Introduction  to  Adobe  Audition  CS6  

 

Pre-­‐Audition  Instructions  1. Before  you  record  yourself  or  an  interview  using  your  Zoom  recorder,  make  sure  you  

record  a  “soundbed”  (at  least  30  seconds),  the  natural  ambient  noise  of  the  room  without  anyone  talking.  You  use  these  soundbeds  between  clips  when  things  are  silent  so  the  emptiness  between  clips  sounds  natural.  

2. Save  copies  of  your  original,  unedited  soundfiles  somewhere  else.  On  a  thumbdrive,  email,  desktop.  That  way  if  you  accidentally  edit  them  poorly  you  can  always  go  back  to  the  originals.  

3. Audition  lets  you  do  two  types  of  editing:  destructive  (which  permanently  changes  the  original  file)  and  non-­‐destructive  (doesn’t  mess  with  the  original  audio  files).  By  in  large  we  will  be  trying  to  stick  with  non-­‐destructive  editing,  which  is  why  we  will  try  to  almost  always  edit  in  the  multi-­‐track  window.  

I.  Folder  Structure  1. Create a project folder on the desktop. Call it lastname_assignment2mainfolder. Save it to your

external hard drive. 2. Never save anything to anywhere but this project folder. 3. For the sake of your sanity—label all your files with descriptive names like

radiolab_walrus_clip. Not the names that are pre-given like 187627fd.wav. 4. You are assembling your files in a multitrack session. Audition is a non-destructive editing

software, so your edits and volume changes in multitrack donʼt change the original files. This means your multitrack has to reference the original files each time it opens. If they arenʼt exactly where they were the last time you opened your session, they will show up BLANK in multitrack. Yes, you can “link” them (tell the session where to find them), if you need to. But you wonʼt need to, because you will follow my advice and ALWAYS keep your files and multitrack together.

II.  Starting  a  New  Project  1. The first thing is to create a multitrack Session for editing. There are two ways to do it:

• Click on multitrack in upper left, or • File>New>Multitrack Session

2. When  you  create  a  new  multitrack  session,  Audition  will  ask  you  to  enter  in  some  options:  • Name  your  project  (please  use  the  format  lastname_assignment2):  

Kurlinkus_assignment2  • Folder  location:  Save  to  your  external  hard  drive  to  the  folder  you  created  • Template:  “Podcast”  

3. Move  a  sound  file  into  the  window  by  dragging  and  dropping  it  into  the  files  window  in  Audition.    

• You  can  also  click  on  the  Import  file  icon  in  the  Files  window;  go  to  the  File>Import  File  on  the  menu  bar;  or  just  type  Command  I    

• You’ll  notice  several  pre-­‐created  tracks.  Host  (where  you  put  audio  of  yourself  talking),  interview  (where  you  put  audio  of  your  ripped  interviews),  music  bed  (your  music),  and  master  (where  you  edit  the  sound  of  everything  together  at  the  same  time).  

• You  can  also  add  a  new  track:  multitrack>track>add  new  stereo  or  duplicate.  And  then  add  audio  by  multitrack>insertfiles  

• To  delete  a  track,  select  it,  and  choose  Multitrack  >  Track  >  Delete  Selected  Track.  • You  may  want  to  rename  the  tracks  to  something  more  specific  and  meaningful  to  

your  project.  Do  so  by  clicking  on  the  track  name  and  typing.  • Sometimes  it’s  nice  to  have  one  empty  track  at  the  top  called  “working  track”  where  

you  perform  all  your  edits.  Delete  this  working  track  before  exporting  your  final  mp3.  

III.  Basic  Editing  A.  Deleting  sections  of  a  track  1. Like in Photoshop, the move tool allows you to move tracks around.

2. Move the audio file you want to edit to the “working track” track. Click on the track you want to edit with the move tool. If an individual track is not

highlighted, you will edit all the tracks at once.

3. Use the razor tool (the icon that looks like a razor or press r) to divide tracks into segments that you want to use in your project. Delete the rest.

• You can also use the clip>split (command k)

4. Use the time selection tool (the I-beam icon, 2 to the right of the razor tool) to highlight the part of the track you want to delete.

• Hit delete to preserve the gap or shift-delete to close it. 5. When you position the mouse over the beginning or end of a clip, you will see a red square

bracket indicating that you can trim or extend a clip. 6. To zoom in press +, to zoom out press -. Alternatively, use the zoom menu at the bottom of the

window (play with the different types of zooms as they are helpful). 7. Ripple Delete: Deleting the gap between clips. Right click on the gap, choose ripple delete>gap

B.  Volume  1. To  set  a  base-­‐level  audio  for  your  podcast,  I’d  like  you  first  to  use  the  match  clip  volume  

function.  Right  click  on  an  individual  track>match  clip  volume>-­‐18LUFS  (for  speaking)  -­‐20  for  music    

2. To  open  up  more  volume  editing  options,  pull  the  track  vertically  in  the  tracks  information  pane.  

3. To  adjust  the  volume  of  individual  tracks  or  clips,  use  the  yellow  line  across  each  track.  Click  on  it  with  the  move  tool  and  drag  it  up  or  down  to  make  the  track  louder  or  softer.  

4. By clicking on this yellow bar you can add a “keyframe” or “soundpoint” (a yellow diamond). By adding multiple keyframes and adjusting the volume line up or down between them you can have the volume of the track rise and fall.

5. Fades. When transitioning between audio clips it is sometimes appropriate to add a fade in and out. To do this you can use soundpoints or use the fade in box (the transparent box that looks like a dog-eared sheet of paper at the beginning and end of each clip). Simply drag this semi-transparent box to adjust the fade.

IV.  Exporting  

• File>Export>Multitrack Mixdown>Entire Session. • In the Export Multitrack Mixdown dialog box, choose MP3 from the Format drop

down list. Click Browse and ensure the MP3��� will be saved to the project folder on your harddrive. Give your MP3 a name (lastname_Assignment2). For the purposes of our course, maintain the default Format Settings (MP3 192 Kbps CBR).

• Click OK to export your .mp3 to your thumb drive. The MP3 will appear in the project folder on your thumb drive as well the Files area of Audition.

V.  Quickly  Editing  Down  Copies  of  Your  Original  Files—Warning  this  is  Destructive  Editing  and  Will  Alter  Your  Files  Permanently    1. File > Open 2. Select the portion of the waveform you want to remove 3. Press Delete – repeat Steps 2 & 3 until your clean up is done 3. Apply Effects > Amplitude & Compression > Speech Volume Leveler 4. Save the file as a new name as to not write over your old file