Working With Multitrack Sessions

Available Files

The following files are available for download:

Download Exercise Files

Up until now, most of the editing you've done has been in the Waveform Editor, focusing on a single file at a time. Since all the clips for the podcast are edited at this point, it's time to assemble them into a single file — which can be done by creating a new multitrack session, and working in the Multitrack Editor. A multitrack session allows us to work with multiple audio clips at the same time, with different audio clips on different tracks. If you've worked with layers in other programs, such as Photoshop and Illustrator, tracks behave similarly to layers in that they can each hold separate information and can overlap each other to create interesting effects.

Before you start assembling the podcast, or any multitrack session in general, you'll want to have a general idea of how the clips will be assembled — in other words, what order the clips will be in, which ones might overlap, when music might fade in and out, and so on. The plan for the Tech Talk podcast is as follows:

Start with 10-15 seconds of intro_song.wav before music lowers and intro.wav begins
Once intro.wav ends, let intro_song.wav play until it fades out
First segment: tech_news.wav
Second segment: tech_word.wav
Third segment: favorite_app.wav
Fade in outro_song.wav, play for 5 seconds before music lowers and outro.wav begins
Once outro.wav ends, let outro_song.wav play until it ends

Let's create a new multitrack session, and start building the podcast.

To start creating a new multitrack session, in the Menu bar,
Click File, Point New, Click Multitrack Session...
To name the session, in the Session Name field of the New Multitrack Session dialog box,
Press & Drag Untitled Session 1, type: Tech Talk Podcast
To indicate where the session should be saved, next to the Folder Location field, if necessary,
Click , navigate to the Audition Basics folder
To choose the Audition Basics folder as the location for saving the session, at the bottom of the Choose destination folder window,
Click
To set the sample rate, if necessary,
Click , Click 44100
To set the bit depth, if necessary,
Click , Click 16
To set the channels for the Master to mono, if necessary,
Click , Click Mono
To finish creating the session,
Click

Exploring the Multitrack Interface

Let's take a moment to familiarize ourselves with the Multitrack editor before assembling the podcast. The following video provides an introduction to the Multitrack editor, and explains some differences between the Multitrack editor and the single-file editing interface.

Learn more about Audition's Multitrack editor with this video.

As you can see in the video, there are now multiple tracks visible in the Editor panel. Audition includes six tracks in a multitrack session by default, and each track is color-coded. When a track is selected, its color is highlighted in the Editor panel to help make it easier to determine which track is currently being edited. Not only are individual tracks color-coded, they also have their own names. Giving a track a descriptive name will help immensely when working with multitrack sessions, especially ones that have many different tracks.

The Files panel is essential when working on a multitrack session. As we created and edited files, you'll remember that we didn't close any of our files when we were finished editing them — now that we're working on a multitrack session, we can simply press and drag a file to a track to add it to that track's timeline, as demonstrated in the video. When working with a multitrack session, it's generally a good idea to add the clips you're working with to the Files panel if they're not already open, to make it easier to populate the tracks with audio clips. When you open a saved multitrack session, any files used in the session will show in the Files panel without having to re-add them. At this point, all the audio files we'll need should be open in the Files panel.

NOTE: If the Files panel isn't showing all the tracks needed for the podcast, or if you're not working through the course content in one sitting, you may need to add the audio clips to the Files panel manually at this point. To import a file, in the Files panel, Click and navigate to the file, then open it. The files panel should display the following files: intro.wav, outro.wav, intro_song.wav, outro_song.wav, tech_news.wav, tech_term.wav, and favorite_app.wav.

Let's go ahead and rename the tracks in the Multitrack editor to reflect the audio they'll hold, remove any unused tracks, and then drag the clips onto their specific tracks in the Editor panel. Once the clips are on the appropriate tracks, we'll position them where they need to be on the timeline.

To begin renaming the first track, in the Editor panel,
Click
To give the track a new name, type:
Intro/Outro Enter key
Follow steps a and b to rename the rest of the tracks, using the names in the following list:
- Track 2: Music
- Track 3: Tech News
- Track 4: Tech Term
- Track 5: Favorite App
To remove Track 6, in the timeline section of Track 6,
Right-Click the timeline, Point Track, Click Delete Selected Track

To select intro.wav and outro.wav, in the Files panel,
Click intro.wav, Press & Hold the Control key, Click outro.wav
To add the selected clips to the Intro/Outro track,
Press & Drag the files to the Intro/Outro track
To indicate that we want all selected files to be added to the same track, in the dialog box that appears, if necessary.
Click the radio button next to Add all selected files to the same track, Click OK
Follow steps a and b to add intro_song.wav and outro_song.wav to the Music track.
To add tech_news.wav to the Tech News track, in the Files panel,
Press & Drag tech_news.wav to the Tech News track
Repeat step e for the remaining files, placing tech_term.wav on the Tech Term track and favorite_app.wav on the Favorite Word app.

To activate the Move tool, in the Tools panel at the top of the screen,
Click
To move outro.wav out of the way so intro.wav can be put into position, on the Intro/Outro timeline,
Press & Drag outro.wav past the 30 second mark on the timeline
To move intro.wav into position, on the Intro/Outro timeline,
Press & Drag intro.wav so it begins at the 10 second mark on the timeline
To position the current-time indicator so it can be used to help precicely place clips, in the time indicator at the lower left corner of the Editor panel, type:
0:28 Enter key
To move tech_news.wav into place, on the Tech News timeline,
Press & Drag tech_news.wav so the beginning lines up with the current-time indicator
Repeat steps c and d for the remaining audio clips, zooming out when necessary, using the current-time indicator to help position the clips at the following times:
- tech_term.wav - 0:50
- favorite_app.wav - 1:25
- outro_song.wav - 1:55
- outro.wav - 2:05
Save the session file.

At this point, the arrangement of the clips on their timelines should look similar to the following image:

Audio clips arranged on their respective tracks, according to the steps outlined in Step 3.

Now that all the audio clips are on their individual tracks and positioned where they need to be, let's take a look at the Essential Sound panel and learn how it can help make our audio sound even better.

Working With Multitrack Sessions

Available Files

Step 1: Create a new multitrack session.

Exploring the Multitrack Interface

Step 1: Rename the tracks to reflect the audio clips they'll contain, and remove the unused track.

Step 2: Drag each audio clip to its designated track.

Step 3: Move the clips on each individual track to the specific time each clip should start.