Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® Audition® 3 software, a major new release of the all-in-one solution for professional audio production. Adobe Audition 3 is designed to give audio professionals — sound designers, recording and mastering engineers, and musicians — a flexible production toolkit for recording, mixing, editing, and mastering audio. With comprehensive audio mastering and restoration capabilities, Adobe Audition 3 helps professionals create music and radio spots, as well as restore imperfect recordings with sophisticated editing tools. New features include VSTi virtual instrument support with MIDI piano roll, enhanced spectral editing options, fast fade and crossfade controls, and advanced multi-core support.

“Adobe Audition 3 is packed with new features for all types of users,” said Hart Shafer, senior product manager at Adobe. “In addition to concentrating on delivering new creative capabilities and unmatched editing tools, we've turbo-charged performance and ensured time-saving features are integrated into the product. That means our customers can spend less time working in the software and more time creating the perfect sound.”

Adobe Audition 3 allows audio professionals to easily create and arrange music, record and mix a project, produce a radio spot, clean up production audio for a movie, or edit a soundtrack for a business presentation. With new support for VSTi virtual instruments and MIDI piano roll style editing, combined with sophisticated audio and mixing tools, Adobe Audition 3 provides more creative power for audio production. New effects like the Analog Delay, Convolution Reverb, and Tube-modeled Compressor provide new sonic options, while the Guitar Suite adds analog-modeled effects to dry guitar tracks. Radius time stretching, from industry-leader iZotope, allows users to accurately change tempo and pitch independently.

“We have always found Adobe Audition to be the best audio editor for our work and the changes in version 3 will cement that position,” said Jerry Ibbotson, owner and sound designer for Media Mill, producer of sound effects for video games, including the PS3 launch title Motostorm and the PSP hit Pursuit Force 2. “Having the ability to grab any part of a wave and drag it up or down in volume is brilliant. And the Spot Healing Brush is pure genius because I will be able to get rid of errant noises from the background of a recording at a stroke, saving so much time and effort.”

With new multi-core processor support and an optimized mixing engine, Adobe Audition 3 helps users save time by allowing them to work with more tracks and effects on the same machine. In addition, on-clip fade handles, a dedicated Top/Tail mode in Edit View, automatic cross fades, and the ability to edit grouped clips together make mixing and editing easier than ever. With fast, accurate tools built into an intuitive workflow, Adobe Audition 3 allows users to spend more time on the creative aspects of their projects.

Adobe Audition 3 includes new features that expand its capabilities for visual editing and restoration. New Adaptive Noise Reduction and multiple phase correction tools help rescue recordings. Editing in the Spectral Frequency display is enhanced with the Effects Paintbrush and Spot Healing Brush similar to the ground-breaking tools found in Adobe Photoshop® CS3 software. Also, the addition of the Marquee Tool to the Spectral Pan and Spectral Phase displays means that users can now visually isolate and edit any sound based on time, frequency, phase, or pan location, further pushing the envelope in editing power and control.

Adobe Audition 3 for Microsoft® Windows® XP or Windows Vista® is expected to ship in the last quarter of 2007 and will be available through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store . Estimated street price for the Adobe Audition 3 software is US $349 for the full version and US $99 for upgrades. Upgrade pricing is available for all past versions of Adobe Audition and Adobe Production Studio.

For more detailed information about features, upgrade policies and pricing, visit www.adobe.com/products/audition.