Audio Recording

For those that are using Adobe Audition for recording and mixing audio, I will be going to share my multi-track settings used as well as explained the importance of each.

Correct multi-track settings ensure that you are recording at the best recording quality as possible as well as working in the best mixing environment which will maximizes the overall audio quality of your mix down.

Currently this tutorial was written using older versions of Adobe Audition (version 1.5), although the concepts/principles and applications are well applicable to the latest versions available such as version 2.0.

If you are still new to Adobe Audition, you can see the multi-track and recording settings by:

Step1.) Launching Adobe Audition
Step2.) Go to “Options”
Step3.) Under “Options” click “Settings”.
Step4.) Adjust the multi-track settings according to the following settings:

Explanation of each of those important parameters. Let’s discuss the most important:

a.) Track Record – set to 32-bit, if you set this to 32 bit you are recording audio in 32 bit quality (originally a 24 bit + additional headers). This is the most recommended recording bit settings for optimum quality.

Bear in mind that this is limited to your sound card; so make sure you install a sound card in your computer that is capable of recording 24 bits.

b.) Pre-Mixing – 32 bit, this will let you hear audio at 32 bits quality before mix down and after recording. This is primarily important for detailed monitoring of audio quality and lets you hear mistakes and other imperfections that would not otherwise be heard at lower audio quality.

c.) Correct in Drift in Recordings & Correct for Start Sync in Recordings – if these options are checked, Adobe Audition will automatically correct any latencies and delays introduced in the multitrack recording sessions.

If these options are not checked, you might find out that the recording material is lagging behind other multi-track audio tracks which can be impossible or very difficult to correct after recording.

Other factors that will contribute to the delay or latencies are the speed and quality of your PC components. For best recording results while eliminating latency, you should be using a high end sound card, a powerful PC (at least 2 GB RAM and 2.4 GHz processor).

Hard disk speed and size is also a factor so make sure your hard disk is not defective, at least 320GB and with a speed of 7200 rpm.

d.) Background Mixing Priority – set to 2, as you have noticed that lower this value the higher priority will be given to the background mixing which are important if you need to play multi-track recorded tracks quickly. This will allow more RAM to be allocated to the background mixing process.

IMPORTANT: If you find your old settings working and you need to change your existing settings with the suggested settings above, do not forget to have a screenshot of the old settings so that you can revert to it when needed.