Adobe Audio Redux

With the discussion of late turning to Audio production – particularly for Tiers 1 and 2 as they wrestle with final post on their latest shorts, i thought I’d post this article which i wrote recently for DigitalMediaNet which takes an overview look at the new Adobe Soundbooth CS4 and in particular their new audio format called ASND.

When a new software version is released there is an unavoidable decent of vultures to pick at the bones of the young software hatchling and uncover the newness. Such pickings invariably focus on either big new features or previously unknown additions or dwell on the implementation of long awaited fixes or missing components. When the software release is as big and multi faceted as Adobe CS4, undeniably the most comprehensive and application rich software suite on the market, it is inevitable that such picking and scrambling over the features are long winded and detailed.

But when the dust settles it is often the small things, those that don’t make the top of the New Features press release, that prove to be among the most interesting and forward thinking.

In Adobe CS4 there is much discussion of improved integration between applications, expanded metadata handling particularly in Premiere Pro, and a host of workflow improvements in apps such as After Effects. Likewise among the younger/newer apps in the suite such as Soundbooth, the focus falls to its multitrack options that move it beyond the basic waveform editor it used to be. But there is something else in Soundbooth which hasn’t gathered as much immediate attention but heralds some great options for integrated post production.

Read the rest of the article here.