Adobe Audition and Audacity cater to different needs within audio editing. Audition is a powerful, professional suite ideal for users needing advanced features and integration with Adobe video workflows, despite its high cost and reported reliability issues. Audacity is an excellent free, open-source alternative, perfect for users prioritizing value, ease of use for core tasks, and cross-platform accessibility, though it lacks Audition's advanced tools and seamless Adobe integration.
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Adobe Audition is a professional audio editing software used for a wide range of tasks like recording, mixing, editing, and restoring audio content. Part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, it's ideal for video and podcast production, sound design, and creating polished audio projects. Audition provides a comprehensive set of tools, including multitrack editing, waveform and spectral displays, and seamless integration with other Adobe products like Premiere Pro.
Audacity is a free audio editing and recording software available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. It's a popular choice for tasks ranging from podcast creation and music production to simple audio editing and format conversion. Audacity supports a wide range of audio formats and offers features like multi-track editing, sound effects, and plugin support. Its open-source nature has fostered a community that contributes to its development and offers a variety of third-party plugins.
Summary
Main difference
Adobe Audition offers a professional, subscription-based audio editing suite deeply integrated with the Adobe Creative Cloud, particularly video tools like Premiere Pro. Audacity provides a free, open-source, standalone application focused on core audio recording and editing tasks, valued for its accessibility and cost-effectiveness.
Relative strengths of Adobe Audition (compared to Audacity)
Adobe Audition offers seamless integration with Adobe Premiere Pro and other Creative Cloud apps, creating a highly efficient workflow for video post-production and multimedia projects, which Audacity lacks.
Adobe Audition provides more advanced audio restoration capabilities, including sophisticated tools for noise reduction and spectral repair, surpassing Audacity's standard restoration features.
Adobe Audition features a comprehensive set of professional tools, including advanced multi-track mixing, mastering effects, and detailed spectral display visualizations suited for complex audio work, offering more depth than Audacity's core toolset.
Relative weaknesses of Adobe Audition (compared to Audacity)
Adobe Audition requires a recurring subscription fee as part of Adobe Creative Cloud, making it significantly more expensive than Audacity, which is completely free and offers better value for money.
Audacity is generally considered easier to learn for basic audio editing tasks and is more accessible due to being free and cross-platform (including Linux). Audition has a steeper learning curve and potential cost barrier.
Audacity benefits from being open-source with strong community support and has better perceived reliability according to user feedback. Adobe Audition users report issues with reliability and poor official customer support.
Who should use Adobe Audition VS. Audacity
We find that Adobe Audition is a powerful choice for professionals needing robust audio editing, mixing, and restoration. Podcasters, video producers, and sound designers benefit from its seamless Adobe Creative Cloud integration. While the subscription cost is a consideration, its comprehensive toolset delivers polished audio, making it popular among users who praise its intuitive interface and extensive features DNU extensive features and intuitive interface despite some complexity concerns mentioned in reviews too
Audacity is a fantastic free tool for anyone needing basic audio editing or recording. We find it's especially popular among podcasters, musicians, educators, and individuals just getting started. Users appreciate how easy it is to learn for tasks like editing tracks or reducing noise. While it might lack some high-end features, its open-source nature means there's a big community and lots of resources available. It's a solid choice for straightforward audio work without the price tag
Based on user feedback, Adobe Audition is most effective in medium businesses and larger enterprises requiring advanced audio capabilities.
In our experience, this tool is particularly well-suited for the Media & Entertainment, Software & IT, and Marketing & Advertising industries.
In our experience, Audacity works wonders for individuals, freelancers, and small teams or businesses, particularly those with up to 100 employees.
We see Audacity used across many sectors, but it really shines for podcasters, musicians, and anyone in media and entertainment needing reliable audio tools.
Adobe Audition and Audacity features
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Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need
Audio plugins
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Adobe Audition supports built-in and third-party audio plugins for effects and processing.
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Audacity supports various audio plugins like Nyquist, LV2, VST, and Audio Unit.
Deep audio analysis
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Adobe Audition offers spectrogram visualization and scientific analyzers for deep audio analysis.
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Audacity supports deep audio analysis with spectrogram visualization, Plot Spectrum, and plugins for extended analysis.
Cloud saving
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Cloud saving is not directly supported, but you can manually save projects to the cloud.
Partially supported
Audacity offers cloud saving through integration with audio.com.
Audio restoration
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Adobe Audition offers tools for cleaning and repairing audio recordings.
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Audacity offers tools like Repair and Noise Reduction for audio restoration.
Audio track trimming
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Adobe Audition allows trimming audio tracks using multiple methods.
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Audacity allows trimming audio tracks using the Trim Audio feature or by selecting a portion and deleting the rest.
Audio track splicing
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Adobe Audition allows splicing multiple audio tracks within a multitrack session.
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Audacity allows splicing multiple audio tracks into a single file.
Free and open-source, making it accessible to everyone.
Easy to learn and use for basic audio editing tasks.
Effective noise reduction capabilities.
Supports multi-track recording and editing.
Large and helpful online community with numerous tutorials.
Users dislike
High subscription cost is a barrier for individual users.
Complicated Interface.
Lack of music creation tools.
Limited integration with other platforms like Descript.
Poor customer service
Difficult to collaborate with others on projects.
The user interface is outdated and unattractive.
Limited compatibility with certain audio formats, like OGG.
Lacks advanced features found in premium software.
Occasional bugs and glitches, especially with multi-track projects.
Adobe Audition and Audacity Ratings
G2
4.4/5
(430)
Glassdoor
4.3/5
(10097)
G2
4.5/5
(444)
Company health
Employee growth
3% decrease in the last year
No change in the last year
Web traffic
4% increase in the last quarter
6% increase in the last quarter
Financing
April 1984 - $3M
No data
How easily can a novice learn Audacity versus Audition?
Audacity is generally considered easier for a novice to learn compared to Adobe Audition. Users frequently describe Audacity as easy to learn and use, particularly for basic audio editing tasks, and it targets individuals and those seeking a user-friendly tool. While some users find Audition's interface intuitive, it's also described as complicated, being a professional tool with a comprehensive and advanced feature set aimed at experienced users, which typically implies a steeper learning curve for beginners.
Which product offers better integration with other Adobe software?
Based on the provided information, Adobe Audition offers better integration with other Adobe software. It is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite and features seamless integration with other Adobe applications like Premiere Pro, which is highlighted as a key feature and praised by users. Audacity, while supporting various plugins and formats, does not mention specific integration capabilities with the Adobe ecosystem.
What are the advantages of Adobe Audition?
Based on the provided information, Adobe Audition offers advantages as a professional-grade audio editing software with a comprehensive toolset for recording, mixing, editing, and restoring audio. Users highlight its powerful editing and restoration capabilities, extensive built-in effects and plugins, and particularly its seamless integration with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications like Premiere Pro. It also features a customizable workspace, catering well to audio professionals, podcasters, and video producers who require advanced audio manipulation features.
What are the disadvantages of Adobe Audition?
Based on user feedback and analysis, Adobe Audition's disadvantages include a high subscription cost, which can be a significant barrier, particularly for individual users, contributing to negative sentiment around its value and pricing transparency. Users also report issues with reliability and performance, find the interface complicated (despite some finding it intuitive), and note a lack of dedicated music creation tools compared to some alternatives. Furthermore, it has limited integration with specific platforms like Descript, and users have expressed dissatisfaction with customer service.
Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT
management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs
of any business and find solutions to its problems.
TT
Tymon Terlikiewicz
CTO at Gralio
Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech
department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX,
HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.
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