I don't "believe" they're identical, I know it. I've owned both (and if I wanted to dig through boxes in the garage could find the disks).
As noted before, the only two noticeable differences were the splash screen and the deletion of the Syntrillium beta version of a CD burner. There were also a couple of very minor bug fixes that 99.9 percent of users would never notice--they were that minor.
From the Wiki article on Audition:
Most important, check the sizes of the two pieces of software--virtually identical and certainly not different enough to infer "bloating" or new features.
I don't see you offering anything but more baseless assertion. It's one thing to feel sure, as I'm sure you do, but its another to offer evidence. I still do own both. I don't have to go digging. The actual size and the running memory use of Adobe Audition are substantially larger. A new splash screen and elimination of
a plugin cannot account for that. Also, neither of the syntrillium beta CD burners will run on AA1.0. I still have those too. AA1.0 did not fix any bugs, but rather introduced bugs that weren't in CEP2.x. The OP appears to remember that as well. It was in all the music mags at the time.
Wiki? are you serious? LOL Wiki is part of what's wrong with these forums and the web in general. That's the last source I would use for anything. It is so rife with errors, but many people interact on these forums on a wiki level. It dumbs these forums down. I see this all the time. someone doesn't know the answer experientially so they google it, and wiki is one of the first, if not the first results. Anyone can do that. The OP can do that.
However, why the hell are we arguing about features in a piece of software 11 years and 8 versions old--that you can only buy on the second hand or "cracked" market. Do you spend all your life in the past wearing your rose-tinted spectacles?
For one, the person who started this thread asked about older versions. How's that for reason enough? It doesn't matter how old something is. AA3.0 is over six years old. Only a true amateur would be moved along by marketing to whatever is, "Current." people are told what is current by other people who have financial motives for keeping everyone, "Current." You have it the other way around. In fact current does not mean better. It could simply mean features that someone does not want or need. It could also mean inferior. I've spoken a lot before about how manufacturers and vendors see music and recording. It is all about selling new things whether they're needed or not. Something newer might be better, but it might not.
There's a lot of social pressure to remain current, especially as one gets older. I don't feel that pressure. I use what works, not what all the lemmings are running after.
You can't register AA3.0 online either. They provided a generic number that will work offline in case owners lost the number they had.
And when it comes to Audition, as I said, its all about old versions now because anyone with half a brain isn't going along with prescription software. New Adobe is no longer an option for most of us for that
reason alone.
Personally, I recommend version 3.0 as being a "classic" before they re-wrote everything to run on Macs. Even the most recent (CC) version lacks some of the AA3.0 features.
I personally recommend AA1.5.
Ok, its your turn now to recommend AA3.0. But don't forget to answer my earlier question with something better than wiki. I'm still waiting for something more in general from what you said the first time.