While many of the new features in CS5.5 are simply small tweaks, probably the most alluring change has to do with processing speed. When CS5 came out, we learned that CUDA is an Nvidia technology that is used in GPU processing. This technology was used to speed up a number of processes in the last version of this application. Now, with CS5.5, there are even more effects, transitions, and behind-the-scenes processes that are affected by this technology. Adobe states that “…CS5.5 lets you edit faster than ever by offering industry-leading, cross-platform, native file-based workflows and GPU-accelerated filters and effects…”  Does that mean my machine won’t freeze up when I try to use time remapping or when I attempt to work with the alpha channel of a clip? If so, sign me up!

Changes in this technology are also said to improve the process of dealing with mismatched media, such as frame rate differences, pixel aspect ratio differences, and frame size differences. This, too, sounds promising.

Many of the other changes that I have read about are not quite as significant. For example, there are quite a few changes that deal with audio. Videographers who use a dual-system sound workflow will probably appreciate several of the new features. Now it is possible to use In points, Out points, timecode, or markers from two or more separate tracks when synchronizing audio and video. In addition, users can now use a feature called Merge Clips to lock a video clip to a separate audio clip so that the two can be manipulated as if they were one asset.

Another small revision has been implemented to make the files and folders  in the effects panel less clumsy and easier to work with. In CS5 there are 3 instances of every audio effect: one for mono, one for stereo, and a third for 5.1 audio tracks. It is necessary to select the effect that matches your audio track. In 5.5 Adobe has revised the audio effects folder so that one size fits all. Now each effect is only listed one time and when you apply the effect, Premiere automatically applies the instance of the effect that matches your audio track.

Yes, Adobe was definitely taking a good, hard look at the audio features in Premiere this time around. In fact, probably one of the most significant changes in the entire suite is the substitution of Soundbooth with Audition.  The Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection and Production Premium editions will  come with this new audio editing application. Since I have always liked Soundbooth and use its dynamic link from within Premiere often, I’m not sure how I feel about this change yet. More to come on this topic in future blog posts…

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 also makes it possible to attach a closed captioning data file to a sequence. While this version won’t allow you to output the closed caption text without the use of a third-party device and plug-in, at least it’s a step in the right direction.

Another significant improvement included with Premiere Pro CS5.5 is the ability to add keyframes directly into the timeline using the Pen tool or Selection tool without having to first enable keyframing. You will also be able to set keyframes without a modifier key.

I was also happy to hear that the trial version will include all the same codecs that are included with the full version. The trial version of Premiere Pro CS5 did not come with all of the codecs, and this caused a great deal of confusion for me and for many others. Apparently Adobe has learned their lesson here.

Lastly, if you currently use Final Cut Pro or Avid Media Composer, take note. This version of Premiere Pro supposedly makes it easier for you to import and export to, and from, both of these applications. This should make my colleagues in Media Productions happy.

For more information about Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, visit any of the following links:

• Adobe Help Site
• Adobe Blog
• Creative Cow Forum
• WMBB News 13 Site

But it’s not all bad news, Adobe has replaced it with their high-end audio editing program: Audition. This hasn’t been part of the Production Premium Suite in the past, and it now includes the video adjustment features that Soundbooth did so well.

Keep an eye on this blog to see when CS5.5 becomes available to the IU community along with articles on the programs, and check out these videos from AdobeTV to see some of the new features in CS5.5.

http://tv.adobe.com/show/cs-55-production-premium-feature-tour-/

Soundbooth is an application that can record and edit sound.  It’s a very versatile application that can open video files and add sound directly to them as well.  In the workshop, we’ll cover a lot of basic sound editing tasks like recording, noise removal, sound removal, and adding effects, but then we’ll have some fun by exploring the vast sound effects library that comes with Soundbooth for free.

Sign up for Soundbooth CS5: The Basics

Check out what we can do with some basic video, and Soundbooth CS5:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5okxNuDews

Join us for a fun afternoon of sound editing!

IT Training Live – Soundbooth: The Basics April 6th, 2010

Soundbooth is a sound recording and editing program that is designed to be used with video. In this presentation, you will learn how to record and add special effects to audio, remove noise from an audio track, and get an overview of the built-in sound effects available for free through Soundbooth.

This session will cover:

• Basic recording
• Adding special effects to an audio track
• Demonstration of how effects can be updated during live editing
• How to remove noise from an audio track
• How the freely available built-in sound effects can be used to create a composite audio background for a video

As an added bonus, here are the exercise files used during the presentation.

Exercise Files

And don’t forget, you can view all of our archived IT Training Live presentations on topics like Captivate, Lightroom, Windows 7 and more here:

IT Training Live Archived Sessions

Soundbooth also utilizes Resource Central, which is a library of free-to-use sound effects provided by Adobe.  In this session, we’ll explore the basic and advanced features of Soundbooth, and spend some time being creative with the sound effects offered.  Here are two examples of how we might use these available sound effects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7RpTFq18l0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYvA_YEcF2c

If you’d like to learn more about how to create the soundtrack to these files, or are interested in sound recording and editing in general, join us on April 6th.  You can visit the IT Training Live website for more info, or to get an email reminder of the session and the meeting URL. This session will be given online, so you can view it from the comfort of your own desk.

And if you’re interested in video editing, IT Training has a whole week of training planned.  Starting with this online Soundbooth presentation, and continuing with our in-person Video Basics workshop on the 7th, our brand new in-person workshop on Adobe Premiere, on April 8th, and our in-person After Effects workshop on the 9th.

But what if you need the sound of a helicopter flying by?

Well, Soundbooth is here to help us out, through it’s Resource Central panel. In Resource Central in Soundbooth, hundreds of incidental and strangely specific sound files are available for download for use in your project, with few restrictions. (Read the Terms of Use here)

To get to Resource Central, open Soundbooth, and from the menu bar click Window->Resource Central.

The Resource Central Panel appears (the News section is selected by default)

To preview a sound effect, click the Play button (right pointing arrow), next to the name.  To download it to use in Soundbooth click the downward pointing arrow.

Let’s look at a few of the types of sounds you can find in Soundbooth Resource Central:

• Ambient Noises – If you need background sound while the main action happens elsewhere, this is the place to be.
• Environmental sounds – Going out into a thunderstorm with lots of electronic sound recording equipment is not a great idea…now you don’t have to!
• Sports sounds – Basketball, baseball, golf, football, any sport that makes a sound worth recording is in the Sports category
• Horror Effects – Lots of scary monster noises, including bones crunching, zombie noises, and evil laughs.
• Sci-Fi noises – All of the sounds you need to make your own futuristic technology come to life.
• Vehicle Noises – Helicopters, cars, trains…they’re all here.
• Production Effects – Watch any action or horror movie trailer, and pay attention to the transistions between title cards, and you’ve got a good idea of the sounds that are available in this category.

The list goes on and on and on.  With Resource Central Adobe has provided us with a host of these incidental files that make your project seem much more polished and professional.  Resource Central also exists in Premiere and Encore, but those offerings aren’t anywhere near as impressive as the Soundbooth offerings.

My recommendation is to get into Soundbooth, and see what kind of sounds you didn’t even know you needed.

creepy effected.mp3 – The final sound

Soundbooth is an audio editing and creation program that is available through the Adobe/IU licensing agreement.  It is part of the Production Premium suite.  It can record, edit, and add effects to sound files.

Starting out, I decided since I was very out of practice with guitar, I’d just record a simple three note phrase.  I practiced with some different arrangements and ended up with what I thought was a suitably creepy beginning.  To make sure I had a good amount to work with, I played it three times into the microphone. Here is the sound that resulted:

creepy.mp3 – Feel free to download and follow along in your own copy of Soundbooth CS4.

This is the screen once the sound was recorded.  In the upper left, we have the Files panel, which shows my previous attempts, and just below that is the Effects panel, where we’ll be spending most of our time.

I recorded my sound directly into Soundbooth with the record button at the bottom of the screen.  Once there, click record again and start talking, or playing.  Click stop when finished.

Finding the Sound

Once I had the base sound in place, creating the final effect was mostly a process of trial and error until I found the sound I was looking for.  Here are the effects I used to create the final sound effect.

To begin, I added an Analog Delay effect from the Effects menu (Effects->Analog Delay).  Analog delay gives us a nice echo effect.

In the Effects Panel(see to the right), we can see that Analog Delay has appeared:

Effect Panel Features

• The green button next to the effect is an On/Off switch.  One very cool aspect is that these effects are applied in real time.  So as an effect is playing, you can turn an effect on and off to see the difference.
• To delete an effect from the sound, Click the effect, and hit “Delete” or “Backspace” on the keyboard.
• Another great thing about Effects is that they remain in preview mode until we either save the file, or click the “Apply to File” button at the bottom of the Effects panel.
• You can apply an Effect to a particular portion of a sound by pressing and dragging part of the sound, and then clicking the “Apply to Selection” button in the Effects panel, once the Effect is ready.

Working with the Effects Presets

Listening to the default, it doesn’t sound very impressive.  However, one of the cool things about Soundbooth is all the ways we can modify our effects.

To change the settings of the effect, you can click the “Default” drop down menu, and experiment with different options.  For this project, I went with Drainpipe – Aggressive.  We can hear a fuller sound immediately.

The next thing I added was a Chorus/Flanger Effect (Effects->Chorus/Flanger).  This effect adds some interesting vibrations to your sound files.  I selected A Flanger Darkly – Aggressive as my preset.

Finally I added a Convolution Reverb effect(Effects->Convolution Reverb).  This effect can be very subtle or very intense, but it adds some simple reverberation to your sound, giving it some repeating elements.  To really crank things up, I gave it a setting of Dreamscape – Aggressive.  Verge of Control gives a similar if slightly different effect. Once I got here, I knew I had the sound I wanted.  It was suitably creepy, and had a feel of something distant and threatening.

Here’s what my Effects panel(in the image to the right) looked like when I was finished:

No changes are final until you either save the file, or click the “Apply to File” button in the Effects panel.  You also won’t see any changes in the visible sound wave until clicking this button either.  Soundbooth saves (from the menu File->Save) as a .wav by default, but you can also save in popular formats like .mp3 and .aif.

Soundbooth is a program clearly designed for experimenting, so pop it open, and start trying out some sound editing of your own.

If you’re interested in more information about the basics of sound editing, including recording, editing the timeline, and adding extra sounds to an existing sound, check out IT Training & Education’s Podcasting: The Basics workshop.