Adobe Audition - better for some things?

Hey everyone. I recently obtained a free copy of Adobe Audition (most recent version, I believe), and I’m wondering if anyone has any opinions/advice on things that it can do that Audacity doesn’t (or that it does better). I still plan to use Audacity for everything that I like it for, so I’m curious specifically about things that Audition might be able to add to my arsenal of tricks. At this point I think the plan is to identify a handful of things that I can use it for, and learn only how to do those things (rather than trying to learn it in a more comprehensive way). Audacity does the majority of the sound editing stuff I need/want it to do (and does it well, and I’m very comfortable with Audacity), so I’m thinking of Audition as just being a supplement to what I already do, basically.

This is what I have so far just from doing some pretty slapdash internet research. Please give your opinion of whether these things are true or not.

Possible reasons to consider using Audition
*better sound cleanup / noise removal options – this is probably the strongest point I’ve found so far, as I find Audacity’s noise removal pretty bad
*non-destructive, real-time effects
*quickly execute crossfades that are reversible (I believe it saves/archives the original, pre-processed sound file?)
*spectral analysis – easily find sounds within the spectrum so you can address them through EQ or noise removal

I’m not necessarily super interested in using it for real-time non-destructive effects (compression, fades etc.) because I will probably be able to accomplish all of those things more easily with my new DAW (Presonus Studio One). But if you know of any interesting/cool effects it can do (destructive or non-), I’m all ears!

Also, if you know Audition, what do you tend to use it for instead of Audacity? I’m particularly interested in “creative” types of editing, by which I do NOT mean standard, obvious stuff (compression, normalizing etc), but more along the lines of interesting “artistic” stuff like creative panning effects, advanced EQ options (mid/side EQ, spectral spreading), reversing audio, looping, combination delay/panning effects etc. (yes, I’m aware that Audacity does some of these things)

I’m not so much interested in hearing about the limitations/drawbacks of Audition, because I don’t really plan to make it my DAW or main sound editor, but if there is something about it that you find particularly annoying or limiting, please share that as well.

Thanks!

The last time I used Audition was version 2. They had just brought in “real time effects” and they sucked :smiley: I presume that has been improved by now.
Their Noise Reduction was inherited from Cool Edit Pro, and that was always a strong feature in Cool Edit. The Noise Reduction effect in the next version of Audacity has been thoroughly revised, so hopefully you will notice some improvement when the next version comes out (next week?)

The next version of Audacity also has a new crossfade effect - it’s not non-destructive, but it does make the process easier. There is also another crossfade effect in the pipeline that didn’t make the deadline for the next version, so that will be in the version after.

Do you mean like this:
firsttrack008.png
(see: Audacity Manual)


Version 2 took ages to start up. Mostly I would work in Audacity because I could launch Audacity, do the job and export the result quicker than the time taken for Audition to open. Also, I can use Audacity without saying “Arr, shiver me timbers Jim lad and brace the mainsail”.