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Instead of a mouse, use your iPad to control your faders and other controls in Adobe Audition (mute, solo, automation). Using a control surface frees you from the keyboard!
The iPad is quickly turning into a powerful tool for filmmaking, with new apps appearing each month. To see some of the latest apps and post productoin tools check out HandheldHollywood.com, a site focused on iPad/iPhone filmmaking apps and gear.
I spend a bit of time in Adobe Audition working with audio, and using a mouse feels cumbersome at times. I personally prefer the tactual touch of a fader or virtual fader over using a mouse, and this is where control surfaces come in. Control surfaces are devices that control the faders and other controls (mute, solo, automation) in Audition or other Digital Audio Workstations (DAW).
Control Surfaces aren’t currently supported in Premiere Pro, but they are in AdobeAudition, FCP 7, and Logic Pro.
You can easily spend $200 on a dedicated control surface, but there is a cost effective alternative: use your iPad. AC-7 Core ($7.99) is a control surface that runs on your iPad. I previously mentioned this useful application in my 10 filmmaking apps under $10 article.
Audition Integration with the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite, primarily its compatibility with Premiere Pro Full visibility of the entire audio file (s) and how they are edits Large Variety of plug-ins. Download Free Version. The Adobe Audition CC has been warmly welcomed by music developers since its 2018 launch and is being described as a practical program which boasts an array of features. Designed primarily to not only create songs but also to enhance recordings and craft professional mixes, it certainly lives up to its promises.
As an editor who also does audio (and wears multiple hats), I find the AC-7 good for basic post-production audio work. It enables a quicker workflow and in many ways is easier to use than a mouse.
The other big plus of using a control surface is that it frees you from your computer. You can perform basic functions like recording a voiceover from across the room!
Getting Up and Running
To start using AC-7 Core in your post production workflow you’ll need to set it up. The installation and configuration are surprisingly easy (takes 5-10 minutes) First, download the app from iTunes.
It works on both Mac & Windows iPads running (iOS 4.2 and later) in a variety of apps, including FCP 7. There are written directions and a video tutorial for both Mac & Windows installation.
It might be necessary to manually reconnect your iPad if it was turned off after a session. Go to Utilities > Audio Midi Setup. Then double click on Network, then select the iPad and click Connect. If you will be using this workflow a lot it’s a good idea to put “Audio Midi Setup” on your dock (for Mac users).
Surprisingly the AC-7 Core dosen’t have latency issues (delay) when you move a fader and works with no hiccups wirelessly over a Wi-Fi connection.
If you prefer using an iPhone or iTouch there is also a AC-7 mini.
Basic Operation in Audition
You have a choice of Modes, to emulate the settings in various DAWs. The Generic Mode works with Audition and generally any device that uses Mackie Protocol.
Audio editor for mac free. You can pick a skin, which gives you a light or dark interface. The faders are responsive and clicking the meters button lets you see the audio volume for each track.
You can select tracks, mute and solo them. You have transport controls to play, record, jog and shuttle. One of the most useful features for me is the ability to record audio keyframes in Adobe Audition, which we’ll dig into a little deeper now.
Audio Automation in Audition (Recording Keyframes)
Often when you have music in your video edit you want to dip it down when someone is speaking, and then bring it back up when they stop. This is called “riding the levels” or adjusting gain. Instead of doing this manually you can record keyframes when you move the fader using Automation.
The most common workflow for editors is to send your finished edit from Premiere Pro to Audition. If you need a refresher on getting from Premiere Pro to Audition I previously wrote about editing clips & sequences in Audition.
In Audition you need to be in a multitrack session to use automation.
By Default each track is in Read Mode. To record keyframes change this to Write. You can do this in Audition or click the Write button on the AC-7. Click the Play button and drag the fader to record key frames, and press the Stop button when done.
To see the keyframes you recorded, click the twirly beside the mode. After you stopped recording, the mode changed to Touch. In this mode key frames aren’t recorded till you move the fader, and when you let go, it returns to the previously recorded keyframes. Latch mode will stay where the fader was when you let go. You can click the eraser icon to clear all your recorded keyframes.
For $7.99, I think the AC-7 Core is a no brainer if you have an iPad and spend a bit of time in Audition or other DAWs. It does well what it is designed to do – speeding up and streamlining your Adobe Audition audio workflow.
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Adobe Acrobat For Ipad Pro
Getting audio right inside of Premiere Pro is an absolute essential skill for any video editor as the audio of your production represents more than 50% of its viewing value.
If you go to watch a film or documentary and the audio is great but the picture quality is only average, it is likely that you will stay and watch the rest of the film. We’ve grown accustomed to seeing a range of picture qualities through different viewing mediums, Internet, SD, HD, etc.
However, if you go to watch a film or documentary and the picture quality is excellent but the audio is average it is likely that you will struggle with the production and maybe not even stay to watch it through. Because of this we can reason that good audio is worth greater than 50% of your final production.
Thus, it is essential for video editors to take time to learn the various audio tools in Adobe Premiere Pro. If you have Adobe Creative Cloud (the Production Premium Suite or the Master Suite) you should also become familiar with the dedicated audio application Adobe Audition.
Adobe Audition
From CS5.5 the dedicated audio tool in the Adobe suite ‘Soundbooth’ was retired and replaced with the much more capable and powerful ‘Audition’ which integrates smoothly with Premiere Pro. This allows an editor to send single and multiple audio clips directly to Audition from a Premiere Pro timeline for more advanced audio editing. Once modified in Audition, the audio can be sent back to Premiere Pro .
To protect the audio recorded with your video files Premiere Pro won’t export the original audio from your clips. Instead, Premiere will create a copy of the audio file called ‘file name Audio Extracted.filetype‘ which will replace the original audio. Should you really mess the whole thing up, at the very least you can be sure that the original audio can be recovered!
Sending Audio To Audition From Premiere
Audio in Premiere Project Panel
Once in Audition a whole world of audio options open up to you with a very easy to use and control audio interface. While there are a great deal of audio effects available inside Premiere Pro it’s far more limiting than Audition.
Take for example reverb…
Reverb in Premiere Pro
As an example, a reverb effect has been applied to a clip inside of Premiere Pro and the user interface opened in the Effects Control Panel. As you can see there is a user interface of sorts but it isn’t very flexible. It often works out easier to use if you expand the ‘Individual Parameters’ drop-down below and then access the sliders to make finer changes. All this takes more time than necessary and is difficult to get to.
One Version of Reverb in Audition
Adobe Apps For Ipad Pro
In Adobe Audition however, all the sliders are available as you apply the effect and are easy to use for fine tune changes. Both applications have tools that will do the job, but Audition will do it with much less user overhead than Premiere Pro. Audition also makes it easier to add and control additional effects so that you can come up with exactly what you want.
Adobe Audition will also allow you to save any presets of the changes you have made. Not so in Premiere Pro! To apply a customised Reverb effect to multiple clips inside of Premiere Pro can prove to be a real headache! You can do it to multiple TRACKS by using the ‘Sends’ function, but that’s another blog post entirely!
Native instrument battery for mac os. If you spend the time to get use to using Audition with your Premiere Pro clips – you’ll have better sounding audio and end up saving yourself a lot of time and effort.