Adobe Audition vs. Avid Pro Tools

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Audition
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Adobe offers Audition as part of the Creative Cloud suite, a sound and audio editing and creation application.
$31.49
per month
Pro Tools
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Avid offers Pro Tools, the company's flagship music and audio editing and recording suite.
$29.99
Per User / Per Month
Pricing
Adobe AuditionAvid Pro Tools
Editions & Modules
Audition - Individuals
$31.49
per month
Single App - Business
$33.99
per month
Pro Tools
$29.99
Per User / Per Month
Pro Tools - Ultimate
$79.99
Per User / Per Month
Pro Tools - First
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AuditionPro Tools
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe AuditionAvid Pro Tools
Considered Both Products
Audition
Chose Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition is an amazing, well-rounded software. Compared to the much simpler audio editing software Audacity, it is leaps and bounds above. Audacity is a free software that's good for a quick edit here or there. Compared to Audition, though, it's a pretty weak offering. …
Chose Adobe Audition
I mentioned elsewhere, but Audition is a great middle-of-the-road software. I recommend it over free options, but it's a BIG step up if you want to use Pro Tools or other similar software.
Chose Adobe Audition
Audition matches up with the highest quality products on the market. It is better than most with a good price point. Simple to incorporate plug-ins.
Chose Adobe Audition
Although I don't use it NEARLY to it's full capacity, Audition is the clear winner in post-production editing software. Audacity would likely come the closest, but its free. So remember... you get what you pay for. When I export a final track from Protools, I immediately …
Chose Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition is not as intuitive as ProTools, but the fact that it is part of the Adobe Creative Suite makes it far more cost efficient for smaller to medium businesses. It is far superior than Audacity and GarageBand with far more capabilities. We've selected Adobe Audition …
Pro Tools
Chose Avid Pro Tools
In my opinion, ProTools is the best audio editing tool currently on the market. It's very user-friendly, incredibly intuitive and has so many different functionalities that would take weeks to learn how to use them all and well if you needed them. It is far better suited than …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Adobe AuditionAvid Pro Tools
Small Businesses
Descript
Descript
Score 8.8 out of 10
Descript
Descript
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Audacity
Audacity
Score 8.5 out of 10
Audition
Audition
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Audacity
Audacity
Score 8.5 out of 10
Audition
Audition
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe AuditionAvid Pro Tools
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(28 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.8
(14 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe AuditionAvid Pro Tools
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
So, starting off, Cool Edit Pro is NOT a replacement for Adobe Audition. I used to use Cool Edit Pro and there is a world of difference in quality and ability. I use Adobe Audition for post-production editing. it it very well suited for that application. Truncate, fade, add a second or 2 of silence at the end or beginning, save as MP3 or almost any other format a client would want to receive the file in
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Avid Technology
Pro Tools is great for recording multiple different tracks of audio at the same time with live inserts that you can later remove/edit if they do not suit the track. It always makes a backup of any file you copy in which is essential when working with original copies of files for clients, and you can rest easy knowing that any changes made can be reverted without having to start over or having any work be lost. You can compile many different tracks for larger-scale projects and group or bus them together with ease. The software is very user-friendly for beginners and is a great tool overall for anyone looking to edit audio. The only instance it is less suited it would be if you're only making small audio edits with any adobe video software. Also if your business is not heavy on audio editing or recording it may be a costly investment.
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Pros
Adobe
  • Sound waves - Sound originates in the air, arising from its vibrations. The source of air vibrations can be, for example, a person's vocal cords, a drum or loudspeaker membrane, or guitar strings. These vibrations push nearby molecules together, slightly increasing the air pressure.
  • Bit depth - The bit depth (depth) of digital audio determines the dynamic range for an audio file. When a sound wave is digitized (sampled), each sample is assigned an amplitude value that most closely matches the amplitude of the original sound wave. The higher the bit depth value, the greater the dynamic range, the lower the noise level, and the higher the digital sound quality.
  • Automatic filters and special effects - Adobe Audition includes a suite of new sound effects ranging from circuit-optimized Surround Reverb to a suite of diagnostic effects.
  • Analog Audio: Positive and Negative Voltage - The microphone converts the pressure of sound waves into electrical current: high air pressure becomes a positive voltage, and low pressure becomes negative. As these voltage changes move along the microphone wire, they can be recorded (as changes in magnetic field strength) onto magnetic tape or onto a vinyl record (by resizing the grooves on the disc).
  • High-performance code - Adobe Audition has received a new redesigned code. This means increased speed of audio processing, accurate and smooth sound reproduction during preprocessing, the ability to work with multiple files and audio tracks at the same time, high overall performance.
  • Editing, enhancing and restoring audio - Any professional working with sound dreams of making the source material as close to ideal as possible. For this, special studios are being built with soundproofing, special acoustic form, and equipment. Indeed, if there is such an opportunity, then it is better to record sound in the studio. Even in this case, insignificant noises and unwanted sounds can be received at the input: a click of a switch, a weak background of a poor-quality or punctured cable, or, for example, a defect in human diction, in which some hissing sounds turn into whistling sounds. It is worth going out to record an interview, for example, in an office space - phone calls or conversations in the next room, the noise of the city outside the window, sounds of the door being opened, etc. will be added.
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Avid Technology
  • Highly-customizable, application and UI (performance, function and appearance).
  • Wide audio format compatibility; Ease of integrating audio of different formats, sample rates; equal ease of exporting.
  • Broadest hardware compatibility. The ability to tweak performance parameters extends hardware's useful life.
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Cons
Adobe
  • It is a very expensive software, as is all of Adobe's other software.
  • The interface and all the features can be difficult [for] beginners to get the hang of and get used to.
  • When live listening to your recording with effects, there is an unavoidable latency which doesn't help.
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Avid Technology
  • Loop-Based Production - Pro Tools is still in the old world of audio recording where you're expected to record a track from live sources. It has less features aimed at production of loop-based music like electronic music and hiphop.
  • Sample-Based Production - While you can sequence samples, you are expected to use MIDI to trigger the samples, for the most part. Of course, you can sequence them out without using MIDI to trigger a sampler plugin, but that's not the use case Pro Tools was designed for.
  • Creative Ideation - Pro Tools expects you to figure out what you want to record first, and does not have tools for helping you produce or create the music.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
It is a solid product that has served us well.
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Avid Technology
No answers on this topic
Usability
Adobe
It isn't easy to just jump in and learn the program, though most of Adobe products aren't easy to use the first time around. They UI is not friendly, and it is cumbersome and intimidating when you first try it. For simple audio changes, it seems to difficult to use, but for the more advanced audio work, it's the perfect solution.
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Avid Technology
This is a hard question - I'd give it a 10 for having so many options but a 5 for being user friendly - as it has so many options.
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Support Rating
Adobe
I have not contacted support but given the large amount of users, I have no doubt that most problems can be solved fairly easily. A cursory search for known issues in Adobe Audition yields a support website with many workarounds posted by the official Audition team. They seem responsive and eager to continue fixing bugs and improving the application, which I take as a sign that their support is top notch, as I would expect from my experience using other Adobe products.
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Avid Technology
The times I've had problems with Avid, they've responded within about 48 hours, and most of the time with a reasonable solution. More often than not, however, I've had to resort to forums to get answers, because when I'm having a problem with the software, I can't afford to wait 48 hours for a solution
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Alternatives Considered
Adobe
I mentioned earlier that I used software from Sony before moving to Audition. I really liked the Sony solution, but when I moved to Audition I found a lot more power and surprisingly, an easier-to-use solution. Working with the timeline in Audition is more intuitive for me. Audition has more effects than the Sony product had and the interface is better organized. Plus, Audition's workspace can be customized in ways I never figured out how to do in the Sony product.
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Avid Technology
As discussed above, these other products are likely better suited for home audio production, especially based on their integration of software instruments and their surface-level interface and tools. Pro Tools excels as a tool for professionals, who need to move audio along efficiently towards a polished form, especially in the context of vocal production
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Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Audition makes Audio editing/production so efficient that we're able to produce audio more rapidly than with any other software.
  • The option to save in multiple file formats, and to save session files, makes it easy to go back and make edits to completed projects with just a few clicks.
  • All versions of Audition work well together, so whether you have the latest version or an older one, you can pick up any session file and edit as needed.
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Avid Technology
  • I actually finish projects, because once I set up templates it's basically plug-and-play.
  • My customers enjoy my videos more now that the audio is better.
  • I might spend too much money on plug-ins, haha.
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