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A guide to getting started with Audition for multitracking


Steve

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As the DJ TechTools article I wrote was rather general, here's a basic guide to getting started with Audition.

 

INTRO TO THE MULTITRACK VIEW AND BASIC CONTROLS: -

 

The two views that you'll use the most are Edit View and Multitrack View, with the bulk of your work being done in the Multitrack view which features 128 separate tracks that you can record to. You can switch between views using the tabs near the top of the main screen (underneath the toolbar).

 

In the toolbar in the multitrack view, you'll see the following group of 3 buttons: -

 

00.jpg

 

Having the left button pressed in selects the Hybrid Tool, which I find to be the best way to do general work within a project. The other buttons are Time Selection Tool and the Move/Copy Clip Tool, although you can do those tasks with the Hybrid Tool as well. With they Hybrid Tool, you use a mix of the left and right mouse buttons (sometimes combined with holding the button in and dragging the mouse) to do particular tasks and once you get used to it, it's the fastest way to work.

 

Each track in the Multitrack View has the following controls to the left of it: -

 

01.jpg

 

R - Record. When this button is highlighted, the track is primed to record. Be careful of accidentally leaving a track primed to record and recording over something by mistake! You can set as many tracks as you like to record on simultaneously, although you would only need to use 1 at a time.

 

S - Solo. When this button is highlighted, you'll only hear that particular track. It's basically a shortcut to muting all of the other tracks. Obviously, you can only solo one track at a time.

 

M - Mute. Mutes the selected track. You can mute as many tracks as you like simultaneously.

 

There's also controls for volume and panning there that affect all audio blocks in the entire track. Right clicking on those controls allows you to change the settings (change the volume and/or pan left or right). The FX button allows you to add/remove effects on that track, but you would only use this button for removing an effect rather than adding one, as it's easier to add an effect via the effects menu (more on that later).

 

If you look at those controls next to track 1, above them you'll see some tabs. Here you can switch between the set of controls I just mentioned and 2 other tabs - EQ and Bus. I've never needed to use Bus, but if you click on EQ you then have access to EQ settings for each track: -

 

02.jpg

 

Right-clicking on the numbers will bring up controls that allow you to make adjustments to these settings: -

 

03.jpg

 

Personally, I try and EQ tracks via the mixer, so that I don't have to do further EQ adjustments once the audio is recorded into Audition, but the option is there should you need it.

 

At the bottom of the Multitrack View are some level meters for both playback and recording. Try and record as close to 0dB as you can, but without clipping (the levels going into the red). Obviously, when you layer audio blocks on top of each other, clipping will sometimes occur and then you'll need to make adjustments to the volume level of specific tracks and/or audio blocks, but for actually recording audio into the project, aiming for as close to 0dB as possible but with no clipping is the best way to go.

 

At the bottom left of the window are the following controls: -

 

04.jpg

 

The group of controls on the left are your standard record, play, pause etc. buttons, and the group on the right are for zooming in and out which is vital if you want to cut a block of audio up accurately.

 

At the top of the window, above track 1, you'll see a time bar with a green block that you can drag left and right to move around your project. If you move the mouse pointer to the edge of the green block, you can drag it left and right to increase the size of the block which also zooms in and out, which I find a quicker way to zoom than using the controls at the bottom of the screen.

 

The yellow dotted line you'll see in the Multitrack View is your time marker: -

 

05.jpg

 

When the Hybrid Tool is selected, you can left-click the mouse anywhere in your project to move the time marker there. You can also click on the little triangle at the top of the marker and drag it left and right for more accurate placing (usually while zoomed in). You can also use the rewind and fast forward controls in the group of controls at the bottom left of the main screen to move the time marker left and right.

 

When you press play, the music will play starting from where the time marker is placed, so you will use the marker a lot when previewing what you've recorded. Also, the time marker is used to denote where you want to split an audio block, so using zoom to accurately place it is important.

 

WORKING WITH THE HYBRID TOOL: -

 

Here's the basic functions of the Hybrid Tool.

 

Left-click = Moves the time marker to that position

Left-click on an audio block = Moves the time marker to that position, but also highlights that audio block

Left-click on audio blocks while holding down the control key on your keyboard = Allows you to highlight multiple audio blocks

Left-click and drag = Allows you to select a time range

 

Right-click = Highlights an audio block, but without moving the time marker

Right-click on an audio block = Brings up a menu of actions (something you'll use a lot) for splitting blocks, duplicating blocks etc.

Right-click on an audio block and drag = Allows you to move the audio block around

 

If you want to highlight a large number of audio blocks at once, I would suggest switching to one of the other tools temporarily, but you can do 95% of what you need to do with the Hybrid Tool.

 

"SNAP TO" CONTROLS AND HOW THEY AFFECT YOU: -

 

There are a number of "snap to" buttons on the toolbar: -

 

09.jpg

 

For example, the left hand button is "Snap to clips". If this is pushed in, when you drag an audio block around, if it comes up next to another clip, it will automatically snap into position lined up next to it. There are times when these controls are very useful, for instance, if you cut out a bar of beat that you want to loop, you would want the clips snapped together so that there is no gap between them or overlap. That said, there are also times when you want to be able to completely freely place an audio block exactly where you like, so if you find that as you're placing it, it moves on its own slightly and goes out of time, it will be because you have one of the "snap to" buttons activated in the toolbar.

 

ENVELOPES AND THEIR EFFECT ON AUDIO BLOCKS: -

 

Envelopes give you simple control over things like volume, effects and panning on an audio block. There are a number of envelope buttons on the toolbar: -

 

06.jpg

 

As you can see in the pic, 2 of these buttons are pushed in - volume and panning in this case. The effect of that is that each individual audio block in your project will display volume and panning envelopes, i.e. coloured lines that you can use to easily edit that particular quality of the block: -

 

07.jpg

 

So here, for instance, you can see that there's a green line at the top of the audio block. That's the volume envelope. There is also a blue line running down the centre of the block. That's the panning envelope. Clicking on the green line and dragging it up and down affects the volume. Clicking on the blue line and dragging it up and down affects the panning (up is left, down is right): -

 

08.jpg

 

In this example, the green line (volume) starts at the bottom of the block and gradually goes straight up to the top. That has the effect of fading the block of audio in until it reaches maximum volume. The blue line (panning) moves up and down, which pans the audio out left and right. Obviously, the further away from the centre you drag the panning envelope, the further the audio pans in that direction. You can click on each coloured line at any point you like to create a new dragging point.

 

ADDING, CUSTOMISING AND REMOVING EFFECTS: -

 

Adding effects is most easily done via the effects menu to the left of the main Multitrack View: -

 

10.jpg

 

Before you add an effect, make sure that you left click somewhere within the track that you want to add that effect to so that it's highlighted. Then select your effect from the menu and double-click on it. That will bring up the controls for that effect and it will also add it to the track.

 

To customise or remove an effect, click the little FX button (underneath the R, S, M controls) to the left of the track that the effect is added to. That will bring up the effect properties and the effect can be adjusted. To remove the effect, click "Rack Setup", select the effect from the list on the right, then click the "

 

Remember, adding an effect to a track will affect all of the audio blocks in that track, so it's a good idea to only place audio blocks in that track that you want the effect to apply to. You can use the effects envelope to remove an effect from a specific block, but it's easier to just drag the audio block to a track where the effect is not applied.

 

BOUNCING AUDIO BLOCKS DOWN AND EXPORTING YOUR FINISHED MIX: -

 

To bounce audio blocks down to a single file, first select all of the audio blocks that you want to bounce down, then right click on one of them and select "Mix Down to File", making sure that you don't select the "Mix Down to File (Mono)" option by mistake unless you specifically want a mono mixdown. That will create a mixdown of all of the selected audio blocks which will open in Edit View. To insert that audio block into the Multitrack View, go to the Edit menu and select "Insert in Multitrack".

 

Once your project is complete, you can export it as a single file. I would recommend using WAV for this as it retains the best audio quality and you can always make a copy in MP3 format later for posting on the web. To export your finished mix, go to File - Export - Audio.... In the "Save as type:" box, make sure you select "Windows PCM (*.wav)" and not one of the other WAV options.

 

SPLITTING A MIX INTO SEPARATE TRACKS: -

 

I already wrote a guide to doing this HERE. Note that post 2 in that thread contains additional information for Audition users, as the guide was originally written for users of Cool Edit Pro (which became Audition when Adobe bought the company).

 

GENERAL TIPS: -

 

1. Record as close to 0dB as possible and without clipping. Be wary of recording over what you've already recorded!

 

2. Save each project's session file with a unique name. If you use the default name that Audition chooses, you may accidentally overwrite a session file from another project and then that project is lost for good if you don't have a backup.

 

3. Be wary of "rogue audio blocks" in a project, i.e. you may record 3 minutes of scratching and then chop out the best minute of it, but you might forget to delete the leftovers, so they'll still be heard in your mixdown!

 

4. Lock audio blocks in time (via the right-click menu when using the Hybrid Tool) when you're happy with the placement to prevent you accidentally moving them. When audio blocks are locked in time, you can still move them up and down between different tracks in Multitrack View. You just can't move them left and right, which affects their placement in terms of the time scale.

 

5. When splitting an audio block, zoom right in and choose a place where the waveform crosses the centre line. If you don't do this, you can end up with annoying click/pop sound. You can remove clicks/pops at the beginning/end of audio clips by using the fade in/fade out effects on just the very beginning and end of the block.

 

6. Remember that when adding an effect, it'll affect every audio block that's in the track you're adding the effect to.

 

7. Work in WAV to keep the audio quality as high as possible.

 

8. Use the "Convert to Unique Copy" option (via the right-click menu) if you only require a small section of a an audio block which you've chopped out from a longer block. For instance, let's say you record in a 3 minute track, but you only need a 10 second bar of beat that you're going to loop. After chopping out the 10 seconds of audio and deleting the rest of it from your project, right click on the 10 second audio block and choose "Convert to Unique Copy". That way, when you save your project, only that 10 seconds gets saved, otherwise the entire 3 minute track will be saved, even though you've only used 10 seconds of it in your project.

 

9. Save often and don't forget that there's an undo button!

 

I think that covers the bulk of the basics, but if you have any questions or you want me to go more in-depth on a specific task, then ask in this thread and I'll help you out.

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