Thousands of people rely on Adobe Audition to mix and record their podcasts. It’s an industry standard for simple audio work and a popular app in the Adobe Creative Cloud.
But is Adobe Audition right for your editing needs? We wrote this guide so you can make a decision. Once we review its key features, pricing, and specs, we highlight the pros and cons so you know what to expect. For more insights into optimizing your podcast’s growth, check out our comprehensive guide on podcast metrics.
If you don’t know how to use Adobe Audition, we list a few resources to help you get started. And if Adobe Audition doesn’t suit your use case, we offer several alternatives at the bottom of this guide.
Let’s dive in.
- Introduction to Adobe Audition
- Adobe Audition’s key features
- Adobe Audition: pros and cons
- Mastering podcast production with Adobe Audition
- Alternatives to Adobe Audition
- The bottom line on Adobe Audition
Introduction to Adobe Audition
| Audio Tracks | Sound Effects | Instruments | Mixer compatible | Remote recording | Free plan | Multitrack recording |
| Unlimited (the only limits are hard disk space and processing power) | 12,000+ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ (not for live recording) |
Adobe Audition is podcast editing software designed to mix, modify, and repair raw audio. It’s also a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, which works alongside tools like Adobe Premiere Pro.
Adobe Audition is available for Windows and MacOS. It’s also compatible with podcast audio interfaces like the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2.
You can do many of the podcast editing and production basics with Adobe Audition:
- Import and export audio files
- Mix multiple audio tracks
- Clean up background noise
- Repair poor-quality audio
- Add audio effects and presets
- Adjust volume and EQ as necessary
You can also perform a few advanced functions that we’ll get into later:
- Spectral analysis
- Multitrack recording
- Essential sound panel
Just remember this will cost you — working with Adobe Audition isn’t cheap.
Adobe Audition pricing
Adobe relies on a subscription business model — you can’t buy Adobe Audition outright. Basic access starts at $22.99 monthly, but buyer beware: this is the annual price.
Here’s a condensed price list for your consideration:
- Adobe Audition price: You can pay for just Adobe Audition for $22.99 per month (paid annually) or $34.49 per month (with installments). This comes out to $275.88 or $413.88 per year respectively.
- Creative Cloud price: Get Adobe Audition with 20+ other apps for $59.99 monthly (including Adobe Premiere Pro).
- Student/teacher price: Get the entire Creative Cloud for $19.99 per month (for the first year). After that, prices go back to $59.99 per month — a total of $719.88 per year.
Want to try before you buy? Adobe Audition offers a seven-day free trial.
However, you need to enter your credit card to initiate the trial. If you don’t cancel by the eighth day, your trial will convert into a paid plan.
Adobe Audition’s key features
You can do a lot with a little using Adobe Audition.
Here are a few of its most essential features:
Multitrack Recording
You can use Adobe Audition to record multiple audio tracks with different podcast microphones. You get up to 32 simultaneous recording inputs and (theoretically) unlimited tracks, which allows you to mix and match vocals, background music, and more.
Just keep in mind that this multitrack recording tool is optimized for in-person sessions. You could route a cloud stream into it, but it’s not specifically designed to record remotely, making it less viable for live streaming applications.
Instead, try mixing recorded interview segments or adding background music to a solo recording. Once you’ve recorded existing audio tracks, you can mix them in Audition to polish up and publish your podcast.
Essential Sound Panel
Audition’s Essential Sound panel offers everything needed to sweeten your audio. There are three specific features worth investigating:
Audio Effects
Need to enhance your existing audio? Adobe Audition offers a variety of audio plugins (sound effects).
In Audition, you can choose from dozens of audio plugins to augment your sound. This can help your podcast sound unique and ensure a higher production quality.
Match Loudness
If you mix multiple tracks into the same podcast, you can use the Match Loudness tool to ensure each clip has the same volume. This is a great way to fix uneven speaker volume (for example, a quiet podcast guest juxtaposed with a louder podcast host).
Sound Repair
Raw audio will always come with slight imperfections. With Adobe Audition, you can repair and restore original sound files by:
- Opening the diagnostics panel
- Automatically reducing background noise
- Using sliders to manage microphone rumble or electrical hum
- Applying adaptive noise reduction to achieve the best possible audio
Spectral Analysis
You can use Audition’s spectral analysis tool to get granular with your audio edits. By parsing the audio into a visual spectrum, you can pick out unwanted background noise with gridlines, decibel ranges, and boosted spectral resolution.
Adobe Audition: pros and cons
Adobe Audition may be a popular audio editing tool, but it’s not the only option.
Before you decide to purchase a subscription, familiarize yourself with the pros and cons:
Adobe Audition pros
- Adobe Audition is part of the Creative Cloud, meaning if you’re a teacher, student, or if you already have a CC subscription, Adobe Audition is simply a no-brainer.
- Receives regular performance updates and cloud support.
- You can use Adobe Audition in real time to monitor your podcast audio. This may be useful if you want to change your voice or add an effect to your audio (such as reverb or pitch shifting).
Adobe Audition cons
- Adobe Audition is an expensive editing tool. Prices start at $22.99 per month, paid annually (or $19.99 if you’re a student or teacher). If you miss a payment or cancel your plan, you’ll lose access to Audition and your saved projects.
- Adobe Audition isn’t a fully-featured DAW. You won’t have access to MIDI support, virtual instrument files, or AI tools (which we’ll cover later).
- You may need a new podcast laptop to run Adobe Audition. The software requires 8GB of hard disk space, 16GB of memory for HD media, and an Intel 6th Gen (or newer) processor — all of which can cost $1,000 USD or more.
- Adobe Audition isn’t compatible with all podcast mixers. A few popular options, including the Mackie ProFX, require different podcast editing software. Remember: Audition was designed with a built-in ‘mixer’ and not for external mixing hardware.
- Adobe Audition isn’t easy to use. According to user reviews, the unintuitive user interface can be difficult to navigate, making the learning curve even steeper for podcast beginners.
Mastering podcast production with Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition is easy to learn yet very difficult to master for audio editing. Depending on your learning preferences/style, you have a few options for learning the ropes. Check out our comprehensive editing guide to see where to get started.
Resources include:
- Adobe tutorials. These tutorials were written by Adobe Creative Cloud and divided into three difficulty levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced). You can also find additional tutorials on different parts of Adobe’s website.
- YouTube videos. Popular creators like Mike Russell and Dusty Porter have comprehensive playlists covering everything you need to know.
- Online classes. Most options, including the Adobe Audition course from Indiana University, don’t cost money to complete. However, you can opt for fee-based courses via Class Central, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning.
Alternatives to Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition may be one of the most widely recognized DAWs, but it’s not the right tool for every podcaster.
Here are some podcast editing alternatives to consider:
Audacity
Audacity is the perfect foil to Adobe Audition: it’s free, open-source, and has built-in virtual instruments. It also requires fewer resources overall, so you don’t need a pricey laptop to start recording.
Just remember you get what you pay for — Audacity’s features are more limited than Audition’s. You lose the Essential Sound panel and access to the Adobe Media Encoder in exchange for a more straightforward, more user-friendly interface.
Adobe Podcast AI and Enhance
Adobe Podcast may be your solution if you don’t want to deal with a fully-featured DAW. This browser-based tool lets you upload podcast audio and instantly improve it with the help of AI.
Adobe Podcast is best for newer podcasters with less experience using podcast editing software. If you want hands-on tools or granular editing capabilities, you’re better off looking for another Audition alternative.
We discuss Adobe Podcast AI and Adobe Enhance in their separate guides.
GarageBand
Unlike Adobe Audition, which runs on Windows and Mac, GarageBand is only compatible with MacOS devices. However, it costs far less than Audition: it’s 100% free and is pre-installed on most Mac devices.
GarageBand is heavily marketed towards music producers and songwriters, so its features for podcasters may be limited. You also won’t have a way to group audio tracks or pull up a mixing console view.
You can always turn to Logic Pro if you want a DAW with more podcast-specific features. Logic Pro is essentially a paid version of GarageBand’s GUI that costs a one-time fee of $199.99 USD.
Descript Podcast Software
Adobe Audition lacks AI tools, something a platform like Descript offers in spades. This subscription-based platform also has a free tier so you can start your podcast without paying a dime.
Descript may offer AI transcription and remote recording support but doesn’t provide everything needed to enhance your podcast audio. For example, you’ll have to upgrade to the Creator plan ($12 per user per month) for uninhibited Free Voice Enhancer and Studio Sound access. And be prepared for higher-than-average system requirements: most podcasters won’t want to give up 20 GB of free space on their computer’s hard drive.
Hindenburg PRO
Have you ever wanted to edit your podcast audio like a Word Document? Now you can with Hindenberg PRO. Once you upload your audio into the DAW, you can convert it to 15+ languages, reassign speakers, and remove unwanted filler words like ‘um’ and ‘ah.’
Hindenberg PRO automates much of the editing process, which means you don’t need to be a professional to sweeten your audio. Just keep in mind this isn’t right for everyone — the lack of hands-on editing tools could be a downside for experienced editors.
You can get a perpetual license for Hindenberg PRO starting at $299. You can also try before you buy with a 30-day free trial.
The bottom line on Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition is a suitable DAW for podcasters already owning the Adobe Creative Cloud. It’s readily available, reasonably well-featured, and trusted by thousands to produce quality podcasts.
Keep in mind that Adobe Audition is primarily a tool for podcast audio. You need other solutions to manage guest remote recording, video podcast production, and social media asset creation.
The Podcast Consultant has provided these services to various clients since 2015. We’ve supported hundreds of creatives with audio production, new podcast launches, and podcast audits.
Could your show benefit from a podcasting agency? We invite you to book a personalized Discovery Call. You can chat with our team about your needs and confirm our agency is a fit for your podcast.