Newbie Question Re: Acid Pro

A

anonym

Guest
Hey what's up first time caller, long time listener :monkey:

I began messing around with electronic music composition about 6 months ago with the purchase of Acid Pro 3. I tired quickly of using their loops and started using bass and drum one shots to make my rhythm and the synthesis function in Sound Forge XP 5 to make synth patches and sound effects. Recently I download the Fruity Loops 3.4 demo and have been exporting sounds into Acid to play with.

So onto my questions:

First why is Acid considered on most sites to be a toy rather than a tool? I know it currently doesn't support VSTi and has weak MIDI capability, but what else beyond this? (Rumor is in the Sonic Foundry Forums that Acid 4 is very close to being released and might contain VSTi support, better MIDI options, and maybe a softsynth)

What would be my advantages to a program like Cubase?

I've been happy with Acid so far and haven't found it to be really limiting except for lack of soft synth, but I've found ways around that. I guess I just want to know what I am missing.

Thanks

Great site by the way, it keeps me proper busy at work
 
Well, if your happy making tunes in Acid then there`s nothing wrong with it. If you want to take things a step forward then you can`t go wrong witrh Fruity Loops.

When you say you are taking sounds from fruity into Acid I hope you don`t mean the preset sounds, as they are useless and pretty poor quality.

But to take your music production seriously you have to be working in an environment that has VST support.

Cubase and Logic seem to be many bedroom muso`s sequencers of choice, but from a starters point of view Fruity offers a new user an easy way in to music production, with the option to progress onto it`s more advanced capabilities.

Although a more pro sequencer can be more advanced the learning curve is steeper.

Depends on where you want to go with your music.
 
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This isn't meant to be codensending in any way, but how is Fruity Loops a step forward from Acid?

Granted I am only using the FL demo so I might be missing something, but I really am only using it for the soft synth and haven't had the desire to purchase it because I haven't seen anything else that would be easier, more, or of better quality than Acid.
 
Yea I'll have to asgree... I don't particaulry see Flopps as an advancement from acid... Personally for sequencing Acid I think is better...
BUt for makgin sounds Fruity is better... :)

for pattern sequencing fruity is better.. for loop sequencing acid is better...... Both programs are pretty good without having to deal with a steep lerning curve!... (I'm trying to cope with learnign logic and my head feels like it is exploding!)... I'ms till trying to figure out how the F** to set up enviroments... : /
ANYWaz...
To answer your question... I think alo tof places consider acide a toy because of the other versions.... Acid Music, acid techno.. etc.. these programs are more toy-like similar to things liek Ejay and such... acid pro has enoguh features to be considered a low end rpoduction tool.... Untill very recently Fruity loops has been considered a toy (and still is by MANY!).. but I think 3.4 almost brought it to a new level :)

I've heard AWSOME tracks made in both prograMS.. it's all up to whatever is the best for you...
 
Yeah, I definitely understand the "Toy" point of view when considering all the lesser versions of Acid (techno, dj, music, etc...) and also the fact that Sonic Foundry pushes it so hard as a tool to manipulate pre-existing loops (from their loop libraries).

Actually Sonic Foundry kind of pisses me off with their over-emphasis on their loop libraries and not on making your own music. But I suppose they saw a viable money making opportunity and went for it, but I think this might be what alienates people who want to make their OWN sounds. I'm hoping with Acid 4 that this will change at least to some degree, because it definitely seems like Acid was at one time considered to be decent software, but has fallen behind.
 
well the versions have somethign to do with it as well i think...

Cubase and Logic (the giants of audio softwear) are both in version 5.....

The kind of programs that some peopel think of as toys.. Fruity and Acid are both only in version 3.....

They haven't been around as long.. thier hasn't ben as much Research and development into them as into these other prgrams... Take sonic foundries Sound Forge.. it' sup to version 6..... and it is consiered a professional program... and IO think it is one of hte most popular programs to own here..... So sonic foundry is able to make good programs... But I gotta go get ready for work : / .... Goodluck with your music :D
 
But to take your music production seriously you have to be working in an environment that has VST support.
Click to expand...

sorry dude,dont take it personally,but.....**** THE VST EGEMONY...i am tired to hear this ****.

Depends on where you want to go with your music.
Click to expand...

like this as well.....it won`t be working on VST enviroment that will let you do better music,just stick with what you feel confident,and spend time WRITING music.
Doesnt matter what you gonna use for doing it.Nothing is wrong with Acid.If you just want to see a difect,is that ,as anonym said earlier,the MIDI support doesnt exist.period.
 
Have you tried Cakewalk Sonar? It has the loop features like ACID, and has great MIDI sequencing and Digital Audio capabilities. It also has virtual synths (Dxi) compatibility.

http://www.cakewalk.com

The only thing that Sonar lacks from ACID is the ability to auto-region 4 beat loops after I record audio and edit them in Sound Forge.

example:

I record my bass guitar to a drum beat in ACID. After recording, I right-click the track to edit in Sound Forge and the audio is split into 4 beat regions so now I can select which region I want to use for my bass loops.
 
i use acid a lot and i love it. it certainly isn't a toy. i think there's a certain amount of snobbishness about it because it's so damn easy to use. the thinking goes, it's user friendly so it can't be any good.
it does different things to FL. i also make loops in FL and then transfer to acid. acid is great for arranging cos of the whole time stretch thing and the effects envelopes are very handy.
i usually do the final mixdown in cubase though cos to my ear the sound quality is a bit better. bigger somehow.
anyway, use what you feel good with and use many progs and don't believe the hype!
peace ;)
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. For the moment I've been completely happy with Acid and it took me no time at all to become pretty well versed in it's use so I'm in no hurry to give it up. But I defintitely want to expand to incorporate other progs in the future (however, little things like rent, bills and food keep me from expanding as fast as I would like to ;)
 
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