OVERVIEW & WORKSPACE
This is a music creation and mixing program. The workspace is clear and easy to use. The layout harks back to analog-type recording techniques with features such as level indicators and faders. However, loop and clip methods also feature strongly such as the ability to drop a loop into a track and then drag it along so that it plays ad infinitum.
The workspace is split into four main areas:
Top left is the track listing and settings for each track.
Top right is the timeline for each track.
Bottom left is a three tabbed section displaying Windows Explorer, track properties or the ‘chopper’.
Bottom right is the main mixer.
There are other tabs and toolbars around the interface, such as the main playback control at the centre, which has all the familiar icons you would find on a tape deck or CD player.
GETTING STARTED
I slowly worked through the ‘Show me how’ tutorials and along the way got side-tracked into a few intriguing commands. This is how I got on:
Opening a file - from Windows Explorer was straightforward. I first created a new blank track. I had created some loops in another program and simply dragged and dropped a couple into the track. They automatically played and I could manipulate them.
How to create events on the timeline – was ok except that the instructions said ‘to change the track’s active clip, click the “paint clip selector button” in the track header’. I wasted time trying to find this button and found it eventually when I realised I needed to expand the height of the track header to reveal all the information.
It would have been helpful if I was prompted. Apparently in previous versions of ACID Music Studio you could copy and paste events only within the same track. This latest version rectifies that and events can be copied across tracks.
Chopper – the first part was simple. I could get a track to appear in the chopper window and the selection of a splice was easy. But then it got confusing – why did the cursor for the insertion appear vertically across all the tracks? Also, each time I went to a new track to carry out the paste, the chopper window jumped to the loop on the track I was trying to paste into. The ‘Show me how’ tutorial didn’t help much because it explained how to copy a loop across the same track only. To check what I was creating I wanted to isolate a single track – couldn’t find how to do this without
individually muting each track. A bit of a fag. Found the answer – use Solo a track – the ! icon. Why didn’t I read through the Quick Start Manual?
I started chopper again by importing rubbish out of tune guitar strum I made as a test, and put it in a new track. A beatmapper prompt automatically adjusted the timing – I then used the chopper to create a loop. I succeeded by right clicking after I made the selection, right click, chop to a new clip and then paste to a new track. I dragged out the loop along the track and then added effects via the ‘Audio Plug In’ command, I soloed the track back and it sounded fab; played it to my 15 year old
daughter – she’s a musician and uses Cubasis at school. She was impressed by how easy it was to create new sounds. I felt that I could write a song around the loop. This program can get the creative buds going. Snapping on the timeline is excellent. How did those guys in the 60’s do it with bits
of tape?
I soon learned to add one shots such as crash symbols to any part of a track. It was easiest with the grid snapped on and grid spacing to a recognised setting – such as 4 beats in the bar stuff. By turning off the ‘Event Information’ toggle under ‘view’ it was easy to see the wave forms and where the beats were occurring. Fading in and out on a clip worked after I made the viewing spaces big enough by using height and zoom.
‘Pitch Shift’ on the right click option was only one semitone at a time so to shift from C to G you would have to carry out the command seven times. The Pitch Shift under the right click and clip properties is better. Here you can alter the clip pitch by any number or fractions of a semitone at a time.
I recorded guitar parts into a new track via an Alesis 102 USB. The event could be beatmapped, have effects added or even reversed. It was simple to import drum loops from the web.
In Conclusion
25 years ago, I spent £900 [big money then] on a TEAC 4 Track reel to reel. This Sony program cost £45 and does far, far more than my TEAC ever could. I have spent a day using the program and have come to realise that it is stuffed to the gunwales with commands, tricks and features.
This is a music creation and mixing program. The workspace is clear and easy to use. The layout harks back to analog-type recording techniques with features such as level indicators and faders. However, loop and clip methods also feature strongly such as the ability to drop a loop into a track and then drag it along so that it plays ad infinitum.
The workspace is split into four main areas:
Top left is the track listing and settings for each track.
Top right is the timeline for each track.
Bottom left is a three tabbed section displaying Windows Explorer, track properties or the ‘chopper’.
Bottom right is the main mixer.
There are other tabs and toolbars around the interface, such as the main playback control at the centre, which has all the familiar icons you would find on a tape deck or CD player.
GETTING STARTED
I slowly worked through the ‘Show me how’ tutorials and along the way got side-tracked into a few intriguing commands. This is how I got on:
Opening a file - from Windows Explorer was straightforward. I first created a new blank track. I had created some loops in another program and simply dragged and dropped a couple into the track. They automatically played and I could manipulate them.
How to create events on the timeline – was ok except that the instructions said ‘to change the track’s active clip, click the “paint clip selector button” in the track header’. I wasted time trying to find this button and found it eventually when I realised I needed to expand the height of the track header to reveal all the information.
It would have been helpful if I was prompted. Apparently in previous versions of ACID Music Studio you could copy and paste events only within the same track. This latest version rectifies that and events can be copied across tracks.
Chopper – the first part was simple. I could get a track to appear in the chopper window and the selection of a splice was easy. But then it got confusing – why did the cursor for the insertion appear vertically across all the tracks? Also, each time I went to a new track to carry out the paste, the chopper window jumped to the loop on the track I was trying to paste into. The ‘Show me how’ tutorial didn’t help much because it explained how to copy a loop across the same track only. To check what I was creating I wanted to isolate a single track – couldn’t find how to do this without
individually muting each track. A bit of a fag. Found the answer – use Solo a track – the ! icon. Why didn’t I read through the Quick Start Manual?
I started chopper again by importing rubbish out of tune guitar strum I made as a test, and put it in a new track. A beatmapper prompt automatically adjusted the timing – I then used the chopper to create a loop. I succeeded by right clicking after I made the selection, right click, chop to a new clip and then paste to a new track. I dragged out the loop along the track and then added effects via the ‘Audio Plug In’ command, I soloed the track back and it sounded fab; played it to my 15 year old
daughter – she’s a musician and uses Cubasis at school. She was impressed by how easy it was to create new sounds. I felt that I could write a song around the loop. This program can get the creative buds going. Snapping on the timeline is excellent. How did those guys in the 60’s do it with bits
of tape?
I soon learned to add one shots such as crash symbols to any part of a track. It was easiest with the grid snapped on and grid spacing to a recognised setting – such as 4 beats in the bar stuff. By turning off the ‘Event Information’ toggle under ‘view’ it was easy to see the wave forms and where the beats were occurring. Fading in and out on a clip worked after I made the viewing spaces big enough by using height and zoom.
‘Pitch Shift’ on the right click option was only one semitone at a time so to shift from C to G you would have to carry out the command seven times. The Pitch Shift under the right click and clip properties is better. Here you can alter the clip pitch by any number or fractions of a semitone at a time.
I recorded guitar parts into a new track via an Alesis 102 USB. The event could be beatmapped, have effects added or even reversed. It was simple to import drum loops from the web.
In Conclusion
25 years ago, I spent £900 [big money then] on a TEAC 4 Track reel to reel. This Sony program cost £45 and does far, far more than my TEAC ever could. I have spent a day using the program and have come to realise that it is stuffed to the gunwales with commands, tricks and features.
