Hi to all,

I'd like to know the opinion of other users of this forum about the new version of Acid Music Studio, version 9, just left.
Support for multicore processors, folder tracks, recording at 24/96, vst automation and other features that, together with its remarkable ease of use, make, in my opinion, an interesting software for the very low price at which it's sold ...

I am a guitar enthusiast and I use pc and mac for many years for my songs, I'm not a techno producer and then I do not need a lot of tracks, many effects etc... The kind of music that I love is a simple rock, skinny, very close to the psychedelia of the '60s and then a few elements are enough for me.

The software that I find great for this approach is GarageBand, at least to compose, but there are no viable alternatives to Windows (Mixcraft except that I do not like). I used Cakewalk Sonar for many years but now I found this software too complex for my needs (actually i have X1 Studio)...

So, Acid Music Studio could do the job for me: is user friendly and cheap ...

Your opinions and your eventual experience will be greatly appreciated!

Having looked at the comparison chart with ACID Pro 7 there's quite a bit missing from AMS 9. I own AP7 which hasn't been updated in years so I can't say AMS 9 is all that impressive. I found AP 7 limiting which is why I switched to Reaper.

As an alternative, Reaper is approx the same price with a free fully functional demo. It can be configured to hide all unused features if necessary which somewhat simplifies the interface. But it's also much more powerful than both AP7 and AMS 9 when needed.

Sony also provide demos so you can find out what suits you best.

Hi munchkin and thanks for your input.

I tried several times reaper, I also purchased a license for version 3/4 but, frankly, I find it unsuitable for my needs: I just can not digest the interface of this program ... I do not question all the qualities of Reaper (i face that in this forum Reaper is preferred by many users), but simply it's not for me...

I'm trying the demo of Acid Studio and I must say that is not bad ... Fast, easy and quite efficient with the resources of my humble T4500 ... For now it seems pretty interesting!

I am an ex-Acid user and really loved the program but had to move on to Sonar X1 because they stopped developing it. I am sure you must have gone through the comparison chart on their site if AMS 9 rocks your boat then by all means use it and make music. It's a nice DAW.

Go for it if you like the Acid Music interface & feel, I use v7 on a old computer & I'm quite happy with it. It brings back simplicity into music making, which is always a good thing!!

I am a long time Acid Pro 7 user and although I have Reaper and Reason I still often go back to ACID. It is so intuitive and easy to use. Sounds like AMS might be all you need for the number of tracks you use and the type of music you do. So wish they had kept developing it. I think it's a great program.

Another ex-Acid user. Sony has let this great program wither - shame on them. I switched to Sonar initially and then to Reaper. I'm not sure what people find hard about Reaper - get past one or two basic concepts and off you go. It's very similar to Acid in many ways. Watch a few videos.

Agree. I've tried most other DAW's and Reaper comes closest to ACID.
The Groove3 videos are very good.

I agree with this. I have a copy of, believe it or not, Acid 3, which I had installed as recently as a year ago. I tried 7 and found it rather unstable and, for me, at least, some of the improvements weren't really improvements. I like, for example, that you only get one sample per track with Acid 3. It's part of what made it fast and simple.

For making tracks quickly, I thought that it was great. I just don't find that it does anything that other tools don't do better these days.

Doesn't stop Sony from emailing me though.

I vaguely recall early versions of reaper where it looked like it was trying to be an acid clone...

Guys ... thank you all for your suggestions, I appreciate them very much!

Also I have used Acid many times in the past (i'm near 50...) and I think Acid is one of the most intuitive programs and, in my opinion, more fun to use, I do not think that a giant like Sony abandons one of the most famous and historic software that exists on the market: simply they prefer to focus their marketing (... that ugly word when it comes to music!) on video software like Vegas, but the fact that it came out in Acid Music Studio version 9 certainly means that Acid pro will soon be updated.

Also speaking from my own experience, I do not like this too frequent updates policy (Sonar X2 is around the corner with a gui again different), which today have become the norm for the software market, I prefer a less advanced product, but with fewer features that meets my needs the most important: stability and ease of use ...

Sad but true but if you look at it from another angle then it makes sense. With the kind of competition we have today in DAW market they have to keep the momentum going and make everyone believe that they are at the top of everything plus paid updates feed their development budget too. But, if they don't provide anything substantial in an upgrade then it's bad. User has the option whether to upgrade or not. I have read that many people are still using Sonar 8.5 cause it's stable on their machine than X1. So, as long as one is able to make music comfortably, it's all that matters.

I see that you have X1 studio at your disposal. That's in fact a solid version you have without all the bells and whistles that producer has, isn't it serving you well? How do you like recording in Acid? and how about the stock effects?

I can't let Sony off the hook so easily regarding updating Acid Pro 7 because I really wanted them to improve the VSTi support and go 64bit. The updates to AMS have no bearing on what happens to AP because AMS has been updated before in the last three years and AP hasn't. So I don't think AMS 9 is a sign of anything except Sony wanting to tap into the cheaper end of the consumer market.

In terms of preferring AMS, let's be honest, ten years ago musicians were creating great music on much simpler hosts so the host is not really a barrier to making great music. My only reservation is that using it with modern software synths sometimes presents barriers that a much more capable host could deal with. There is no support for external control surfaces in AMS 9 for example. That would severely inhibit my workflow. The bus routing is limited or non existent and midi features are restricted. This might not seem a problem for many musicians most of the time but then when you find yourself trying to do something and find out that you can't that's when the restrictions really hit home. Especially because most of us prefer to stick with one host most of the time due to the difficulties of working with projects in different hosts.

I found Reaper difficult to understand at first but after a couple of posts asking for help on the Reaper forum and a few weeks of experimentation and reading the manual it suddenly clicked. I think I still prefer the look of ACID but I much prefer Reapers versatility. It works with all my plugins, including Poco and UAD, which sadly AP7 struggled with.

I understand that for many musicians AMS can seem limited and limiting, without doubt, both Sonar x1 and Reaper are much more comprehensive and feature rich. But they are also extremely annoying to use, i mean X1 precise that i have.

Personally, i divide the software to meet my needs, based on 2 simple categories: software for composing, software for mixing. The latter can be complex, full of plug-in, super-sophisticated, the first should be as simple as possible, notwithstanding the fact that I am a guitarist who plays with passion, not a professional, and the last thing I'm interested in, a computer engineer.

So X1 is a good choice if i have time and desire to extricate some of the many options when maybe i want to create a final mix: Reaper is perhaps even better, but often I need the ease of use, jotting down my ideas is the thing that concerns me when I can spend some of my time to the music!

So, without detracting from the great potential offered by the market and in compliance with the requirements of each of us, i welcome the various GarageBand and AMS etc. etc.

Acid is a pretty cool app, imo, mmv.

Having said that, I don't personally think Sony (as a corporation) has any real interest in fighting the DAW war, trying to follow every move of the others... not with Acid. They obviously have the money and resources to do whatever they want with it, I just don't think they're all that interested. They'll probably just continue with updates at their own pace and not really care much what anyone else is doing with their audio workstations.

I doubt if Acid sales would ever be more than an extremely tiny blip on their profit radar. Sony is a huge corporation. They certainly won't live or die on Acid sales, acceptance, whatever.