5.1 surround sound; noise reduction and restoration capabilities; and new audio effects, including de-hummer, de-esser, and volume leveler.
“Audition has been a really popular, really versatile audio tool that’s been on Windows for many years,” said Ellen Wixted, Adobe’s product marketing manager of professional video solutions. “It combines a single wave editing view with a multitrack mixing view. But what has always and continues to set Audition apart is that it has some of the best audio restoration capabilities available…and makes it easy to go in and fix a wide range of audio problems.”
How will the Mac version of Audition compare with Soundbooth CS5, the audio component of Adobe’s Creative Suite? “Soundbooth is designed for people who don’t have deep roots in audio. It offers some of the same functionality; you can record into it, you can do simple editing, and multitrack mixes, but the level of control and the professional depth of the tools is much greater in Audition than it is in Soundbooth,” Wixted said.
The Adobe Audition 3 Windows version is priced at $349, with upgrades available for $99.