This is a tutorial how to implement dynamics processing or compression in Adobe Audition without plug-in. In this way, you will be relying on the built-in compressor included in Adobe Audition called as the “dynamics processor”. This tutorial is written using Adobe Audition 1.5 but the concepts illustrated in this tutorial can be applied to modern versions. To get started, follow the steps below:
1.) Launch Adobe Audition.
2.) Go to Edit View. Bear in mind that you can also implement this process in the multi-track view by loading the built-in effects in multi-track racks. But let’s just use the Edit view because it’s simple. However, take note that doing changes in Edit view can destroy the original audio material. Make sure to back up the original audio before saving any changes. In multi-track view, it is non-destructive because the settings are implemented in sessions rather than to the direct audio wave.
3.) Go to File – Open and then load the audio wav file that needs compression.
If you are new to audio compression, you should need to read this introductory tutorial on dynamic range compression. Examine why you should need to compress in the first place. You need to have some objective before you compress. Having a clear objective helps you how to set your compressor to get the desired sound. For example, you are examining the audio material before compression below:
Before audio compression
There is a big difference between loud (yellow lines) and soft peaks (white) in the audio material and you may want to even out the volume using compression.
4.) Before you will implement some compression settings, you should need to analyze your audio material to know what are the minimum RMS and maximum RMS power of your audio. This will be basis for your compression settings later on. Go to Analyze – Statistics. The result will be shown as follows:
Audio waveform statistics
It shows that the minimum RMS power of the audio before compression is around -65dB while the maximum RMS power is -10dB.
5.) To implement compression, go to Effects – Amplitude – Dynamics Processing. Actually this looks like this:
Dynamics processing effect in Adobe Audition