Perhaps the most genteel new feature is the simplest one: the ability to preview mp3 compression settings before rendering a whole file. How considerate of Adobe! And what a time-saver, especially in the typical web production workflow we employ around here.

Other, more revolutionary features of note:

• Multitrack!
• Batch track volume matching
• Beat Detection technology (pretty accurate, too!)
• Improved volume and pan drawing controls in the waveform mode
• Audio extraction from imported video files (works with an impressive slew of codecs)
• Audio “Snapshots” in the history state, similar to Photoshop

While a good number of these features aren’t truly inventive (programs like Cakewalk’s SONAR have been doing some of these things for years), their addition to Soundbooth raises the level of usefulness of this particular production workhorse a good deal. With the multitrack functionality, I might be inclined to reach for this app over Audition for a lot of projects.

Go Adobe!