Audition

Adobe Audition is great for businesses or for personal professional use, such as singing and more. However, I don't recommend Adobe Audition for people who are starting out with audio editing for example. In that case the huge investment wouldn't be worth, since it would take time for a beginner to get used to the software and by that time the subscription would have ended.

Adobe Audition is great for on-location recording, or just recording in general, but especially when you want to be up and running with little fuss. It is also great for audio for film and motion graphics, within the Adobe ecosystem, because of its tight integration with Adobe Premiere. Furthermore, it is well-suited for podcasting and broadcast audio because of its features aimed specifically at podcasters, like auto-ducking of music tracks with voiceover. Audition also has very nice features like Diagnostics, Delete Silence, and Trim Long Silent Pauses, which automatically removes silence in spoken word audio tracks.

Audition is less suited for extensive audio editing where you want to, for instance, listen to a 2-hour interview at double speed and add markers in at all the gaps which need to be edited more precisely than the automated silence trimming can handle. In that case, I prefer an application like Sound Forge which allows me to rapidly mark and navigate through the markers, all using the keyboard. Audition does have marker support (also called cues) and perhaps if I were more familiar with the hotkeys, I would find it just as easy to use. However, given the choice, I prefer editing in Sound Forge or WaveLab.

Adobe Audition is well suited for detailed audio production and manipulation. There are many options, tools, and effects that can be easily added within Audition that are missing from other programs such as Audacity. With Audacity, you get a very straight-forward interface with limited options and capabilities. It's great for beginners to learn the process of audio production. Once you master Audacity, then it becomes much easier to work with Adobe Audition. The range of options within Audition far outmeasure those in Audacity and provide for a much cleaner output.

I especially like using Adobe for more complicated EQ or audio cleanup. Some of the videos we produce are shot on a webcam and the audio can be...well...less than premium. And the cleanup in FCPX isn't quite enough to get it to a very presentable state. I also like to use it for more robust EQing of a file for certain use cases.

Adobe Audition is best suited for say, a band or musician editing their audio tracks and being able to fine-tune very specific elements of each track and sound and anything else captured during the recording process. For our instances, it's a little too complicated for what we use it for, but Adobe Spark or Adobe Rush don't have enough features, so there is no in-between.

If all you want to accomplish is shortening a track, Audition is overkill. There are likely more approachable products for basic sound editing. If you already have the Adobe Creative Suite, however, or have a need for a product with a seemingly endless array of tools, features, and effects, Audition is for you. As a plus, it plays well with other Creative Suite apps, such as After Effects. The more I use it, the more I fall in love with it. While my prior editing solution worked well, you would find me kicking and screaming if you pulled me away from Audition. If you are still unsure, Adobe offers a seven-day trial so you can test it for yourself and see if it meets your needs. I recommend you already have a track in mind you want to edit before you begin the trial, instead of just downloading it to "play." You'll have a much better appreciation of its scope and power with real-world use.