When Adobe bought the popular Cool Edit Pro audio-editing program and released it as Adobe Audition in 2003, it was a move meant to give video professionals a full-featured, easy-to-use environment for working on audio tracks. Three years later, noting that even Audition demands some audio chops, Adobe is introducing Soundbooth, a more visually oriented approach to the audio problem.

Soundbooth, available now in a free public beta (at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/soundbooth/) that Adobe helps will give video pros ample opportunity to kick the tires and offer feedback, will be the default audio app shipping with Adobe Production Studio starting sometime next year, and Audition will remain available as a standalone application for audio specialists. (Product Manager Hart Shafer told StudioDaily that Adobe is developing Audition 3.0 even as Soundbooth enters beta.)

Soundbooth is geared to give editors and Flash pros the results they need quickly, with features like automatic noise reduction, Photoshop-inspired “visual healing” tools for isolating and removing sounds from audio files, streamlined mastering tools, and integration with Flash (including cue points), Adobe Media Encoder, and Adobe Premiere Pro. The AutoComposer feature let users quickly create custom soundtracks without the kind of musical knowledge required to take advantage of more powerful systems like Reason.

It will be available for Windows XP SP2, Vista, and OS X 10.4x and 10.5 – but only on Intel-based Macs. “We made that tough call to streamline the development process,” explained Shafer when asked about the decision to go Intel only. “It let us leverage our audio expertise, running optimized code on Intel processors.” It’s slated to ship in 2007, with pricing TBD.