Adobe Audition Record Button Greyed Out [FIXED]

Introduction

I analogize the recording process in Adobe Audition to a running race. In racing, there are preparation activities such as warm ups. If we are to compare the warm-up exercise to an activity in Audition we will look at some pre recording activities such as connecting the cables or checking the power source. After you are done with these,you are ready to start recording. But what happens when you realize that the recording button is greyed out and it isn’t possible for you to start the recording?

Unlike the race where if the starting gun is jammed, and the person to fire it can request another one, or have another sound to signal the start of the race, a recording does not have that option.You need an immediate solution, and thankfully there is one!

Greyed-out features, tools, or buttons in Adobe Audition mean that they are not available at that given time. This implies that they are not fit to be used in whatever editing process that you are in or one or more things are out of order.

Adobe Audition allows you to record a single track or a multitrack. The recording buttons are highlighted in the images shown below.

You can also start a recording by using the keyboard shortcut Shift + Space. This keyboard shortcut will not work when the buttons are greyed out.

When recording in multitrack, you will face this issue. When recording on a single track you will have challenges starting a recording but the button will still be active. Therefore, the recording button is never greyed out in a single-track recording view.

Why Is The Record Button Greyed Out?

Just like mentioned earlier, greyed buttons in Adobe Audition mean that they are not fit to be used in whatever editing process that you are in or there is a faulty issue.

For the recording button, it specifically means that no input that picks audio has been selected. This will be broken down further in the next section of this article for a multitrack recording. In the subsequent section, we will see how it presents itself in the single-track recording process.

Record Button Greyed Out In Multitrack

Recording in multitrack allows you to record different inputs independently. Each track has its independent recording button. The recording button is a button with the letter R. This is highlighted in the image below.

To start recording, click on the record button for the channels that are going to be in use. For instance, if I am doing a recording with two inputs eg two USB microphones plugged into my computer, I will click the R button for channels 1 and 2, after which if I start the recording I will just have two independent tracks being recorded on Track 1 and 2. The rest of the tracks will just remain blank as the playhead – the red line progresses.

The process described above is how you do a recording in multitrack. But sometimes the outlined process will not be possible due to the R button being greyed out as shown in the image below hence a recording session cannot be started.

Each track has these three entries: None, Master, and Read. Tracks are differentiated by audio waveforms and colors on the left. My two tracks have green color. You can also rename them. From the image above I have renamed my tracks to Host.

In this article, the first entry – None is the one that is of significance to this process. This entry is used to choose the input from one or several audio sources that you have plugged in. I can be having DJ controllers and two microphones for two hosts and I want to record all of these sounds independently for an online radio show and mix them later. Since every track has this input entry I will have to assign each audio source an independent track. Following my example here is how my recording will come about.

As long as this first entry is selected as None you will not be able to record as the channel is not assigned to a microphone.

Before assigning a microphone to these tracks check your audio hardware settings first Click on the input entry. This has an arrow pointing to the right. From the dropdown list that opens click on Audio Hardware…

This option opens up this dialogue box.

Click on the Default Input. A list of inputs will appear. Pick the microphone that you are going to be using. This process is to ensure that the settings is not set as No Input.

After clicking on the Input entry, this time choose your input from either mono or stereo. The inputs plugged into your computer should be visible when you hover your mouse over these options.

After, the recording button will now be available for selection. After make sure you click on the R button for every track that you will be using so that each channel records. Now you can start the recording.

What About in Single Track Recording?

In the single-track recording, the recording button is never greyed out but you will have issues initiating a recording like the case in the multitrack view. This is like the case in multitrack recording. What happens in this type of recording is when you start a recording you will get this pop-up box with information about Adobe detecting a problem with the current audio hardware settings.

Clicking on Details will open a new section with more details on what the issue is. The issue is no input has been selected.

To make the selection click on Audio Hardware to open the Preference dialogue box.

Alternatively, you can access the Preference dialogue box by clicking on Edit on the menu tab.From the dropdown list hover your mouse overthe Preference option. This will open a new dropdown list. From this list click on Audio Hardware.

You will get to the Preference box.

Pick the microphone that you are using under the default input section. Mine is the Microphone (7-USB Audio CODEC).

Click OK to save these settings.

If you click on record now, the audio waveform will start appearing.

Conclusion

When you have a greyed-out recording button, know that this situation does not have a workaround. You cannot bypass this problem as for a recording to happen the microphone that you are using has to be selected.