I've been using it for a while now as a "sketchpad" for ideas, before exporting loops into Cubasis. I also use it for remixes of some of my old tracks.

The program rarely seems to get a mention in this forum, so is it considered not "creative" enough for most people?

Pros: easy to lay down tracks, beatmapping, very visual, automated fx
Cons: lack of VST fx support, midi difficult to set up

Tim B
(mistrust)

I've been using it lately with orion rewired.
I sketch out the tune in orion, then in acid start filling in the gaps with drum loops fx and stuff.
I've used it more the last couple of months (since orion rewire/slave came out) than I had since buying it.

I use it constantly and it is my sequencer of choice.
I export self generated loops and patterns from Orion Pro and then really get to work fking them up in Acid Pro.
You're right in that it doesn't get mentioned much here - could be because it gets labelled as a toy and tarred with the same brush as apps like E-Jay.
These people couldn't be more wrong , but I guess it's their loss.
I know that Bluedad uses it too and even rewires it to Orion (I wouldn't have a clue where to even start doing that, so I stick to the tried and tested export/import routine)

Now that Sony have got their claws into it, I am hoping that
1. VSTfx is implemented
2. DX and VSTfx are all rendered fully automatable
2. the midi is brought up to speed. THey should try and make it as easy as Orion, then we'll have the easiest audio and midi set up the world has ever known
and Acid will then control the universe

Bluedad beat me to it..........

S D Z H wrote:

Bluedad beat me to it..........

The only "problem" with ACID is that it can only be a rewire host at the moment, when it is quite obviously the best potential rewire slave on the market. You can't (yet!) sync Tracktion to ACID which is my idea of heaven.

ACID is no toy. Have you found an easier programme for surround sound? Each track has a little X-Y icon for instant 3D positioning.

Personally I love the way ACID handles midi, because when you hit stop the programme instantly treats the recording as a loop that can be dragged and repeated in exactly the same way as audio. The last few updates corrected silly bugs relating to how the midi input was assigned to vsti's, and now I spend half my time with ACID and half with Tracktion.

The main annoyance with ACID for me is the pop-up box that must be navigated EVERYTIME you want to record an audio track. Its amazing to me that they haven't done something about that.

Quote:

The program rarely seems to get a mention in this forum, so is it considered not "creative" enough for most people?

I imagine there are quite a few people who do own it along with another sequencer. I usually work in cubase or orion, and in comparison, the midi implementation in acid sucks. As S D Z H says, if they improved that, why, it's posssible acid could take over the world!
At least, I wish they'd make it a rewire slave, and I could hook it up to cubase.

omph! handy beat me to the rewire issue!

great minds ...etc

S D Z H wrote:

Acid will then control the universe

took control of my universe a while back


but ive come down now

handy wrote:

The only "problem" with ACID is that it can only be a rewire host at the moment, when it is quite obviously the best potential rewire slave on the market.

yah .. true!!
acid in rewire slave will very powerfull!!

however .. "i love acid" ehehe

peace

Until I started using Acid Pro, I thought that the looping would sound really tedious and that you wouldn't be able to do much with it. Now I know different!

One reviewer of my track "Never Alone" thought that I'd played and programmed everything in something like Cubase, using VSTIs. He was really suprised that I'd used Acid Pro to put most of the track together.

Anyone ever submit anything to Acidplanet? It's a nightmare getting anything listened to!

I don't go to the acid forums often..has there been any mention about making acid a rewire slave?

i love acid and reason together. is tracktion a rewire slave and where can i get info about tracktion.

I too tend to do all my arranging in ACID (after creating VSTi loops in Cubase). I love the way the FX chaining works and if they could improve the automation (as per SDZH's point below) I'd be very happy.

S D Z H wrote:

Now that Sony have got their claws into it, I am hoping that 1. VSTfx is implemented 2. DX and VSTfx are all rendered fully automatable 3. The midi is brought up to speed. They should try and make it as easy as Orion, then we'll have the easiest audio and midi set up the world has ever known and Acid will then control the universe

I'm not sure if the Sony angle is a particularly good one. I could be wrong, but it strikes me that they are targeting a slightly different audience.

As a case in point has anyone else noticed how poor the 'Get Media' content has been of late ?

Nov 2003 - Reposted samples from 2001
Dec 2003 - Reposted samples from 2001
Jan 2004 - Fully finished hip hop loops (i.e. without the component parts, which makes them all but useless) which they say will be of use to flash web developers !

Jazzy - I dutifully d/l the Get Media content every month and have been doing so since I got Acid Pro 3. Never used one of the samples yet. IMO they are brought to the user directly from Suck City Central . This month's "exclusive" content is, as you point out, practically unusable to composers. WTF could I do with a complete ip-hip mini-track, even if I wanted to throw some hip-hop together?
I do hope that you're wrong with your thoughts on Sony directing this awesome product away from the composer market to elsewhere

I use Acid as my loop-based "arrange page",exporting phrases and beats I create in Reason.Mix and match with loops from freeware and commercial cds,throw on some effects and export song tracks to Sonar for live overdubs and mix.Couldn't be a better tool for the job.I even prefer it to Sonar's own implimentation of Acidified loop play.
If it were to become a ReWire slave,I might even bother to use ReWire,as this seems like an actually appropriate use of the technology.And,as long as we're fantasizing,the ReWire slave version of Acid should have multiple outputs,at least subgroups if not direct track outs to use the host's (presumably) superior mixer.
I must concur with the expressed fears about Acid's future as a pro tool based upon Sony's handling of it.Remember that it is under thier media division and not pro audio.I think that due to its ease of use,its ready potential to be used at the most simplistic level to generate pre-fab music,and its lack of serious midi and recording tools compared to the major DAWs,it is percieved as a toy.I think Sony sees it as a way for civilians to jazz up their home multimedia,not a compositional tool for original creativity.I think they are positioning themselves to compete with their Vaio computers aginst Apple and its ilife tools.
Due to the crappy midi(not that I do much midi editing anyway) and cumbersome vsti implimentation,I'm sticking with,or going back to,version 3.Any comments on whether or not 4 has any advantages?

Like most of the previous posts, I compose parts in Orion and Reason, save out wavs and arrange my songs in Acid. Sometimes I overdub live instruments there as well. I've been considering switching to Nuendo as my recording and arranging environment. Acid, however, has one key ingredient which has not been mentioned yet: all your audio tracks can be RAM based, not disk based, which means you can potentially run a lot more tracks simultaneously than you would be able to streaming them all from disk. So load up your machine with RAM, and get busy!

I quit using Acid since Sonar has the same looping abilities (acid loops, key changes, etc.) and I don't have to run other programs alongside it. Not putting Acid down, I liked it until I picked up Sonar. And with how much Acid pro costs--I think Sonar is the better deal.

My .02, take it for what it's worth

Time for a dumb question.When using Acid files/Groove Clips in Sonar,are you able to 1:stop your drag,skip a few bars then start drawing again without re-pasting the file,and 2: where is,or is there an erase tool in Sonar?These are the two reasons that I use Acid rather than Sonar for loop-based arranging.
I have always had to go back and copy and paste my loop when I leave it out for a few bars,and sometimes,not just the two or four bars of the loop paste but the whole eight or sixteen I've dragged it out to get pasted.Which brings me to the fact that I have never found an erase tool in Sonar,one of the keys to Acid's speed and ease of use.
Please do feel free to tell me to RTFM.Our manuals,like the Bible and the Constitution bear repeated re-reading and reference.

Hey everyone. I've never really used acid much, but was thinking about getting it(2nd hand) to help me with my tunes. I use Orion Platinum, but i tend to get stuck in this rut of knocking up a loop of a couple of bars then get stuck. If i could chuck my loops into Acid Pro and pitch them up/down, and basically butcher them in some serious ways, that'd be great. Is this the right sort of program for the job? I'm not exactly loaded at the minute, but i was gonna sell my Reason 1.0 (never use it) on ebay, to balance this purchase out. Or maybe sell it to one of you guys here at KVR.

@quincy:

Someone at KvR said they picked it up recently for something like 90 bucks (or was it euros?) as a download only. Wether it's euros or dollars, not to bad if I say so.


@this thread:

I still love acid but I hardly use it anymore. I just love how quickly one can mangle and "chop" beats. It is more intuitive to me than Cubase is.

I personally don't like jumping back and forth from host to tracker, or whatever so I don't work them side by side.

crazed one wrote:

@quincy: Someone at KvR said they picked it up recently for something like 90 bucks (or was it euros?) as a download only. Wether it's euros or dollars, not to bad if I say so. @this thread: I still love acid but I hardly use it anymore. I just love how quickly one can mangle and "chop" beats. It is more intuitive to me than Cubase is. I personally don't like jumping back and forth from host to tracker, or whatever so I don't work them side by side.

Thats sounds pretty good to me crazed one. Can you remember what area it was in, or the name of the thread? I'd really appreciate it.

quincy said

Quote:

Thats sounds pretty good to me crazed one. Can you remember what area it was in, or the name of the thread? I'd really appreciate it. _________________

I picked it up for around $99 as a download. but it was offered in an email special from soundforge, back in sept '02. I don't know that it's still available, tho.
and if you decide to sell reason, let me know.

bluedad wrote:

quincy said Quote: Thats sounds pretty good to me crazed one. Can you remember what area it was in, or the name of the thread? I'd really appreciate it. _________________ I picked it up for around $99 as a download. but it was offered in an email special from soundforge, back in sept '02. I don't know that it's still available, tho. and if you decide to sell reason, let me know.

I'll try to remember you when (if?!?!) i ever get round to selling it. But you might have to battle it out with everyone else on ebay. But if that happens, i'll announce it here at KVR so you guys all get a chance

acid is great for music to video work, especially in figuring out tempo maps.

just drop a basic drum loop in there with the video, and add your hit points.. after that it is so easy to adjust the uhh.. beats to hit the point and with a basic drumloop in there you also get a good feel if the tempo will work etc.

Quote:

Someone at KvR said they picked it up recently for something like 90 bucks (or was it euros?) as a download only.

Yep, that was me.

look at bottom...buy now $89.


Check these for other addictive deals:

ebay - section 1

ebay - section 2

lavoll wrote:

acid is great for music to video work, especially in figuring out tempo maps. just drop a basic drum loop in there with the video, and add your hit points.. after that it is so easy to adjust the uhh.. beats to hit the point and with a basic drumloop in there you also get a good feel if the tempo will work etc.

Don't forget the 5.1 surround !

I Rewire Orion Platinum to ACID. It helps if you
have dual monitors as I do. All I can say is that
it is the best arrangment for my way of working. I love the combination, and it works way better than
straight VSTI's in Acid.

I was working on a song for hours last night and no
crashes with this setup. Orion used to crash all the time when running standalone (and so did Acid with VSTI's). It would be nice if Acid could save the Orion settings within its project
file. I guess this is not part of the Rewire protocol.