Adobe Audition vs Audacity – Which is Better? In-Depth Comparison & More

Adobe Audition and Audacity are both digital audio workstations that are used to record, edit, and mix audio. 

As an online course creator, they can help you out with editing audio narration files so they sound clear and crisp. 

However, it can be confusing to choose between different audio editing tools available out there. 

In this post, we’ll go over all the features offered by Adobe Audition and Audacity to determine which one would be best for you as an online course creator.

Features	Adobe Audition	Audacity
Pricing	3 out of 5	5 out of 5
Ease of Use	3 and a half out of 5	4 and a half out of 5
Multi-Tracking	4 out of 5	5 out of 5
Effect Options	4 and a half out 5	3 and a half out 5

Now that we’ve had a look at what both Adobe Audition and Audacity have to offer, let’s take a closer look at each one to see which one would be best for you. 

Adobe Audition Review – Greater Control with an Elegant Design

Adobe Audition CC (Creative Cloud) is the primary audio editing software provided by Adobe. 

It’s part of the Adobe Creative Cloud group of software programs and has features for audio cleanup, editing, restoration as well as rearranging. 

As an online course creator, it can definitely be worthwhile for you to completely work with Adobe apps. 

For example, you’d work on your audio files in Audition and then, import them straight into Premiere in order to edit your online course videos. 

This can create a seamless workflow that’s highly efficient and easy to get the hang of. 

Features of Adobe Audition

• DeReverb and Denoising effects
• Up to 128 audio tracks on a single timeline
• Capability to create scripts for easy automation
• Guides and tutorials for getting started
• Automated loudness correction

Pros	Cons
• Automatic backup of your Adobe Audition session file to the Creative Cloud • Text-to-speech option • Seamless integration with Adobe Premiere Pro • Elegant, customizable interface • Automation option for tedious tasks	• Fairly pricey compared to Audacity  • Steep learning curve

Benefits of Adobe Audition

Adobe Audition, just like all other Adobe software programs, features a sleek and elegant design that is completely customizable. 

Thus, you can edit the interface to have the tools you commonly use up-front and remove the tools you don’t use at all. 

This can really improve the time in which you typically edit your files. 

People in the past have complained about Adobe programs crashing, which often leads to the loss of unsaved work that was done. 

Not only has Adobe optimized Audition to the point where crashes and freezes are minimal but they’ve also ensured that your session file gets auto-saved and uploaded to the Creative Cloud intermittently. 

This ensures that none of your work is lost even if Adobe Audition does happen to crash. 

Factors to Consider Before you Decide to Buy Adobe Audition

Pricing

Adobe Audition, just like all other programs offered by Adobe, is provided as a monthly subscription. 

If you choose to pay monthly, you’ll have to pay $20.99 per month but if you choose their annual plan, you’ll get a discounted price of $19.99 per month. 

For an online course creator, we would say that this might not be worth it since you may already be paying for a bunch of other tools and services when you’re first getting your online course off the ground. 

Furthermore, they’re all synced together so, you’ll have no trouble importing an audio file from Adobe Audition into Premiere Pro for easy video editing using that file. 

Ease of Use

Adobe Audition can be a little difficult to get the hang of it in case you’re new to editing audio.

While their interface does provide greater control and customization, it can be intimidating to beginners. 

Multi-Tracking

Adobe Audition has a multitrack mode that you can easily use to blend multiple tracks together. 

This is especially useful if you want to blend different takes together or add other elements such as music or sound effects. 

Effect Options

Adobe Audition comes with all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a high-end audio editing tool such as EQ, a normalizer, a compressor, noise reduction, etc. 

Furthermore, you also have access to a wide library of sound effects and audio transitions.

What Do the Customers Think?

Most of the reviews we came across complained about Adobe Audition’s steep learning curve. 

However, these same reviews also mentioned how it’s one of the most powerful digital audio workstations out there once you actually get past that learning curve. 

People love how customizable its interface is and the amount of control it gives you over how your audio sounds. 

Here are some of the reviews we came across: 

Best Audio Editing Tool with Fine-Tuning Controls

The best audio editing tool with fine-tuning controls is Adobe Audition. It has a completely customizable interface and both multi-track and waveform editors for superior control over your raw audio. 

Audacity Review – Free and Easy to Use

Audacity is a free and open-source tool you can download right now for recording, editing, and mixing audio. 

While it may be free, it’s still fairly well-designed and provides loads of functionality that is fairly adequate for online course creators. 

Unlike Adobe Audition, Audacity is quite easy to get the hang of as its interface is quite self-explanatory and easy to get the hang of. 

Features of Audacity

• Multitrack function
• Easy noise reduction
• Many file types supported (MP2, MP3, AIFF, WAV, FLAC, OGG, etc.) 
• Graphic equalizer and visualization tools for other effects
• Option to have recorded audio as well as imported audio within the same Audacity project file

Pros	Cons
• Easy and seamless selection of audio hardware • Contains all essential effects to create crisp audio tracks • Lightweight; Doesn’t use too many of your computer’s resources • Free • Easy to use	• Not as many effects as Adobe Audition  • The interface may seem dated to some users

Benefits of Audacity

The very first benefit that should be of importance to you is the fact that Audacity is completely free. 

As an online course creator that’s just starting out, a free tool like Audacity that rivals paid professional software can be a great asset for you. 

You may have heard about how Audacity can never compete with Adobe Audition because it’s just run by a small company whereas Adobe is a powerhouse in the market. 

While that may be true, the fact of the matter is you don’t need all the functions that Adobe Audition offers to make good audio narration for your online courses. 

Audacity has all the tools you’ll need to denoise, compress and normalize your audio files so that they sound crisp and clear for your students. 

Furthermore, its interface is much easier to understand compared to Adobe Audition. 

Factors to Consider Before you Decide to Buy Audacity

Pricing

If we’re talking Adobe Audition vs Audacity, Audacity wins this by a mile because while Adobe Audition has a price tag of $20.99 per month, Audacity has no price tag at all. 

Ease of Use

While its interface may not be as elegantly designed as Adobe Audition, it’s still much more straightforward and easy to understand. 

You can’t customize it much but you won’t really have to since it’s designed to be easy to use for beginners. 

Multi-Tracking

If we’re talking Adobe Audition vs Audacity, while Audition has both multi-track and waveform editors, Audacity only has a multi-track mode. 

When you stop recording and start recording again, Audacity will automatically create another track underneath your previous track

In this way, you can cut, blend and merge multiple elements of different tracks inside Audacity projects. 

Effect Options

The effect options within Audacity aren’t as extensive as Adobe Audition but they’re still adequate enough for online course creators. 

All the tools you need for crisp and clear audio production for your online courses are available within Audacity. 

What Do the Customers Think?

Audacity users love its simplicity and ease of use. 

Many people who complain about its lack of effects are users who are making music and working with tons of sound effects. 

As an online course creator, this isn’t really a concern you’ll have since you’ll only be editing voice-overs. 

Here are some of the reviews we found online:

Best User-Friendly Audio Editing Tool

The best user-friendly audio editing tool is Audacity thanks to its easy-to-understand interface that is designed for beginners. All common tools are one click away and it has all the effects needed for creating effective audio narration for online courses.

Digital Audio Workstations – Buyers’ Guide

Choosing between digital audio workstations can be very confusing especially if you’re not very familiar with audio production, editing, and mixing. 

Fortunately, there are some factors you can think about which will help you reach a decision about which digital audio workstation might be best for you. Some of these factors are: 

Pricing

As an online course creator, you may already be spending money on other tools and services such as web hosting, text formatting tools, paying for online course platform membership(s), etc. 

Thus, it’s not a good idea to invest in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that costs a fortune. 

Try to keep it below $50 if it’s a one-time purchase or below $20 if it’s a monthly subscription. 

Ease of Use

This is important not just for DAWs but for every tool you use during online course creation. 

It has to be easy to pick up and start using immediately. This is because you want to spend as little time as possible learning that tool and spend as much time as possible actually creating your online course. 

If it’s taking you a long time to learn how to use your DAW, it’s valuable time wasted that could’ve gone towards your online course creation process. 

Multi-Tracking

Multi-tracking refers to the ability to have multiple tracks on the same timeline and be able to mix and match them according to your needs. 

It can come in handy when editing voice-overs for online courses since you can blend multiple takes together to create the clearest audio narration possible. 

Furthermore, you may also need it to add sound effects and background music. 

Effect Options

There are a number of effects you’ll need to create clear audio narration tracks and it’s important that you ensure the DAW you’re buying has them. 

These are namely EQ, a normalizer, a compressor, and noise reduction. 

Naturally, you need noise reduction to remove background noise and the other tools are needed to ensure your voice isn’t too quiet or too loud. 

Audio Files Supported

This isn’t super important as you’ll most likely be working with either MP3 or WAV files. 

However, if you’re working on a specific online course platform that demands your narration in a certain format, you may want to check whether your DAW supports that format or not.

Final Verdict

This brings us to the end of our comparison post of Adobe Audition vs Audacity. 

In the end, we have to say that Audacity is our pick for online course creators to create their audio narrations. 

It has all the effects you need, it’s easy to use and lastly, it’s free.