9 Multitrack Sessions

Lesson overview

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to do the following:

• Integrate the Waveform and Multitrack Editors so you can switch back and forth between the two

• Colorize tracks to more easily identify them

• Play back a specific part of music repeatedly (looped playback)

• Edit track level and position in the stereo field

• Apply EQ, effect, and sends areas in tracks

• Apply EQ to tracks using the Multitrack Editor’s built-in Parametric Equalizer

• Apply effects to individual tracks

• Process multiple tracks with a single effect to save CPU power

• Set up side-chain effects so that one track can control the effect in another track

This lesson will take about 70 minutes to complete. Please log in to your account on peachpit.com to download the lesson files for this chapter, or go to the “Getting Started” section at the beginning of this book and follow the instructions under “Accessing the Lesson Files and Web Edition.” Store the files on your computer in a convenient location.

Your Account page is also where you’ll find any updates to the chapters or to the lesson files. Look on the Lesson & Update Files tab to access the most current content.

In the Waveform Editor, a single clip is the only audio element. A multitrack production assembles multiple audio clips to create a musical composition. The audio resides in tracks, which you can think of as “containers” for clips. For example, one track could contain drum sounds, another bass, a third vocals, and so on. A track can contain a single long clip or multiple short clips that can be identical or different. A clip can even be positioned on top of another clip in a track (however, only the clip that is on top will play), or clips can overlap to create crossfades (described in Chapter 10, “Multitrack Session Editing”).

The production process consists of four main stages:

• Tracking. This involves recording or importing audio into the multitrack session. For example, with a rock band, tracking could consist of recording drums, bass, guitar, and vocals. These might be recorded individually (each player records a track, typically while listening to a metronome for reference), in particular combinations (drums and bass recorded simultaneously, for instance), or as an ensemble (all instruments play live and are recorded as they play).

• Overdubbing. This is the process of recording additional tracks, such as a singer singing a harmony line to supplement the original vocal.

• Editing. After recording the tracks, editing can polish them. For example, with a vocal track you could remove the audio between verses and choruses to reduce any residual noise or leakage from other instruments. You might even alter the arrangement, perhaps cutting a solo section to half its original length. When producing a film soundtrack, you might add spot audio effects, add Foley, and add background tracks.

• Mixing. After editing, the tracks are blended together into a final stereo or surround file. The mixing process primarily involves adjusting levels and adding effects. A multitrack session in Audition provides the tools to do most editing tasks during the mixing process, but if detailed edits are needed, session audio can be transferred to the Waveform Editor for further editing.

When working on a multitrack session, the session file is your project. Changes you make will not replace the original audio files you have incorporated into a session. Instead, you’ll make changes to virtual clips that link to your media files. In this sense, multitrack editing in Audition is similar to video editing in Premiere Pro. This makes it safe to experiment with changes in the multitrack editor, because you can always restore the original audio.

Because the multitrack session is stored as a file, which incorporates all of your creative work, it needs a name and a storage location.

Also, because the session is ultimately intended to be shared, it has a mastering setting, usually Stereo or 5.1. In many ways, the mastering settings of a multitrack session are the same as the settings for a newly created audio file. The difference is that the multitrack session is conforming, or converting, audio clips to ensure they match, every time a clip is added to a session.

Multitrack sessions allow you to apply effects to individual clips or whole tracks, or you can combine the output from multiple tracks in a single submix. In this way, the creative work you’ll perform really is in the session, rather than the individual audio files that make up the session.

Templates are made available by saving a multitrack session to a specific location on your system. This location differs, depending on your operating system (Windows or macOS).

Create a multitrack session template

A template is a snapshot of all the session settings at the time of saving the template, including effects that have been applied to tracks. Here’s how to create one:

1. Choose File > New > Multitrack Session.

   Leave the Session Name and Folder Location settings alone for now. They aren’t important when creating a template.

2. Choose None from the Template menu, and then choose options from the Sample Rate, Bit Depth, and Mastering menus. Click OK.

   

3. Arrange the multitrack session as desired, including the number of tracks, layout, processors in the tracks, levels, and so on. These settings will be incorporated into the template.

4. After everything is set to your liking, you’re ready to make a template. Choose File > Save As.

5. Name the session with the desired template name (such as VO + Stereo Sound Track).

6. For the Location, click Browse. On Windows, navigate to Computer > C: Drive > Users > Public > Public Documents > Adobe > Audition > 11.0 > Session Templates, and then click Save. On macOS, browse to root drive > Users > Shared > Adobe > Audition > 11.0 > Session Templates, and then click OK.

   Next time you open a new multitrack session, the template you created will be available in the menu of templates.

1. If you have any files or sessions open, choose File > Close All, and select No when asked if you would like to save changes.

2. Choose File > Open, navigate to the Lesson09 folder, and open the multitrack session named MoebiusRemix.sesx from the MoebiusRemix folder. Choose the Default workspace, and reset the workspace by choosing Window > Workspace > Reset to Saved Layout.

   

3. Place the playhead at the beginning of the file if needed, and click the Transport Play button to play the song and become familiar with it.

   Like the Waveform Editor, the Multitrack Editor plays linearly from start to finish. However, because the Multitrack Editor consists of multiple, parallel tracks, each of which can play back a clip, multiple clips can play back simultaneously.

   Marker differences between the Waveform and Multitrack Editors

   In the Multitrack Editor, the start and end of each clip is treated as a marker by the Transport’s Move Playhead To Next, and Move Playhead To Previous buttons.

   You can add cue markers at the top of the Multitrack or Waveform Editor panel by placing the playhead where you would like a marker to be added, and choosing Edit > Marker > Add Cue Marker, or by pressing the M key.

   Hold Ctrl+Alt (Windows), or Command+Option (macOS) and press the Left or Right Arrow key to move the playhead between cue markers only, ignoring the start and end of each clip in a multitrack session.

4. To check out the Waveform and Multitrack Editor integration, click the first clip in the Main Drums track (Drums_F#L) to select it.

   

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   Tip

   You can rename any track in a multitrack session by clicking the name where it appears in the track header.

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   Tip

   You could adjust the level of each clip in the Multitrack Editor or lower the level while mixing, but sometimes it’s simpler just to modify the clip so all instances that “point” to this clip use the edited version.

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5. Click the Waveform Editor button at the top left corner to switch to the Waveform Editor, or press 9.

   

   The clip you clicked on appears in the Waveform Editor, ready for editing.

6. Click the Waveform Editor panel menu. It shows all the clips in the multitrack session so that you can choose any of them for editing.

7. Choose the file Bass_Sub_F#H for editing. It sounds a bit too loud in the track, so you’ll reduce the level by 1 dB.

8. Choose Effects > Amplitude and Compression > Amplify.

9. Reduce the levels of the right and left channels by typing in the value −1 in the dB field, and then click Apply.

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   Tip

   You can also double-click an audio clip in a multitrack session to open it in the Waveform Editor.

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10. Click the Multitrack tab (or press 0) to return to the multitrack session. All the Bass_Sub_F#H clip levels have been reduced by 1 dB.

11. Keep the session open for the next exercise.

1. Click the small square color swatch on the track’s color bar.

   

   The Track Color dialog box opens.

   

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   Tip

   To return the color palette to its set of default colors, click the reset button just above and to the right of the Cancel button.

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2. To choose one of the colors, click it and then click OK.

3. To modify a color, click it and then adjust the Hue parameter for the selected color.

4. Click OK.

5. Keep the session open for the next exercise.

Hiding tracks is easy to manage with the Tracks panel.

1. Choose Window > Tracks.

   

   The Tracks panel shows every track in the current multitrack session. Notice that the names of tracks are displayed in the Multitrack Editor panel, the Tracks panel, and the Mixer panel (accessible by clicking the name of the Mixer panel, which is grouped with the Multitrack Editor).

2. To hide a track, click its Toggle Visibility button in the Tracks panel.

3. You can also automatically hide, or display, tracks based on the type of track, or the clips on them. Choose Track Visibility from the panel menu to check out the available options.

   

   Notice also, you can choose Save or Load to create and access preset groups of tracks. The first five preset groups already have keyboard shortcuts assigned, so you can quickly toggle between these views once you have created them.

   

4. Leave all the tracks visible, and close the Tracks panel by choosing Close Panel from the panel menu.

1. Select the Time Selection tool from the main program toolbar, or press T.

2. Taking care not to select a clip, drag horizontally in the Multitrack Editor to select the portion of the music you want to loop. You can fine-tune this by dragging the edges of the selection or the white handles in the timeline that indicate the selection edges.

   

3. Make sure the Transport Loop Playback button is selected .

4. Click the Transport Play button. The selected area will loop and play continuously.

5. Click the Transport Stop button, and click the Transport Loop Playback button to deselect it.

6. Deselect the loop area by clicking anywhere in the Editor.

7. Return to the Move tool by selecting it from the main program toolbar, or press V.

1. Focusing on the track header controls, drag the divide between the Main Drums track and the Bass track downward. Keep dragging down until you can see all of the controls available on the Main Drums track header.

   

2. Hover over any track control header and scroll to resize all of the track simultaneously.

Main track controls

The main track controls are the most commonly adjusted parameters for mixing.

1. Return the playhead to the beginning of the session, and then click the Transport Play button to begin playback.

2. Click the Main Drums track’s M (Mute) button to silence it. Note that the Mute button turns bright blue-green when the mute function is enabled.

3. Click the Mute button again to turn off muting.

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   Note

   If both the Mute and Solo buttons are enabled, the Mute button has priority.

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4. Click the track’s S button to solo the track; the button turns yellow . Only the Main Drums track will sound. The R button is for recording; don’t click it now. Do leave the Main Drums track soloed.

   

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   Note

   Audition offers two solo modes: Exclusive (soloing one track mutes all other tracks) and Non-Exclusive (the default; you can solo multiple tracks simultaneously). To cancel soloing on any track, hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (macOS) while clicking a Solo button. To choose one mode or the other as a default, choose Edit > Preferences > Multitrack (Windows) or Adobe Audition CC > Preferences > Multitrack (macOS), and then select the desired Track Solo preference.

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   You can move tracks to reorganize them in a way that makes sense to you. For example, you might prefer to have the Percussion track below the Main Drums track instead of the Bass track.

5. Drag the color handle for the Percussion track up, above the Bass track until a blue line appears between the Main Drums track and the Bass track. This line indicates where the dragged track will land.

   

   Drop the Percussion track below the Main Drums track.

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   Tip

   If a track’s signal goes into the red, the track meters’ red lights will remain lit so you can see that the track exceeded the maximum level, even if you weren’t looking at the exact moment it peaked. To reset the red lights and turn them off, click on the lights.

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   Note

   If dragging the Pan knob left places the audio in the right speaker, check the connections going to your speakers and audio interface.

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   Tip

   To return the Volume or Pan control to the default of 0 using a shortcut, hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and click the control you want to reset (not the number).

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6. With the Transport playing, find the Volume knob immediately below the left part of the Main Drums name, and then drag up/down or left/right to vary the playback volume. The track meters will go into the red if you turn this up too high. For now, leave the Volume at 0.

7. To change the track position in the stereo field, use the Pan or Stereo Balance knob to the right of the Volume knob. Drag left on the knob, and you’ll hear the audio coming out of only the left speaker or headphone. Drag right, and the audio will play from only the right speaker or headphone.

8. Click the Sum to Mono button to the right of the Pan control. This collapses the stereo field to the center so the stereo file plays in mono. Click it again to return to stereo.

9. Return the Pan control to 0.

Track area

Extending a track’s height, either by dragging the divider on the track header or hovering the mouse over a track header and scrolling, reveals an area below the main track controls. You can display one of four sets of controls in this area, as determined by the four buttons in the left section of the Multitrack Editor’s toolbar:

The EQ area

EQ is widely considered one of the most important effects for multitrack production, because it allows each track to carve out its own sonic space in the audio frequency spectrum. (See Chapter 17, “Mixing and Output,” for an in-depth discussion of applying EQ during multitrack production.) Each track has the option to insert a Parametric Equalizer effect. Try that now.

1. Click the EQ button at the top of the track headers, and drag the divider at the bottom of the Main Drums track header down until you can see all of the controls.

   

   The EQ area displays an EQ graph; it’s currently a straight line, because no changes have been made.

2. Click the pencil button to the left of the EQ graph for the Main Drums track.

3. The Track EQ effect appears. This is functionally identical to the Parametric Equalizer effect covered in the “Filter and EQ effects” section in Chapter 4, “Effects.”

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   Note

   If you toggle on the Parametric Equalizer window’s Power button before closing the window, the power will already be on in the EQ area.

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4. Choose Acoustic Guitar from the Presets menu—just because it’s named Acoustic Guitar doesn’t mean it can’t be used for drums!

5. Close the EQ window. Note that the EQ area now shows the EQ curve. Click the EQ area’s Power button; the EQ frequency response curve turns blue to show that the EQ is active, and the Power button glows green. Leave the EQ enabled.

   

6. Click the Transport Play button. You’ll hear that the EQ makes the drums sound a bit more defined. To hear the difference, click the EQ area’s Power button off and then on again.

The Effects Rack area

Each track has its own Effects Rack so you can add signal processing to individual tracks; this Effects Rack is almost identical to the Waveform Editor Effects Rack covered in Chapter 4. This exercise demonstrates using the features that differ.

1. Click the Effects button (with the fx icon) in the Multitrack Editor panel, at the top of the track headers.

2. The track’s Effects Rack area appears. Increase the height of the Main Drums track so you see 16 slots—just like the Effects Rack in the Waveform Editor. You can choose from the same effects, including VST (Windows or macOS) and AU (macOS-only) effects.

   

3. The main difference compared to the Waveform Editor Effects Rack is that you can change the position of the effects in the Multitrack Editor’s signal flow. To hear how this works, in the Main Drums track, click insert 1’s right arrow, and then choose Delay And Echo > Analog Delay.

4. Choose Canyon Echoes from the Presets menu, and then set Feedback to 70. Click the Transport Play button; you should hear lots of repeating echoes.

   

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   Note

   The track-based effect controls also update the Track Effects in the Effects Rack. Changing one changes the other.

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5. Three buttons are located in the strip immediately above the inserts. The leftmost button is a master effects on/off button, which is enabled automatically when you insert an effect. Click it to turn off the Analog Delay effect, and then click it again to turn the Analog Delay effect back on.

   

6. The next button to the right is the FX Pre-Fader/Post-Fader control, which selects whether the Effects Rack is before (the default) or after the track’s Volume control. With the track playing, turn down the track’s Volume control. Note that this turns down the echoes as well, because the effect is pre-fader; in other words, it’s “upstream” of the fader.

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   Note

   If the track Volume control remains turned down, eventually the echoes will stop because there won’t be any more audio going into the Analog Delay, so there won’t be any audio subject to be delayed.

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7. Turn the track Volume control back to 0, and then click the FX Pre-Fader/Post-Fader button. It turns red and changes design to indicate that the effect is now post-fader.

8. Let the track play for several seconds, and then turn down the track’s Volume control. The echoes continue because you’ve turned down only the signal going to the Analog Delay, not the signal coming out of it.

9. Click the first insert’s right arrow, and then choose Remove Effect so that the Analog Delay effect is no longer inserted.

10. Turn off the Main Drums track’s Solo button so you can hear all tracks play simultaneously.

The Master Output bus

Before you look at the Sends area in the next section, you first need to understand the concept of a bus. Although buses in the Multitrack Editor look like tracks and have several elements in common, they serve a different purpose.

A bus does not contain audio clips but instead carries a specific mix of one or more tracks. Every multitrack session has at least one bus: the Master bus, which provides the Master Output. This can be mono, stereo, or 5.1 surround, as specified by the Master parameter when you create a new multitrack session.

All tracks feed into the Master bus by default on all sessions. Therefore, the Master bus’s Volume control regulates the master volume of all tracks. This is essential because as you add more tracks to a composition, the output level increases. Eventually, it will likely start distorting, but you can use the Master bus Volume control to adjust the output level and prevent distortion.

1. Scroll down to the bottom of the Multitrack Editor, and locate the Master bus.

   

2. Extend the Master bus height sufficiently to see the Output meters. You may need to zoom in vertically using the scroll bar to the right of the Multitrack Editor to see the meters.

3. Click the Play button to start playback. Note that the Master bus Volume control is set to −4.5 dB: The project was saved this way so when you opened the file and started to play it, you wouldn’t hear distortion. At no point does the Master bus Output meter go into the red.

4. Stop playback, and then return the playhead to the file’s beginning.

5. Alt-click (Option-click) the Master Volume control to return it to zero, and then click Play to start playback.

6. Note that the meter goes into the red starting around measure 5 when the Main Drums are joined by other tracks.

7. Click Stop to stop playback. Return the Master bus Volume control to −4.5 dB.

Audio moves through a multitrack session in a kind of chain, beginning with the original audio file, moving through clip Level adjustments and clip Effects, to track Level adjustments and track Effects, to buses (if they are used), to the Master bus.

You can modify the level at any stage in the chain but with differing results. Experience will help you judge where to make the adjustment you need.

The Sends area

Each track has a Sends area. You can create buses in this area, as well as control bus levels and choose the send destinations.

1. Click the Sends button (the one between the Effects and EQ buttons) in the Multitrack Editor’s main four-button toolbar. The track’s Sends area appears.

   

2. Increase the Main Drums and Percussion track heights so you can see the Sends area’s controls.

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   Tip

   You can also add a bus by right-clicking in a blank space in a track and then choosing Track > Add (Mono, Stereo, or 5.1) Bus Track. The bus appears immediately below the track where you right-clicked. Another way to create a bus is to choose Multitrack > Track > Add (Mono, Stereo, or 5.1) Bus Track. Note that when you create a bus, its output is assigned automatically to the Master bus as the default, like any other track.

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3. To add stereo reverb to both tracks, click the Main Drums’ Sends area menu and choose Add Bus > Stereo. This creates a bus immediately below the Main Drums track.

   

4. Click in the Bus A name field, and type Reverb Bus. Note that after you enter this name, the bus name changes automatically in the Main Drums Sends area menu.

   

5. Click the Percussion Sends area menu. Because you created a reverb bus, it appears in the list of available send destinations. Choose Reverb Bus.

6. Now insert a reverb in the Reverb bus. Start by clicking the Effects button in the track toolbar.

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   Note

   When you’re using effects with Wet/Dry controls as send effects, the tracks providing the sends are already providing dry audio to the Master bus. Therefore, the effects are set to full wet audio and no dry audio. The bus Volume control sets the overall amount of wet signal present in the Master bus.

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7. An Effects Rack appears in the Reverb bus that works identically to the Effects Rack in individual tracks.

8. Click the right arrow in the Reverb bus’s first insert, and then choose Reverb > Studio Reverb.

9. When the Studio Reverb window appears, choose Drum Plate (Large) from the Presets menu. Set the Dry slider to 0 and the Wet slider to 100%. Close the Studio Reverb window.

10. Return to the Sends area by clicking the Sends button in the toolbar.

11. Solo the Main Drums and Percussion tracks to make it easy to hear the effect of adding reverb. Audition knows to solo the Reverb bus automatically, because the Main Drums and Percussion tracks send signal to it.

12. Click the Transport Play button to begin playback.

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    Tip

    A track’s Sends area also includes an FX Pre-Fader/Post-Fader button. This determines whether the signal going to the send Volume control is pre or post the track Volume control. The default is post-fader, because if you reduce the track level, you generally don’t want to still hear the wet sound at the same level as when the track level was higher. If you do (perhaps for a special effect where a track goes from dry+wet to full wet), click the FX Pre-Fader/Post-Fader button so that the button is not red.

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13. By default, sends do not have any level. Turn up the Main Drums send Volume control from −∞ to around −6 dB. You’ll now hear reverb added to the Main Drums track.

    

14. Turn up the Percussion send Volume control to around +5 dB. When the Percussion clips play, you’ll hear lots of reverb. The reason is that more audio is being sent to the Reverb bus compared to the Main Drums.

15. You can set the overall amount of wet (reverb) sound with the Reverb bus Volume control. Vary this control between −8 dB and +8 dB to hear how it affects the sound. Then Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (macOS) this control to return it to 0.

16. You can also pan a bus in the stereo field. Vary the Reverb bus Pan control from L100 to R100, and you’ll hear the reverb effect move from left to right, respectively. Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (macOS) this control to return it to 0.

17. Turn off the Solo buttons for the Main Drums and Percussion tracks. In preparation for the next exercise, leave this session open with the various track and bus controls set as shown.

Sending buses to buses

Buses can also send audio to other buses, which multiplies your signal processing options even further. In this exercise, you’ll send two tracks to a Delay bus, and that bus will feed the Reverb bus created in the previous exercise.

1. Right-click a blank space in the Pad DreamyBrass track, and choose Track > Add Stereo Bus Track to create a bus immediately below the Pad DreamyBrass track.

2. Click in the Bus B name field, and type Delay Bus.

3. If necessary, extend the heights of the Pad DreamyBrass, Delay Bus, and Organ Church tracks so you can see their Sends areas.

4. Click the Pad DreamyBrass Send menu and choose Delay Bus.

5. Click the Organ Church Send menu and choose Delay Bus.

   

6. Now, insert a Delay in the Delay bus. Start by clicking the Multitrack Editor’s main toolbar’s Effects button.

7. Click the right arrow in the Delay bus’s first insert, and then choose Delay And Echo > Analog Delay.

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   Note

   The Delay value of 2000 ms (in the “Sending buses to buses” section) is chosen so that the delay correlates to the tempo. For details on how to arrive at this number, review the “Analog delay” section in Chapter 4.

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8. When the Analog Delay window appears, choose Round-Robin Delay from the Presets menu. Set the Dry Out slider to 0, the Wet Out slider to 100%, and Spread to 200%; enter exactly 2000 ms for Delay, and set Trash to 0. Close the Analog Delay window.

   

9. Return to the Sends area by clicking the Sends button in the toolbar.

10. Solo the Pad DreamyBrass and Organ Church tracks, and then set each of these track’s send Volume controls to around −8 dB to add just a bit of delay.

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    Tip

    You can always change the time measurement system in the Editor panel by right-clicking the current time at the bottom left of the panel. To see Bars And Beats, choose this option from the menu.

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11. Position the playhead at the start of measure 7, and then click the Transport Play button to begin playback and listen to the effect of the added delay.

12. Now that the delay effect is set up, stop playback and choose Reverb Bus from the Delay Bus Send menu. This sends the Delay bus output to the Reverb bus, and you’ll hear delay going through the reverb.

13. Turn up the Delay bus Send control to around +4 dB, and playback. You’ll now hear reverberated delay.

    

14. To contrast the delay sound with and without reverb, toggle the Delay bus Power button.

15. Choose File > Close All, and then select No To All in the dialog box that appears to close the project in preparation for the next exercise.

1. Choose File > Open Recent > MoebiusRemix.sesx.

2. Click the Solo button on the Main Drums track, and click the Effects button in the toolbar. Extend the Main Drums track enough to see the Effects Rack inserts.

3. Click insert 1’s right arrow and choose Reverb > Convolution Reverb.

4. From the Impulse (not Presets) menu, choose Massive Cavern. Set Width to 300% and Mix to 70%.

5. Select and loop a portion of the Main Drums track, and then click the Transport Play button.

6. Click the Convolution Reverb effect’s Channel Map Editor button at the top-right corner.

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   Note

   Because both outputs can’t be assigned to the same audio channel in the Channel Map Editor, the Right Effect Output, which had been assigned to Right, is now assigned to (None). Therefore, you will hear the Right channel effect output in the Left audio channel, and no effect output in the Right audio channel.

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7. When the Channel Map Editor opens, open the Effect Output menu for the Left channel, and choose Right.

8. Open the Effect Output menu for the Right channel and choose Left. The output channels are now reversed, which reverses the reverb output’s stereo image. The image is wider, because some of the left input now appears in the right output, and some of the right input is now in the left output.

   

9. To hear the difference, click the Channel Map Editor’s Reset Routing button. If you listen on headphones, you’ll hear a definite collapsing (narrowing) of the stereo image; this will be more subtle on speakers. Choose File > Close All, and click No To All when asked if you would like to save any changes.

Although both Effects Racks work the same way, the Multitrack Editor Effects Rack has two additional buttons at the top to enable you to switch between viewing clip-based effects and track-based effects.

The difference in appearance in the Effects Rack when you’re working on clip-based effects or track-based effects is quite subtle, so look out for those extra buttons at the top of the panel. Both types of effects work in the same way, and both combine to produce a final result.

The Multitrack Editor is a more complex editing environment, and there is some repetition in the interface to allow you to access effects and settings in multiple locations. You’ll find the effects you set for tracks in the Effects Rack will appear automatically in the track header Effects Racks, and in the Multitrack Mixer Effects Racks. They are truly multiple routes to the same settings.

Other than the pre- and post-fader option, and the pre-render option, the Effects Racks in both editing modes give access to the same controls. When you’re working in the Waveform Editor, however, the changes you make are ultimately destructive, meaning they change the original audio file. Changes made in the Multitrack Editor are non-destructive, because they don’t change your audio and can be adjusted at any time.

The Essential Sound panel

One obvious difference between the Waveform Editor and the Multitrack Editor is that the Essential Sound panel works exclusively on multitrack sessions.

The Essential Sound panel provides useful shortcuts to effects that are automatically added to the Effects Rack. Settings for the effects are adjusted in the Effects Rack by making adjustments in the Essential Sound panel.

The Essential Sound panel is particularly useful for film and television soundtrack mixing, as you’ll discover in later lessons.

Review questions

1. What is the main difference between the Waveform Editor and the Multitrack Editor?

2. What’s the advantage of sending tracks to a single effect through a bus instead of inserting the same effect on each track?

3. Is it possible to have buses send signals to other buses?

4. On what type of project is channel mapping most useful?

Review answers

1. The Waveform Editor can play back one file at a time, whereas the Multitrack Editor can play multiple files simultaneously.

2. Using a bus saves CPU power and is desirable when you want to apply the same effect (such as a specific acoustic space) to multiple tracks.

3. Yes, any bus can send audio to any other bus.

4. Channel mapping is most useful on surround productions, although channel mapping can also be used with stereo.