Week 2: Preparing to Record a Project in Adobe Audition

Hi, Esteban here. This last week Loudon rocked his mohawk talking about DAWs, their main characteristics and possibilities. Given the hypermongous amount of audio software out there, not every aspect mentioned in the videos is applicable to each DAW; but the main ideas remain. I’ll talk today about preparing a project using Adobe Audition 3.

Adobe Audition's interface
Is this guy watching Rudy on a DAW?

Why Audition? Mainly because of two things: first, it’s the continuation of the popular Cool Edit Pro, the audio editor I used to record during my golden years (Oh, the glorious decade of the 2000s!). I got disconnected from music, and when it was time to get back jojo, Audition was there. And secondly, Audition 3 is currently available in its entirety from Adobe’s website, which makes it a good option for people on a budget (note that I do not know if downloading without previously owning a version is legal). Audition 3 is outdated and not that great, but these are more than good reasons to use it. Great reasons.  So, yeah, don’t judge me!

Pre-production steps:

DO NOT use your illusion just yet. First of all, it’s time to get organized.

a.       Set a location folder. Before even opening Audition, you should create a project folder, and name it appropriately.

b.      Set your Audio rate and bit rate. When opening a new project, Audition will prompt you a window that will ask you what Sample rate you wish to use. Remember that the recommended rate is 48 kHz. To check the bit rate, go to Edit>Preferences>Multitrack.

c.       Check file types. Audition is set to record your audio as WAV. You should use this as your standard.

d.      Check your hardware settings and Set Buffer size. Go to Edit>Audio Hardware Setup… In the multitrack tab to make sure the correct driver for your interface is displayed, and that your Input and Output ports correspond to your desired, um, input and output, um, ports. Also, set your buffer size in the same window: click on the Control Panel… button to open the audio panel of your driver, where you can change the buffer size. For recording, a low number such as 128 is recommended to avoid latency.

Audio Hardware Setup Menu

Now is time to get to business. If business means a new checklist for recording.

Recording steps:

Two tracks from Audition's Multitrack view.

Step 1. Check your settings and save your session. Make sure everything is in order. Name and save your session.

Step 2. Create a track. Tracks are shown in the Multitrack view. Use the arrow pointing right to determine the input of the track and the one pointing left for the output.



Step 3. Name the track. This is pretty straight forward. Click on the track name (“Track 1” by default) and name it to something useful (i.e., lead guitar... Or if you want, Bill, or George, anything but Sue.)

Step 4. Record/enable the track. Click on the red button to the right of the track name, the one with the “R” on it. I think “R” stands for either “Rock ‘n’ roll” or “record”, I’m not sure.

Audition's session properties

Step 5. Set your levels. It is best to set your levels using your preamp or audio interface levels. Also, trust your ears. Audition has a horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen that will show you the levels. Color red is a no-no.

Step 6. Enable your click and count-off. Set the metronome by going to Session properties. There is a shortcut at the lower right corner. Change to the desired tempo here. Press the metronome button to activate it.

Transport options. To the right: Japan's flag. 

Step 7. Record! It’s a kind of magic! Press the Record button on the lower left corner of the screen, in the Transport options (Ctrl+Space bar is the shortcut). If you don’t know what the button looks like, search for the one that looks like Japan’s flag. If you don’t know how Japan’s flag looks like, well, it looks like a record button.

DOMO ARIGATO! You are ready for the Rock part. Time to get sex and drugs (but these are optional and kind of overrated, really).

Again, Audition 3 might not be your best option as far as DAWs go, but it gets the job done. It’s a pretty straight forward piece of software, and I find it easy to navigate. The preparation process is easy to figure out once you know where everything is. Also, Audition will prompt you if you are doing something wrong; for example, you won’t be able to arm a track if you haven’t saved your session. Get your free (?) copy at Adobe.

Thanks for reading guys! Good luck on the rest of the class!