I'll start this by saying that when it comes to editors, I still lean towards Sound Forge but I think that is based on habit.  When it comes to multi-track mixing I mostly stick with Sonar.  Since video production is my primary business, I am finding myself using Audition more and more.  It certainly won't replace Sonar for music production, but I am finding the workflow in it for most other things easier to get stuff done than sonar

Is this the version that you rent monthly and are forced to upgrade whether you want to or not?

Not quite.  Yes, you do pay a monthly fee...and I'm not crazy about that, but for those of us that use the entire suite and regularly upgrade, the price comes out to less.  Wit hthat said, it still sucks and will only lead to more piracy. 
 
As far as the forced upgrade, that is completely false.  You can keep using whatever version you desire. I just installed most of the new versions and the old ones still work just fine.  In fact, I still have CS5 software on my computer .

What happens when you stop paying the fee?
 
I have Cool Edit, Cool Edit Pro, Audition, Audition 2, Audition 3.
 
As each version came out I could see the bloat slowing the program down. In this era of super computers it's harder to sense the bloat... but it's there.
 
Cool Edit Pro was the sweet spot for that program.
 
It's unfortunate that companies attempt to excite continued interest in their updated products by ruining them.
 
best regards,
mike

When you stop paying the fee, the program stops working.  Again, I'm not defending the model.  I think it sucks and is yet another misguided attempt to fight piracy since this will not affect pirates one bit.  In fact it is much more likely to affect paying customers.  One month I had a glitch and my programs did not work. I suspect this will drive a lot of hobbyists away. Adobe simply discovered a majority of their paying customers tend to upgrade every cycle and took advantage of that.
 
As far as bloat, there are very few major programs that don't suffer from bloat after awhile. From Word to photoshop to Sonar, the struggle to maintain legacy features while adding new ones makes that an inevitability.  At the same time they have added useful features that make the program, minus the purchase model worthwhile, particularly if you use it with premiere and after affects. Like I said in the first post, I still prefer Sound Forge for editing and Sonar for mixing Audition does offer a lot of useful features that neither has.  The fact that I can instantly sync my camera footage sound to mic'd sound with one click alone saves me hours of editing time.

Thanks for answering about the subscription system.
 
You were the first person who got around to telling me the answer when I asked.
 
I really didn't how it worked.
 
all the best,
mike

Adobe kind of backed everyone into this system by offering the option of old system or cloud based.  Adobe is banking on the monopoly that is photoshop to keep customers from abandoning ship.  I suspect if Adobe is successful many other companies will follow suit.  Microsoft is already going that route with the new xbox

I agree with Mike on this. I have Cool Edit 2000 installed on one computer and Cool Edit Pro on the other. The reality is that I am still using those versions yet I am still doing all the editing I need to do currently today. Nothing has changed. Our needs are not really going up with what the program may be offering. Every function I need was back in Cool Edit Pro. Cool Edit Pro is not bloated on my machine and works at the speed of light and does everything with great ease and well.
 
I am just asking why do you have to go to the latest version. Sure there are many aspects of the program that are there but you may not use like all the multi-track side of it etc.. With our DAW's there are probably many things you don't actually want or need in the latest version of Audition.
 
 

Jeff, obviously for you an upgrade is not worth it.  I know guys who have equipment from the 70's they have never felt the need to upgrade.  I think it all comes down to what each person is paid to do.  For me the new version helps me to get things done faster than the old ones.  If all I did was just basic audio editing , I would stick with Sound Forge but since that is not the case, my old version of cool edit is useless.

I use a little automated app called Dual Eyes to sync sound recorder sound to camera sound.
 
I understand that you aren't endorsing the subscription service, and frankly I think the service makes sense for a lot of businesses... but not mine.
 
I can't help but point out that I only had to pay for Dual Eyes once.
 
all the best,
mike