How Do You Apply Process Effects To Multiple Clips In A Multi-Track?

Question

A multi-track sequence brought over from Premiere, I have over a dozen clips from a funeral service video that need noise reduction.
But, because it's a process effect, I can only work on one clip at a time. Furthermore, I may need to apply several passes of the NR effect to eliminate the noise without sounding weird.
How then do I apply that effect (and its parameters) to the rest of the clips in the sequence?
In Premiere, you can copy and paste effects (and their parameters) from one clip to another. There is no such thing in Audition that I can see.

Answer 1

Hi, Alex.
It seems you want to do some broadband de-noise processing. While one can do a noisefloor sampling from one clip and apply it to others (great for when you have multiple takes from the same setup), it may be best to noise sample each individually if the mic has moved position enough to cause the tonal characteristics to change.
An example would be if on-screen talent is walking in an outdoor location. In one part of the location, a particular section of the clip has a lot of BG traffic noise. Another recording has a fountain in the BG - while it still may have some of the traffic in it, the predominant BG noisefloor is "strong fountain/weak traffic", so like others have mentioned, it makes more sense to make a new BG sampling to match the characteristics of this clip.
All that being said, here is how you BATCH PROCESS / broadband de-noise a bunch of clips, it's a 4-tiered / 21-step process when starting from scratch.
                              NOTE: there is a manual cheat after the Batch Processing lesson - skip to that if you wish
(WARNING - this type of processing is most successful if the file has been EQ'd or gain boosted (if needed) before processing. This is also true for the noisefloor sample. It should be taken from the pre-adjusted clip so that it all matches level)
1) find / open a source clip that best represents the BG noisefloor you wish to sample as your broadband source for processing,
then in the WAVEFORM editor window press alt-shift-C to save this selection as a new file - give it a unique name that represents its function
     a. ideally, this selection will be more than 5000 samples
     b. should be free of non-BG noise sounds (Dx, footsteps, mouth sounds, it should sound like a very short ambiance loop)
2) with your new sample saved and your source clip still open in the UI:
     a. load your noise print file
     b. adjust the Noise Reduction and Reduce by  sliders (I suggest you start with a noise reduction value of 100% with a reduce value of 3 to 6 dB)
     c. under Advanced Settings, set Spectral to 0%, Smoothing to 20, Precision to 7, and Transition width to 2dB - these settings
         are like painting not with a wide brush but with a thinner brush, which means less cancellation of frequencies you want to keep and less artifacting
     d. toggle on/off the Output Noise Only function to see just what you are subtracting in your process - a great way to make adjustments until your
         noisefloor-only sound is free of Dx and other Production sounds
     e. optional advanced step - in the process UI Frequency window, you can draw a curve to select the frequency ranges that will be processed - this is another
         way of "thinning the brush" so that you are NOT processing where it's not needed in the broadband range - i.e. hiss from a low-quality mic,
         open the FA window [alt-Z] to see realtime Freq. Analysis on playback of your clip with the processing;
         adjust your settings and the curve in the window to counter the frequency range of the noisefloor - this process is like alchemy, wicked awesome
     f. once you're happy with your settings,  click the Save Effects Preset button (down-arrow on hard-drive) next to the Presets pulldown button.
               do NOT apply your process yet - that's the next step
3) now, you're going to create the Favorite that the Batch Process will use to process your clips
     a. select Favorites / Start Recording Favorite (every user function of the software is now being recorded into a macro)
     b. in the Noise Reduction UI, click the Load Noise Print button and select your saved file
     c. now, select your preset from the pulldown menu
     d. click the Select Entire File button below the UI Freq. window
     e. click Apply
     f. click Favorites / Stop Recording Favorite
4) now, under EDIT, select Batch Process
     a. select your new Favorite from the pulldown tab
     b. drag and drop the files into the Batch window or load them from the Load button in the upper left of the Batch window
     c. click the Export Settings button in the bottom left
     d. set any pre/postfix labeling additions (this works a lot like Adobe Bridge's Batch Rename tool - amending the original filename to differentiate
     e. set a NEW save location to isolate the files
     f. set the format / type / bitrate  (best to keep the original format or a higher quality); when finished, click OK
     g. in the lower right corner, click the RUN button and watch the magic right before your eyes
[HERE IS THE CHEAT]
Now that you're learned the magic of batch processing (FYI a new favorite can contain / execute multiple existing effect processes), here is what I recently did in a doc with interview footage - guys in front of a green screen with a less than perfect sound environment.
1) in Multitrack mode, double-click your clip to process
2) in Waveform mode, select the noisefloor area to sample and type shift-P
3) type ctrl-shift-P to open the UI - adjust your De-noise settings for ALL of your processing
4) type ctrl-A to select the entire file
5) click Apply; type ctrl-shift-S to save this processed file (I add "_PROC") as an alternate to the original which still exists should you want to go back to it easily - the ALT file will be in the multitrack timeline
6) type G (de-select I/O area) then type F12 key - returns to Multitrack mode
7) double-click your next clip to process and repeat steps 3-7 until finished (you won't need to tweak the settings in 3 after the initial step 3)
In 3-5 minutes, you're Done!
I discovered another layer of coolness within Audition regarding CLIP Effects Racks where one can setup a stack of effects, save as a User Preset, and apply them to either an individual clip, a set of clips, or to a track.  This is great when you want to apply, for example, a Parametric EQ for filtering an outdoor location or boosting a lav mic's High Freq. Shelf for addition sibilance PLUS a Tube-modeled Compressor to handle dynamics...you spend a lot of time tweaking the settings "just right", and now you want to apply to more than one clip on a track.
In a short film I'm working on, I use this technique to apply EQ and Room Ambiance (reverb) to camera perspective changes on a single track of ADR for off-camera Dx.  I place the Dx in a track. Splice on the camera edits to make unique clips, select the Audio Perspective preset I made for each camera angle, and Voila!
Have fun!
-CS