Using Audition as Default Editor

You can add Audition to your "Tools" menu for editing within SONAR.

An excerpt from one of Scott Garrigus' books outlines the details:

Adjusting The Cakewalk Tools Menu
Written by Scott R. Garrigus - © 2005, Scott R. Garrigus. All Rights Reserved.

Cakewalk Pro Audio, Guitar Studio, and Home Studio allow you to launch other software applications using the Tools menu. For example, if you have an audio editor installed on your computer (such as Sonic Foundry’s Sound Forge), you will see it listed in the Tools menu. This lets you edit your audio data using another program without having to close down Cakewalk. But the Tools menu can also be used to launch any other type of software. Programs like Sound Forge are automatically detected by your computer, but for other programs like software synthesizers, you have to add them manually. This is done with a little tweaking of the Windows Registry.

WARNING: Manipulating the Windows Registry can be a bit dangerous. Even small changes to the settings can cause your computer to crash, so please be very careful and follow these instructions very closely. I won’t be held responsible for any damage that may occur, so please take care.The first thing to do is make a back up of your Windows registry. That way you can return it back to its previous state in case you have an accident. To make a back up, follow these steps:

1. Select Start>Shutdown.2. Select Restart in MS-DOS mode, and click OK.3. At the WINDOWS prompt, type SCANREG /BACKUP (be sure there is a space between SCANREG and /BACKUP).4. At the WINDOWS prompt, type WIN to restart Windows.If you get into trouble and you need to restore the Registry, do the following:1. Select Start>Shutdown.2. Select Restart in MS-DOS mode, and click OK.3. At the WINDOWS prompt, type SCANREG /RESTORE (again, be sure there is a space between SCANREG and /RESTORE).4. Select the first file in the list that appears, and hit ENTER on your computer keyboard.5. Restart your computer when prompted.Now lets add a new item to the Tools menu. To do so, follow these steps:1. Select Start>Run, type Regedit and click OK to open the Registry Editor.2. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the list.3. Click the plus sign next to Software.4. Click the plus sign next to Cakewalk Music Software.5. Click the plus sign next to Tools Menu.6. Right-click on Tools Menu and select New>Key from the pop-up menus.7. Type in the name of the program you want to add to the Tools menu. For this example, type in Volume Control. We’ll add the Windows Mixer accessory to the menu so you can have easy access to your sound card volume adjustments.8. Right-click Volume Control and select New>String Value from the pop-up menus.9. For the new value, type in ExePath.10. Right-click ExePath and select Modify from the pop-up menu to open the Edit String dialog box.11. For Value Data, type in the file path for the program you want to add. In this case, type in C:\WINDOWS\SNDVOL32.EXE for the Windows Mixer.12. Right-click Volume Control again and select New>String Value. Type in MenuText for this new value.13. Right-click MenuText, select Modify, and type in the name for the program that you would like to appear in the Tools menu. In this case, type in &Volume Control. NOTE: the & is not a typo. What this does is add a keyboard shortcut for the letter V, so that you can launch the program via your keyboard rather than your mouse.14. Right-click Volume Control again and select New>String Value. Type in StatusBarText for this new value.15. Right-click StatusBarText, select Modify, and type in the text that you would like to appear in Cakewalk’s status bar at the bottom of the screen when you go to select the program in the Tools menu. In this case, type in Run the Windows Mixer.16. Right-click Volume Control one last time, and select New>String Value. Type in Type for this new value.17. Right-click Type, select Modify, and type in the category the program belongs to (such as WaveEditor). If you don’t know the category, just type in Generic. Do that for our example too.18. Select Registry>Exit to close the Registry Editor.Now when you run Pro Audio, Guitar Studio, or Home Studio, you will see a new entry in the Tools menu called Volume Control. If you select this entry, the Windows Mixer will run. Neat trick, eh?

Don't fear the registry. In this case it's an innocuous modification, and once you figure out how it's done you can add other useful tools to the menu as well. I've added CueMix (MOTU virtual mixer), MIDI-OX, and documentation for key plugins to my Tools menu. Very handy.

Audition integrates just as transparently as Sound Forge does, is just as capable an audio editor, and has some nice features that SF doesn't have (e.g. the best multiband compressor around). Best of all, you can avoid giving money to Sony, which in the music world is the true Evil Empire that Microsoft can only aspire to be.

Excellent tip PaPa, Thanks! I've always taken the cumbersome route of clicking everything away, this makes it alot easier, and feels as if Audition is intergrated. Thanks me, for a great question!
Cheers

Or you could download Sonar Utilities.