Peak files - ones with .pk and .pkf extensions - are files that Audition creates upon first opening an audio file, and they contain information about the way it's displayed on the screen. After you've worked on a file, saving the peak data as well as the file means that the next time Audition opens it, it can do so a lot faster - simply because it doesn't have to create all that visual data again.

By default, Audition saves peak files automatically for wav files, but it can't create them for other types. The reason for this is that it doesn't need them for those file types, as they can't be opened natively in Audition anyway; they have to be decoded into wav files first.

The difference between older .pk files and newer .pkf files (the ones that Audition CS5.5 uses) is that the .pkf ones contain Floating Point data. This means that unlike .pk files, they can display information about files where the signal exceeds 0dB. This means that if you do a mixdown where the levels are rather hot, you can display the levels correctly in Edit View by zooming the vertical display out. If you replay the file at this level though, it will distort, so you still have to normalize your resulting file so that the peaks don't exceed 0dB before making, say, a CD from it, a 16-bit integer copy, or any sort of compressed file.

Because of this fundamental difference though, .pk files and .pkf files aren't interchangable. So a .pkf file created with Audition CS5.5 won't work with any previous version. What will happen if you open one of these files in, say Audition 3 is that a new .pk file will be created, and stored alongside the .pkf one. And similarly, a .pk file from a previous version will be ignored if an older file is opened in Audition CS5.5 - it will create a new .pkf file for it.

Both .pk and .pkf files are normally hidden file types, so you won't see them in your files folder unless you've set it to display hidden files. It doesn't matter in the slightest if one gets deleted accidentally - which ever version of Audition you are using will recreate the appropriate one automatically. The only difference you will notice is that it takes longer to open the file. Not much of a problem with a very short one, but if your file is an hour long, the difference is significant.

Fortunately you don't have to uninstall and reinstall Audition to do this - although that's certainly an option. Bear in mind that doing this will only work if you choose to delete your preferences as part of the process.

There are several other options though, and I suggest reading through all of them before deciding which to use. We'll start, though, with the other simple one. If you start Audition with the 'shift' key held down, this will achieve the same result - the preference files won't be read, and the default (aka 'vanilla') ones will be reinstated. Certainly with a Mac (and probably a PC as well) you have to hold the 'shift' key down at least until the splash screen appears, otherwise it might not work.

From here on, it gets a little more complicated, but you get more options. The reason for this is that in order to get at the individual preference files, we have to consider three different operating systems, XP, Windows 7, and OS X. By default, in all of them, the location of these files is hidden, and you have to reveal it. When you have done this, the path and files will be revealed.

Revealing hidden folders:

XP: In a folder, go to Tools>Folder Options>View and scroll down to the hidden folders entry. Select the 'Show' option. The path to the Preferences folder is C:\Documents and Settings\[user_name]\Application Data\Adobe\Audition\5.0

Windows 7: In a folder, go to Organise>Folders and Search Options>View, and then it's the same as XP. The path to the Preferences folder is c:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Audition\5.0

Mac OX: The Preferences are in a library folder, and are apparently stored twice. The locations of them are:

/Users/[User_Name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/Audition/5.0/

/Users/[User_Name]/Library/Preferences/com.Adobe.Audition.5.0.plist

There is a note about this at the end of this FAQ*.

Anyway, there are, apparently, several ways to unhide them:

1. The easiest way to get there without opening Terminal is to open Finder or click on your desktop, click Go in the menu bar, then hold down the OPTION/ALT key.  You should see Library appear in the menu as long as your holding that key and clicking the menu item will bring it up in Finder.

2. Use Command+Shift+G from the Mac desktop (or Finder>Go>Go to Folder) and type in ~/Library to temporarily access the Library directory. When you have finished manipulating the relevant parts of it, close this window and the folder will no longer be visible.

3. To make the Library folder visible permanently (like in OS 10.6 and earlier), open the Terminal application and use the following command: chflags nohidden ~/Library/

What do you have to do when you've revealed the folder?

The basic idea is that if Audition opens, and it doesn't find a particular file in the preferences folder, it recreates it. So, you can either delete all the files in it (the same as Shift+open), or you can be more selective. Primarily there are three .xml files that you are interested in, and if you are only having a problem with one of them, then that's the only one you need to delete.

Application Settings - deleting this will restore most of the settings in the program itself back to defaults

Effect Presets - deleting this will restore default settings, but if you have made any of your own presets, you will lose these too.

Favorites - the same as Effect Presets, only for the Favorites list.

There is also an .xml file for Machine-specific settings, but this only affects your sound device, and generally would be rewritten anyway if anything changed, so generally doesn't need to be touched. Mainly it's the three I mention above that are the ones you will be interested in.

* A note from Durin about the Mac preferences files:

"The directory path, ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe/Audition/5.0/ is where we store all the preferences, presets, workspaces, log files, etc.  Anything and everything a user may need access to.  The .plist file is more of an application/OS level preferences - similar to an ini or registry entry in that it's less user-facing and more preferences for how the application works with the OS.  In Audition's case, this stores information such as the last directory accessed, File Open/Save dialog dimensions, and other mysterious prefs that are just random GUIDs that Audition and OS X understand. 

In either case, if the directory or .plist is missing, it will be rebuilt on launch to the first-launch defaults."

I haven't experienced this for myself, but apparently as of December 13th 2012 the activation service for Audition 3 and some other products has been disabled because of a security issue. So if you need to uninstall and reinstall Audition 3 you will have to follow the instructions on this page. If there are any other issues with this, please post comments on the appropriate forum.

Searching the Help documentation for Audition is much easier in PDF format. It's also useful to have a PDF of the Help in case you don't have access to the internet. Here is the link:

http://blogs.adobe.com/premierepro/2010/08/help-documents-for-creative -suite-5-pdf-and-html.html

At present (July 2013), it's still possible to purchase Audition CS6, although finding it isn't that easy...

Purchase Audition CS6

In other words, you can open a file, but the Transport controls don't do anything. This applies to all versions of Audition...

Pretty much invariably when this happens, it's because Audition has become disconnected from your sound device, either external or internal. So the first thing you have to do is go to the Preferences page, select Hardware Setup, and make sure that it's selected there. Close the page, and then try again.

If, by any minute chance this doesn't fix the problem, then ask on the forum for more help, and make sure that you tell us specifically about your particular machine and how it's configured. But, this really is one of those 'one-solution-only' problems, as a rule.

"Durin" from Adobe wrote:-

- Switch to multitrack view

- Edit > Audio Hardware Setup - make appropriate settings

- In the "Session Properties" window, ensure that Monitoring is set to "Audition Mix"

- In the Audition menu select "Insert > Midi Track"

Troubleshoot recording, playback, and monitoring in Audition CS5.5

Support documents for Audition 3.0

Troubleshoot system errors or freezes in Audition 3.0 ( Windows XP)

Audition 3.0 Readme

Troubleshoot installation problems (Audition 3 on Windows XP)

Troubleshoot installation problems (Audition 3 on Windows Vista)

Help files do not open in Audition 3

Go to Edit > Audio Hardware Setup and ensure that the box that says Release ASIO Driver in Background is not checked.

If it is checked, Audition will stop playing or (even more catastrophically) will stop recording when you "click away" from the program, and it  loses focus. This enables other programs to use the ASIO driver, which normally cannot otherwise be shared, with the following exception:

Depending on the sound device you have, you can often share out ASIO channels between applications. If you want to do this, then definitely make sure that the driver isn't released,  or it won't happen - obviously. Audition only "hangs onto" the ASIO channels that are actually allocated to tracks, and this applies to a  lot of other applications too. Whether all ASIO sound device drivers have this capability is another matter, though - YMMV.

Please note that it is inherent in the ASIO standard that you can only have one functional ASIO hardware sound device connected to your computer -  this has nothing at all to do with Audition. If you want to run more than one sound device, use ASIO4ALL and WDM or MME drivers.

This information is from Durin, originally posted on AudioMasters.

Automation has 5 different modes:

1. OFF - ignores any of the automation parameters for that track

2. READ - process automation data for all parameters for that track.  During  playback, each parameter that contains automation data is adjusted to  match that data.

3. WRITE - overwrites any existing automation  data under the playback cursor, unless that automation lane has been  made "Safe During Write."  For example: You have manually click  some Mute on/off points, and in Write mode, attempt to record some  Volume fades.  If the playback section occurs where Mute nodes existed,  they will be overwritten by whatever status Mute happens to be in at the  time playback was started.  If you click the "Safe During Write" button  on the Mute lane, this lane will act as if it were in READ mode while  you are writing the Volume data.

4. LATCH - does not overwrite  any existing automation data UNTIL you make a change to the parameter,  at which point it "latches" on to the new value until you make  additional changes or stop playback.  Upon stopping playback, it writes a  final node and draws the envelope between that point and the next  pre-existing node.  If no pre-existing nodes exist, the parameter  remains at this level for the rest of the session.

5. TOUCH -  does not overwrite any existing automation data UNTIL you make a change  to the parameter, at which point it gradually moves back to the level it  was at before the change was made.  For example: Track 1 Volume  is set to +1dB with no automation data.  In touch mode, if I drop the  volume to -3dB during playback, when I take my finger off the knob (or  release the mouse button) the volume level will linearly rise back to  1dB.  (The time in which the return to the pre-existing parameter  level occurs is modifiable.  Click Edit > Preferences > MultiTrack  and edit the Automatch Time setting.  You can also modify the thinning  parameters to reduce the number of edit point nodes captured per  second.)

I hope that helps some.

It's a good scheme to back up your Audition 2.0 (or 3.0) workspaces and  preferences from time to time even if things are running well. To do so  is quite simple.

1. Close Audition

2. Go to C:\Documents and settings\{yourusername}\Application Data\Adobe\Audition

3.  You should see a folder named 2.0 (or 3.0) - make a copy of the whole folder  and its contents and call it "My last 2.0" [or 3.0, or whatever] using normal  Windows procedures.

If you then want to reset your preferences to  the "factory install" state, delete the original "2.0" or "3.0" folder. When you  restart Audition, it will be re-created automatically, and in its default  state. But doing so will erase your own preferences and workspaces, so  do not do that unless you have a backup first - or even two.

In  the future, if you've had a problem you may need selectively to restore  (copy) the files or folders from "My last 2.0 (or 3.0)" into "2.0 (or 3.0)", as they  contain important setups and customisations which you'll probably want  to have back. Here's a list of some of them:-

DefaultWorkspaces  [folder] - contains the "factory" workspaces. Audition expects to find  the contents there under the original names, but if you want you can  replace them with defaults of your own devising, using the same names -  but under normal circumstances, leave them alone.

OriginalUserWorkspaces  [folder] - these are in essence backups of the workspaces you have  saved yourself. If (using the program's relevant option) you restore a  workspace after having amended it, Audition will use the the version of  the workspace in this folder.

UserWorkspaces [folder] - these are  the current versions of workspaces you have created yourself. If you  restore a workspace after having amended it, Audition will replace the  amended workspace in this folder with the original one from the  OriginalUserWorkspaces folder.

AudCust.ini

- Favourites definitions

AUDITION.INI

- Edit view mastering rack definitions

- "Extract from CD" definitions

AudMP3.ini

- Definitions of mp3 encoding settings

audition_settings.xml

- general settings and preferences - this contains a lot of handy stuff

effect_settings.xml

- effect settings

If you have trouble with CD burning in Audition 2, there's an Adobe Troubleshooting document about it here.

This is the home of the Effects Migration Tool.

Changes in Adobe Audition 3.0.1:

• Spectral tools no longer crash machines with more than four CPU  cores.

• The Graphic Phase Shifter effect has been re-enabled.

If you have the downloaded version of Audition 3, or Loopology content from an earlier version which was supplied in a compressed format, then you can access the uncompressed versions of the files from this page. Also there is the content that used to be in the now-discontinued Resouce Center.

This is a very handy feature!

The default key is the ~ ("tilde")  key, unshifted, normally found below the "Esc" key. But to select the  panel to be expanded you must click on its left-hand tab, the one where  its name appears - you can't click just anywhere in the panel to select  it for this purpose.

For instance, if you click on the tab of  the waveform or track display labeled "Main" and then press the ~ key,  it will temporarily expand to fill the whole window. Press the ~ key  again and it goes back to its previous size. This can be very useful if  your monitor is not very large and you have many panels displayed at  once.

Options>Windows Recording Mixer normally displays the Windows  recording mixer application. If you feel confident about editing the  relevant system file, you can change this to display whatever mixer  application is provided for your particular soundcard as follows:-

Exit Audition.

In Windows, navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\Adobe\Audition\2.0 (or 3.0) and make a backup copy of audition_settings.xml in case you make a mistake.

Now edit that file with a text editor such as notepad, find the string sndvol32 /r and change it to the full path and filename of the program which  provides the mixer for your soundcard. On my particular system, for  example, it is

C:\Program Files\Echo Digital Audio\Console3\console3.exe

- note that yours is likely to be different, of course...

Save  the file, close the text editor, run Audition and check for correct  operation. If there is a problem, either correct it or restore the  backup copy you made of the audition_settings.xml file.

Thanks to "PQ" on the AudioMasters site for pointing out this tweak.

I think that the information here applies to all versions of Audition, including CS5.5, because it relates to using an external burner. There may be small variations between different versions, but I will check this out and modify the document later, if needs be. Ozpeter's original guide (which this mainly is) will certainly give you the basic information you need, though:

If this is the first time you've tried this, you might consider using a  suitable test file to experiment on, and burn to a re-writable CD.

Assuming  that your material is fully prepared - that you have got a single  44.1kHz 16-bit stereo file displayed in edit view, possibly as a result  of a mixdown from the multitrack - you can proceed as follows:

Right click on the time scale at the bottom of the waveform.
Choose 'Display Time Format>Compact Disc 75fps'.
Right click on the time scale again
Choose 'Snapping>Snap to frames (always)'.

Those steps should help ensure click-free transitions from one track to another.

Go  to the beginning of the file and click there, so that the cursor is at  00:00:00:00 - press F8, and that will drop a cue mark there representing  the start of track one on the CD. Now place the cursor at the point in  the file that you want to set as the beginning of the second CD track.  Press F8 to place a cue mark there. Proceed through the file in a  similar fashion until the start of every track has been marked. Then  finally place a cue mark at the end of the last track, normally the end  of your displayed file.

It might be a good idea to save the file now, with the cue marks in it. To ensure that the cues are saved, use "save as..." and put a check mark in the "save non-audio data" box. The program should default to this setting in the future.

Now select 'View>Show Cue List'.
In normal Windows fashion highlight (select) all the cues listed there.
Press the Merge button that is part of the cue list window.
Your  cues have now been changed into ranges , which represent the start of  track one to the end of track one, the start of track two to the end of  track two, and so on.

Now highlight all the ranges, and press the 'Batch' button.
In the dialog that appears, click on the 'Save to files' button so that the lower part of the dialog is enabled.
Enter  something relevant in the 'Filename prefix' box - like "Track" or  "Song" or whatever - this will ultimately create files called "Track1,  Track2" etc or "Song1, Song2...."
Set Seq. Start to "1".
Specify the Destination Folder in normal Windows fashion.
Set the Output Format to "Windows PCM".
Click on "OK"

This will generate in the directory you specified the files you will then burn to CD using Nero or whatever.

In  Nero, the audio CD wizard should guide you through the process. Each  file will become a separate track with a separate track number.

If  you have allowed space between the tracks when you laid them out in the  Edit view in the first place, you probably don't want Nero to add 2  seconds between each track. The same applies if it is continuous  material like a live concert - you don't want silence between the  tracks. So in the Nero list of tracks, highlight all but the first  track, right click and select Properties, then set 'Pause' to zero.

In the burn dialog, make sure that you set the Write Method to 'disc at once'.

Sounds  complicated? Not really. Once you've done it the first couple of times,  it will only take you a few moments. Once you've seen and understood  what's happening you should be able to adapt these instructions to suit  different circumstances as the need arises.