How to mixdown in realtime in Adobe Audition

Question

I have a multi-track setup with Adobe Audition and a Motu 828mk3. I currently have three tracks laid down. I want to mix those three tracks down into one track, but I need to constantly adjust the levels of the mix throughout the playback. What I would like is for my existing tracks to act like it's its own input that I could then "record" on the new track.

However, this does not seem possible. Audition only lets me tell a track to record off an actual input, and a track can only send its signal to an actual output. Ideally, I would be able to tell my new track 4 to record its signal based off what's being sent to the master output (or any other output on my 828) from the other 3 tracks. But alas, that can't happen.

What I've tried instead is I got a patch cord and physically connected the Analog 1 output on my 828 to the Analog 1 input of my 828. Now I send the 3 tracks to Analog 1 out and on track 4 I actually record off of the Analog 1 input. This actually works great, but it strikes me as incredibly crude since I figure this should be possible to do without re-routing all the way back out to my Motu box -- I feel like this should be possible exclusively through Adobe Audition itself. Am I missing something?

Answer 1

Yes, you are missing Audition's automation functionality. Audition allows you to automate almost many parameters of the incoming audio. This functionality is not unique to Audition, but is common across all modern, commercial multi-track DAWs.

To use automation in go to multi-track screen, choose the channel you want to automate. At the bottom of the channel, where it says "read" you will see a triangle to the left. Click on that triangle and it will expand the automation lane below the track. Pull on the pulldown menu by the word "read" and change the setting to "latch." Then, before adjusting your settings in latch mode, read everything in this section of the Adobe Audition manual. Then after you grasp that, I suggest reading about automating "clips" in the Audition Manual.

Answer 2

if you go to the channel you want to adjust on the fly, go to the READ tab above the pan control of that channel, click the down arrow and scroll down to WRITE, play the track from the start, adjust the fader as required, as the track plays at the end of run through the read button will change to touch, your adjustments were recorded, next time you play the recording through, that channel fader will move automatically as you manually instructed it. Do that with each channel until the mix suits your desire. you don't need any add ons. when you get the mix you want go to the master output chnnel click in effect and go to special then mastering. be careful not to over do these effects, subtlety will prevail, good luck