Adobe Audition
Metadata for Sound Files – Universal Category System (UCS) and Adobe Audition
2025
Universal Category System (UCS) and Adobe Audition
In this video, I show you step by step how I use the Universal Category System (UCS website) to write and structure my metadata for audio files. This new way to classify metadata for sound libraries is a complete game-changer for sound engineers, sound librarians, vendors, and users around the world!
Follow us along as we demonstrate how I prep my metadata in the recording phase, use UCS to find inspiration, write metadata, export in Audition, and organize my sound files! If you’re new to writing metadata or you’re interested in some day creating your own sound libraries, this tutorial is perfect for you.
WHAT IS METADATA?
Metadata describes data about digital files. In our case, we’re talking about metadata for sound effects and ambience recordings.
If you find yourself with thousands of files, a categorized and organized file naming system helps you to locate your sounds in just a couple of seconds.
WHAT PROGRAMS CAN READ METADATA?
Using keywords as filename can be searchable on both Mac and Windows. For me, I store many of my recordings on Dropbox and use internal search function to locate the filename keywords.
PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS THAT CAN READ & WRITE METADATA?
If you want to have in-depth metadata you can use professional online and offline applications that read and revise metadata. Soundly, Soundminer, Basehead or Soundgrinder, Audiofinder, Reaper Media Explorer or Pro Sound Effects Search provide many custom fields to write metadata. This comes in handy if you are serious about selling sound effects online.
These application search not only the filename tags or keywords, but some of these programs can also provide more in-depth written metadata like geotags, locations, and of course, can read the description.
WHY KEYWORDS IN THE FILE NAME?
Have you ever searched for sound effects or photos online? Without proper searchable terms (ie keywords) can make it an impossible task to find your desired media!
For example you need a relaxing sound at beach when the sun is setting. The keywords or tags could look like calm, ocean, waves, beach, sunset.
You might think why would I use sunset as a keyword in a sound effect, that doesn’t create a sound? It is an important keyword to describe a moment, time, and emotions. Ocean sounds are different in the evening than in the morning.
THE UNIVERSAL CATEGORY SYSTEM (UCS)
Recently a new way of writing metadata for sound effects came to life. It is called the Universal Category System.
The Universal Category System (UCS) is an initiative brought to life by many sound engineers, vendors, and other individuals from all over the world. Their purpose is to give guidance and direction about how metadata can be categorized and unified.
In this video, I talk about how to prepare myself and write metadata and show you how I utilize the Universal Category System in my own workflow.
How to Remove Background Noise in Adobe Audition
In this quick tutorial we show you how to remove background noise in Adobe Audition! To make your audio sound better we use an easy method to erase unwanted noise from your recordings! This will also help make the dialog and voices in your video/audio sound more clear. Be sure to hit the subscribe button for more quick tutorials like this! In this tutorial, we will be using the Noise Reduction effect in Adobe Audition to clean up the audio. This effect allows you to easily identify and remove background noise, such as the hum of a refrigerator or the sound of traffic outside. By applying this effect, your audio will be cleaner and more professional sounding. For a step-by-step guide, be sure to check out episode 5 Strega patches for a more in-depth look at this process.
Adobe Audition can be used for different use cases common ones are:
- Remove wind noise adobe audition
- Adobe audition how to get rid of background noise
- Adobe audition remove background hiss
- Remove background music audition
My Sound Editing Process
In this video I show you how to convert Mono Audio to Stereo and back to Mono using the Adobe Audition CC. There are two ways I make a mono recording into a stereo track; the Haas Effect and using a free plugin called Wider by Infected Mushroom.
You’ll also see how easy it is to create a stereo track to mono with just one click!
In this Audition 3 Video tutorial Jason Levine (Jason’s blog) teaches you how you can remove hum (and other low frequency noises) from a vocal or voice-over. Jason work flow is based on using the Spectral Frequency Display and Audition 3‘s unique Noise Reduction filter.
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