Adobe Audition - volume drops on mixdown

Adobe Audition Multitrack Mixdown Loses Volume

When running a mixdown of a multitrack project in Adobe Audition, you may be frustrated by the end result because Audition always reduces the volume of the final mixdown by -3db.

Scenario / Issue

You are happy with all the levels having carefully spent time normalizing each track individually and when you go to the final mixdown of your audio project, Adobe Audition has dropped the overall volume down considerably which means you have to normalize the finished mixdown again.

With large, lengthy projects this could add unnecessary time to complete the project.

Why Does Audition Drop Volume On Mixed-Down Multitracks?

There is a default option to drop the master volume to -3.0dB.

To Fix This Issue

The fix for this issue is incredibly simple. Involving ticking one box within the Settings of Audition.

However, in order to work, please save your project as Adobe Audition will require a restart for the settings change to take effect.

How To Stop Adobe Audition Reducing Multitrack Mixdown Volume

  1. Go to Edit / Preferences / Multitrack

  2. From the top selection (Default Panning Mode) change the tick-box from “-3.0dB Center” to “Left/Right Cut (Logarithmic)”.

  3. OK / Exit & Restart Adobe Audition for settings to take effect.

Adobe Audition - Stop Multitrack volume reduction.
Adobe Audition – Stop Multitrack volume reduction.

This will prevent Adobe Audition reducing the master volume of your final mixdown.

To undo this setting, simply reverse this procedure.