AcidPro 5 is here

[papawillow]

Looks good to me and they are including Native Instruments XPRESS KEYBOARDS VSTi Soft Synth Bundle
consisting of B4, PRO-53, and FM7 which is a leg up for some NI stuff as well.

[Ford Prefect]

sonar 4 still looks a much better allrounder to be honest, considering it supports acid files natively anyway

Not to mention the beauty of not having to do challenge response crap...

[original flipper]

HI

I hope (well not me - I have no interest in Acid) midi users have an option to enlarge the Midi-window bigger than the illustrated one - Live looks like a cinema screen in comparisson .

Flipper.

[jens]

apparently there's still no audio-streaming

[billybk1]

Well, now that the cat is out the bag! Finally!
Yes, it looks to be a major update too! Will it be everything to everybody, probably not, but many of the requested user features seem to have made it into ACID Pro 5. Personally, I would have liked to have had live input monitoring (for plugging in Amplitude or Guitar Rig plugins and jamming away on my Les Paul, in realtime to my ACID tracks), or some sort of multi-tracking ability. Some users would have preferred more robust MIDI capabilities and enhancements. Other than these few disappointments, I think overall it is a good solid, well needed update to the ACID Pro platform. Some of my favorite new features/enhancements:

Real-time Reverse: not only for events, but whole song/project too, with a simple keystroke shortcut.

Native VST support: We all know this has been a major request and now it is finally fulfilled.

ReWire Slave support: Another popular request that is now an ACID 5
feature.

Folder Tracks: This was a much needed feature, considering ACID's one loop per track paradigm. Having 20, 30, 40, 50 or more loops in a project, each with it's own track could get pretty out of hand and very cluttered real quickly. Enter Folder Tracks, now you can easily drag & drop your tracks onto created Folder tracks and tidy up and organize your desktop space for better track management. What was once 50 tracks of loops can now be a handful of Folder Tracks. Create Drums, Guitar, Bass, Percussion, Strings or whatever named Folder Tracks and drop the relevant tracks into it. One of my favorite new features!

Bus to Bus routing: This is something I have always wanted in ACID, a more flexible bus routing system. Now you feed a bus to a bus to a bus...... while retaining full PDC (plugin delay compensation) through the entire signal path.
There is also a nice feature where the effects button will turn a specific color to indicate if delay compensation is being utilized in a effects chain.
Green for when no PDC is being used and Yellow when PDC is active in the effect chain. Nice!

Innovative Groove Mapping/Cloning tools: This feature took me by surprise. It really creates a lot opportunities for re-working/re-mapping existing loops/ grooves and "painting" those "groove" attributes onto existing loops. Like the Chopper dockable window, there is now also a convenient Groove Pool/Editor window. It is nice to see Sony taking ACID to another level with this new technology.

Plugin Manager: I always thought is was more of a chore to add effects plugins in ACID than it needed to be. Borrowing the same technology from Sound Forge 6/7, the new dockable Plugin Manager makes it real easy to drag and drop your plugins onto your tracks and buses.

Enhanced Keyboard Mapping: Most tasks can now be mapped as keyboard shortcuts, for power users.

Bypass All Effects: I went ahead and re-mapped this function to my F10 key. Now I can instantly turn on/off all effects with one keystroke.

Media Manager: This is a media database add on module that is installed separately. Once installed you can activate/deactivate it from ACID's Preferences tab. For users that have huge loop/media collections this is a godsend. Once you have scanned and tagged your media files you can very quickly find and preview just like the Loop Explorer. In fact, I would catagorize the Media Manager as the Loop Explorer on steriods. Basically the Loop Explorer with a very refined searchable database. Once I initially scanned and tagged my 23GB of ACID loops (which took about 40 minutes), I could then find any loop I wanted, based on my search criteria, in a matter of seconds. I entered my advanced search criteria:

Rock | Bass | Key of A | 90-110BPM |

.....and in a matter of seconds I had all the loops that fit that criteria, from my 23GB loop library, in my Media Manager window ready for preview. What a time saver!

Disc at Once (DAO) CD Burning: Yes, now you can finally burn Redbook standard CD's, with CD track markers straight from ACID

Enhanced audio time stretching and beat detection: I am glad to see ACID 5 has made some improvements in this area as well.


Overall, I think Sony did a good job of covering most of the user requests and adding a few surprises, in there, as well. The added software bonus (1,001 Loop Library and Native Instruments Xpress Pack) is a pleasant surprise, as well.

[Wopelka]

i might consider upgrading my Acid Pro 2 (or 3, i don't remember).

do you know whether the upgrade price remains the same whatever the "upgrade step" is (i mean: from any previous PRO version)?

[BC]

[sigh] - A moment of Nostalgia for ACID.

I love ACID, love it love it love it. However, I found it too limiting (crippled MIDI support, poor support for non-loop audio, inability to record more than 1 track of audio at a time etc.) and switched to SONAR a couple years ago.

I would have wept with joy at these new features 18 months ago but, in my case, this is too little too late. With SONAR4's massively improved time-stretching - I no longer use ACID at all (I use to use it to stretch/shrink loops that SONAR would butcher).

I'm glad to see SONY hasn't let ACID wither completely. Enjoy ACID fanatics!

[dystonia_ek]

Personally, I would have liked to have had live input monitoring (for plugging in Amplitude or Guitar Rig plugins and jamming away on my Les Paul, in realtime to my ACID tracks), or some sort of multi-tracking ability.

I use Acid 4 Pro for that already - am I not supposed to be able to? Guess I was having too much fun to notice
Maybe it's soundcard-dependant?

[Rabid]

It looks like what Acid 4 should have been. As much as I like Acid, version 4 was a major disapointment.

Robert

[Stupid American Pig]

ehhh, I am really not all that impressed. the thing I hated about acid was the clunky piano roll. It looks like one improvement was made. I do like the fact that it is a rewire slave, but now that Sonar 4 has mpex timestretching, the one strength of acid is nullified, and now I dont have to rewire in more software to get good time stretches...(not to mention that loop music and timestretching is soooooo 1998 )

[jtxx000]

How much $ for upgrade from 4 Pro?

going by the usual, i'd guess $149

bu the pricing is not up at all yet...shop still has acid pro 4

I hope not... I upgraded from Acid music 3 to Pro 4 when it came out for $100... so I was hoping for cheaper this time.

[jtxx000]

They don't seem to have improved recording, which justifies me buying Tracktion, but they now have reversing and native VST effects so it looks like I might need to get this upgrade to do all my loop chopping and stuff.

[Reverend Rhythm]

I'm in the same boat. I love what acid does, but I'm going to get something else for audio and midi recording. I think I'll probably still mix in acid, especially with the improved bussing.

I'm really excited about the new things acid does, but the stick pretty close to the acid paradigm. I'm thinking that I'd best let acid be acid.

[x_bruce]

I'm waiting patiently to see what the upgrade price will be, like Robert I think Acid 5 is more of what was expected from 4.x.

Then again, Sonic Foundry was probably dealing with selling off the product line while coding - not the best situation to be in.

Still, it won't be a Live killer. Live 4 is incredibly intuitive in it's own paridigm and has always be a step ahead in that it has a couple of ways of editing. Live at any version has some features that until proven otherwise are simply easier to use....live.

Sonar 4 Producer is a $500 program now. How much will Acid 5 be? Also, Sonar 4 is still a better linear synth than pattern. Project 5 doesn't get much discussion but it has it's own logic to it, once you "get it" it's very nice.

What I really think is happening is the snapping up of products and technologies to make super-applications.

M-Audio's Live 4 and Reason 2.5 are appealing and do everything one needs to create a song

Sony is going after that and if the extention of their relationship with N.I. goes deeper there may be some interesting things we are not privy to going on at N.I. In fact, N.I. seems to be growing all the time. They are always looking for new people.

I like that there will be choice and that those of use invested in these apps have an upgrade path. So far the most reasonable path has been Live 1 or later to Live 4. The highest priced has been Sonar 4, but now it can be used for film and 5:1 technology isn't cheap.

When I work on other people's mixes or mastering I like getting the program in the format it was done. Thus I use many of the programs discussed here. I'm glad Acid 5 is due out but will be careful about the update issues. I felt screwed seeing new versions of every update of Acid at Guitar Center with free 4 packs of CDs. I bought a 2nd licence of Acid just because the $99 for Acid 3 was cheaper than the Orchestral series and 2 free libraries offered. I was more than a little annoyed that I paid $99 for the upgrade less than six months prior. This is Sony now, and having paid attention to their other audio software (they make lots of plugins) I'd say they'll be stable until the new version of a program comes out.

Verdict: everyone wins. Choice is good and I'd like Acid to be in the competition. I strongly believe competition drives creativity, value and cost.

[Stupid American Pig]

I am not overly optimistic on the upgrade price being 99 bucks. Since sony has taken over, their pricing of all software seems a tad high.