Syntrillium Software was founded in the early 1990s by Robert Ellison and David Johnston, both former Microsoft employees.

From the beginning, consumer and professional versions of Cool Edit supported numerous import/export codecs for various audio file formats.

Adobe purchased Syntrillium's technology assets, including Cool Edit, in May 2003 for $16.5 million,[8] as well as a large loop library called "Loopology."

With this release, Audition (which the music recording industry had once seen as a value-oriented home studio application, although it has long been used for editing by radio stations) entered the professional digital audio workstation market.

New features included VSTi (virtual instrument) support, enhanced spectral editing, a redesigned multi-track interface, new effects, and a collection of royalty-free loops.

Other new features included improved 5.1 multichannel support, new effects (DeHummer, DeEsser, Speech Volume Leveler, and Surround Reverb), a history panel, faster and fully supported real-time FFT analysis, and a new audio engine (more reliable and faster) for non-ASIO devices.

According to Adobe,[10] Audition CS5.5 was rewritten from the ground up to take advantage of parallel/batch processing for performance and make it a platform-agnostic product.

Notable features that were present in Audition 3, but removed for CS5.5, include VSTi support and MIDI sequencing.

It included faster and more precise editing, real-time clip stretching, automatic speech alignment, EUCON and Mackie control surface support, parameter automation, more powerful pitch correction, HD video playback, new effects, and more features.

[citation needed] New features include sound remover, preview editor, and pitch bender.