Searching within Audition for SFX via Media Browser

[Joseph W. bourke]

You use Adobe Bridge to do this – I’m not aware of this external search capability within Audition. Bridge will give you powerful file, label, keyword, and Metadata search capabilities, as well as the ability to create Smart Collections, letting you add and delete elements to search groupings on the fly, then open them with Audition. Here’s a link to an article I wrote a while back for the COW Magazine on Bridge:

https://magazine.creativecow.net/article/managing-broadcast-assets-with-adobe-bridge

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Paul Golden]

Thanks Joe… I’ll give it a shot, but I was hoping for something within Audition. The SoundTrack implementation is pretty elegant. (And ProTools has something similar) I suppose I can use the Finder with saved spotlight searches, too. I’ll have a look a look at your article, and maybe I’ll learn something. Normally, I kind of avoid Bridge, but Adobe seems intent on everyone using it…

[Angelo Lorenzo]

The thing that slows Bridge down is thumbnail generation.

1) Use the 64-bit version and go to Edit > Preferences > Thumbnails and set “Do not process files larger than” and enter 0.

2) Love life again.

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[Joseph W. bourke]

Angelo is right about the thumbnails – I periodically purge all the thumbnails, then let Bridge regenerate them as needed. I go from project to project, and when a project is finished, I don’t need the day to day viewing I need during the heat of the project, so I purge the thumbnails, and I remove the project folder from my Favorites. There’s a workflow you’ll develop once you start using Bridge.

And it’s not that Adobe is pushing Bridge on everyone, Bridge is a highly useful tool which can be very useful to everyone.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Paul Golden]

I played around with Bridge for this function and was left underwhelmed.

Bridge is definitely way more geared for image files than audio files. In column view, it has poor metadata functionality which does not allow for sorting/filtering on Bit Rate, Sample Rate or audio metadata.

Doing searches are a pain, because you have to click into the subfolder that might contain the assets rather than do a search on the root level Sound Effects folder.

It can’t autoplay sounds on arrow-up or down and creating a custom bin is a pain.

Because you’re not within the program, like Soundtrack, Logic or FCPX, you either have to have a 2nd monitor to devote to it (a pain for laptop cutter) or you have to juggle views.

The nice thing about the Apple implementation is that you can specify which folders have your effects in them and those are the ones that are indexed. Then it’s really fast to find stuff and spot to picture.

[Joseph W. bourke]

No wonder you were underwhelmed – you have to spend more than ten minutes with it! Take a look at Smart Collections, and go over a few tutorials on the Adobe TV site. There’s more to this book than you get by just skimming the index…

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Paul Golden]

Hey Joe,

I actually have spent more than 10 minutes with Bridge, having used it for years. I use it for all sorts of image based tasks. It’s vey good with Raw workflow, batch processing and image management. (I’m not so crazy about it as a DAM, preferring Expression/iView Media or Lightroom for photos). My point is that it’s ill suited to working with scads of audio files in a fluid way with Audition. I agree it’s not a dedicated audio editor, which might show wave forms etc, but it does not interface with Audition any better than the Finder when it comes to finding and implementing audio files. At least the Finder can auto play clips as you go through a folder or Spotlight list. Working quickly with audio sound effects is unlike any other image based process as you listen and spot to picture. Using smart collections is fine to do a first pass find, but culling from a list of 100 gun shots means not having to select and then click each one manually to audition and then drag it from one program to another.

[Joseph W. bourke]

Bridge can also auto-play clips as you go through folders (in the Playback settings under Preferences). It just needs to be setup to work that way.

And I agree with you that it could have more, and especially that there should be some sort of mini-Bridge, like in Photoshop, to allow browsing of audio assets. After Effects also needs Mini-Bridge, so that I can browse my video assets from within AE. That said, most of the time I just work in Bridge, where I can easily drag and drop assets to AE.

It sounds as if Bridge, or Audition, or both, may need to take a lesson from FCP. At any rate, Adobe is always listening…

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Steve White]

Hello Paul and other contributors here,

I’ve come to this thread with the same frustrations as you – I want to be able to search by keyword for sounds within Audition CC’s media browser – is it really not possible? I feel I must be missing something really obvious…

I’ve looked at Bridge, but want to stay within the application.

Otherwise, I’d happily bring all my Audition sound effects into the Audition project, but I can’t seem to do that and retain the folder structure. Again. am I missing anything? Any advice much appreciated.

In terms of my workflow, I’m cutting in Premiere CC and looking to creatively spot on-the-spot with guide sounds as I cut. Later on in the project I intend to be working more in Audition, but want to start getting familiar as I go.

Thanks