Adobe Audition

Overview

Adobe Audition traces back to Cool Edit Pro, a waveform editor originally developed by Syntrillium Software in the late 1990s. Adobe acquired the product in 2003, rebranded it as Adobe Audition, and has developed it since as the audio counterpart to Premiere Pro within the Creative Cloud suite, aimed at podcast production, dialogue editing, sound design, and audio restoration for video.

Audition is available only as part of an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription — there is no perpetual-license or one-time-purchase option — and it runs exclusively on Windows and macOS. Its tight integration with Premiere Pro and other Creative Cloud apps, via shared project formats and round-tripping, is a major part of its appeal for users already working inside Adobe’s ecosystem.

Is Adobe Audition Open Source?

No. Adobe Audition is closed-source, proprietary software, and it’s only available through a paid Creative Cloud subscription — there’s no free tier or one-time purchase option, and no source code is published. If you want an audio editor or DAW with a comparable feature set that’s free to use and fully open source, Audacity, Ardour, Tenacity, and Qtractor are all viable alternatives.

Key Features

• Spectral frequency editing — Visual, brush-based editing directly on a spectrogram to remove unwanted sounds or noise
• Essential Sound panel — Guided, task-based controls for dialogue, music, and sound-effect mixing
• Multitrack and waveform editors — Separate views for full-session mixing and single-clip destructive editing
• Adobe Sensei-powered restoration — Automated noise reduction, click/pop removal, and reverb reduction tools
• Creative Cloud integration — Direct round-tripping with Premiere Pro and shared access to Adobe Stock audio

Use Cases

• Podcast production — Recording, cleaning up, and mixing spoken-word audio with guided restoration tools
• Video post-production audio — Dialogue editing, sound design, and mixing for projects cut in Premiere Pro
• Audio restoration — Removing noise, clicks, and hum from old or poor-quality recordings

Who It’s For

Adobe Audition is aimed at podcasters, video editors, and audio professionals who are already paying for Creative Cloud and want an audio tool that integrates directly with Premiere Pro. Its subscription-only pricing and closed codebase are the main reasons users without an existing Adobe subscription look at open source alternatives instead.