Is Anyone Still Uning Acid Pro 4 or 5?

[Norbert]

Does Audition let you use Acicized files, the same way you use them in ACID?

[BC]

I'm another long-time ACID user who wandered away from it when I started using SONAR (2).

I thought "Man, isn't this great? *One* app that does it all". What's the adage? Jack of all trades...and all that.

I took a pass on ACID 5 as I have not used ACID extensively in a couple years.

First off: SONAR is great. Ver 4 is the shiz. But SONAR's loop mangling/time stretching/pitch-shifting can't hold a candle to ACID.

But someone made mention of the 30-day ACID 5 eval so I downloaded it, installed it.

Wow. Everything I loved about ACID came back to me. I think the UI is briliant!(I bet they stole some ex-Apple coders! It's the most elegent UI I've seen on an app not running on OSX, but I digress).

So I dug out my dozen or so loop CDs and installed them and poked around, played with some of the new features and waddya know, in 90 minutes I had fleshed out a new song.

That sealed the deal for me. For me, another Lone Arranger, ACID simply rocks.

I used to bristle at the one-sample-per-track 'limit' of ACID. I think of it as analgous to painting notes on a MIDI piano-roll.

I'm still struggling to figure out how to use a multi-out VSTi (why does ACID insist on creating busses for every output? Why can't I delete the VSTi outputs I'm not using?).

What I want, first and foremost, is song creation & arrangement speed.

[billybk1]

Great post BC! That is pretty much how I feel too. I seem to be using ACID 5 more now than I have any previous version in the past. I have always liked the UI and it's ease of use. The loop arranging and audio editing is fast and efficient. Despite what some naysayers and critics have written, I personnally think the ACID Pro 5 update, although long overdue, is still a great step forward. After using ACID Pro 5, for awhile, I briefly went back to using ACID 4 and immediately starting missing all the new features I had grown accustomed to using, in A5. Like the folder tracks, bus to bus routing, VST effects, rewire slave, plug-in manager, realtime event reverse, keyboard mapping and the new media manager and groove mapping tools. Not too mention, the much better performance, compared to ACID 4,
when using my beloved UAD-1 plugins, in my ACID projects also. As a SONAR 4 user, I can appreciate A5's seamless and gapless project looping, with full PDC, when using my UAD-1 plugins too.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

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[billybk1]

As a SONAR 4 user, I can appreciate A5's seamless and gapless project looping, with full PDC, when using my UAD-1 plugins too.

has cakewalk STILL not got that right? do looped tracks with effects requiring pdc still drift out of time looping?

Yes, unfortunately that is still the case. Admittedly, the looping with PDC has improved in S4, but it is still not there 100%, IMO. If you are only using a few plugins requiring PDC, there is not a problem. But when you are using a lot PDC type plugins, the sync drift becomes quite apparent once it starts looping a portion, of your project. I am a big user of the UAD-1 plugins, ( I have two cards), which require full PDC. If I only use a couple of plugins,(using the VST wrapped with Cakes adapter work best),in a project, the looping is normally fine. Add a few more UAD-1 plugins and the looping starts to get glitchy and gap a little, at the end loop point, but the PDC stays intact. Start to use 6, 7 or more UAD-1 plugins and the PDC starts to get all out of whack and out of sync. That is the only performance issue I have with SONAR 4. I primarily use UAD-1 effects, in my projects, so I am not sure if this is problematic with all PDC type plugins or more of a PDC issue with the UAD-1 plugins. ACID Pro 5, OTOH, has the tightest PDC sync around. I can load a boatload of UAD-1 plugins (12 or more), in a project, and the looping stays rock solid with nary a glitch and zero gapping. But, there is more native CPU usage, in A5, when using the UAD-1 plugins. Sometimes, as much as 400% more, than what you would normally see in SONAR 4. I typically see about 2%-5% added native CPU usage, when using, say (14) UAD-1 plugins, in SONAR 4. Using those same plugins, in an ACID 5 project, can sometimes consume 20% of my native CPU. None of these issues are show stoppers for me, I have learned to work around them. But, it is something to be aware of.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

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[billybk1]

...even with the latest uad versions? have you tried the native vst or are you using dx versions? remember acid 5 can now use vst natively, and supports pdc on that too, not just dx.

Yes, I am using the latest 3.8 UAD-1 software and the VST versions exclusively, in ACID 5. Much better performance than what I was getting with the DX versions, in ACID 4. In ACID 4, I was seeing massive native CPU munching (increasing my native CPU usage 40%,50%,60% or more). So the 20%, I am seeing now, in A5, is a lot more tolerable and managable.

I experienced the same problem you are mentioning with the Sonar 4 demo. everyone thought i was mad.

Mad....I would not go that far

is Ron aware of this? is anyone else experiencing this at the cakewalk forums?

Yes, the PDC and on going gapping issues seem to be the hot buttons now. For me, it would be worth the full upgrade price to SONAR 5, if just these issues were finally resolved once and for all.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

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[BC]

Here's my latest 'issue' with ACID5.

I'm trying to use DR-008.

When programming MIDI clips using the PianoRoll only pads routed to the first Output can be heard! Once I close the piano roll and play the clip, again - only the first output pads can be heard, until I restart playback from the beginning of the song!

I was *hoping* I could edit MIDI drum parts in the ACID PR with the project looping, in real-time w/o glitches and hiccups like I have in SONAR4 (when doing the same).

[ObsoleteAcc99]

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[BC]

Yea - Peter at Sony confirmed the bug. Said he would try to fix it in the next update - whenever that is.