Subject:Did I just make a mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Acid 4.0

Posted by: bgood

Date:9/26/2002 6:59:09 PM

I noticed today that Musicians Friend was selling Acid 4 bundled with Sound Forge 6 for $150. It seemed like an awesome deal so I went ahead and bought it today. I use Acid Music 2.0 and like it. I have been looking for an integrated digital audio and midi platform and wanted to stay away from Cakewalk (using since DOS days but I think their products have gone downhill). Anyway. I downloaded the demo and it works great on my laptop (PIII 686 with 256RAM and cheapie soundcard) but........When I installed on my desktop - K6 533 with 256 RAM and Santa Cruz soundcard - lock up. Playback stutters, the cursor doesn't follow the loops and the whole PC locks up. I would think that this PC meets the system requirements without too much trouble.

Did I just make a $150 mistake? Should I cancel my order? After reading this forum - I am not so sure if I shouldn't have just bought Cakewalk Homestudio or Sonar. I really don't need the looping functionality. I need something that has good audio recording capability (guitar, bass, vocals, keys) and MIDI (drum machines). Any advice? Thanks

bb

Subject:RE: Did I just make a mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Acid 4.0

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:9/26/2002 9:28:45 PM

I'm not exactly sure, but I believe the K6-2's equivalent is Intel's Pentium II or Celeron. In that respect, it's a little on the slowish side arhitecturally. Though SoFo states a 300 MHz processor as the minimum (400 if you plan on scoring video), real world requirements are higher than that for heavy duty stuff. Still, you should be able to run basic projects on it.

As always, did you go down the list of basic things to do, like try to update your video card's drivers, your soundcard's drivers, etc.?

Try to take the forum cum grano salis. A forum is always a magnet for users with potential problems, and therefore things seem a lot more exaggerated than they appear to be.

HTH,
Iacobus

Subject:RE: Did I just make a mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Acid 4.0

Reply by: David_Kuznicki

Date:9/26/2002 10:27:49 PM

--- Did I just make a $150 mistake? Should I cancel my order? After reading this forum - I am not so sure if I shouldn't have just bought Cakewalk Homestudio or Sonar. I really don't need the looping functionality.

You know... I HATE to ask the obvious question, but out of idle curiousity, if you didn't need to loop, why pick Acid?

Not to knock Acid, of course (it really is a great tool), but did you do your homework here? Acid is not, and is not intended to be, an all-in-one solution...

David.

Subject:RE: Did I just make a mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Acid 4.0

Reply by: bgood

Date:9/27/2002 9:29:28 AM

I picked acid based on the quality and usability of Acid Music 2.0. I have found that I am actually more productive (guitarist/songwriter) in that UI. I like the idea loops for drums and want to explore that further since up until now most of my drum tracks have been midi. While I said I don't need loops - I think that they might make my life easier.

I thought that Acid 4.0 would give me the audio recording environment, ability to use an integrated environment for midi (if I need to) and the ability to get away from midi and use loops for drums and maybe other instruments to augment what I have been doing. I think I did my homework but if there is something else out there, I would love to hear about it. I downloaded a demo version of Acid Music 3.0 which does include the ability to import midi tracks - that might be the right one but it would be cool to have midi edit too. Just a little concerned about my investment at this point (small as it is). If I have to buy a new system to make this work - I am not too concerned. I have been itching for a new desktop anyway. I would just hate to end up with bad software after all that.

Subject:RE: Did I just make a mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Acid 4.0

Reply by: kaisersuzuki

Date:9/27/2002 9:58:07 AM

Mistakes I just payed 250 dollars here on this website for Acid only. I'm a little curious how they have that deal. I feel kind of ripped off.

Kaiser

Subject:RE: Did I just make a mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Acid 4.0

Reply by: inspector

Date:9/27/2002 10:57:04 AM

If you can't get the software to work for you, Musicians Friend will give inhouse credit on software returns.

Steve

Subject:RE: Did I just make a mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Acid 4.0

Reply by: anon

Date:9/27/2002 11:20:39 AM

bgood - This might be a given, but did you download the 4.0a update???

Oh wait, I just noticed that you have only used the demo, which I assume is v. 4.0a. Nevermind.

Subject:RE: Did I just make a mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Acid 4.0

Reply by: doctorfish

Date:9/27/2002 8:27:06 PM

I'd say you got a great deal!

Take some time and tweak you system a bit. Acid 4.0 needs a little more
power than 2 did. I have 4.0a running trouble free on two computers,
the lesser of which is Pentium 3, 650 mhz, 128 mb ram on Korean Windows ME
(which is an awful, awful platform).

And remember too as someone said earlier, in the forums things often
seem worse than they are since those who have no problems have little need
to post.

Good luck to you.

Dave