Subject:sound quality question

Posted by: gazercmh

Date:3/21/2003 10:37:28 AM

hello all.

i love working with acid, but sometimes am disappointed with the sound quality of time-stretched loops. hoping someone can give some advice on this.

i've found that if i just put loops into acid and change their tempo there, the sound quality can drop, but if i use one-shots in acid, they sound fine.

is there always a drop (however subtle) in sound quality when you use loops in acid, or is it only when their tempo is being changed?

in other words, if i have a four-bar sample that is already in the right tempo (time-stretched through sound forge, for example) and i simply want it to repeat eight times, would there be a difference in sound quality if i used it in acid as a loop and ran the loop eight times in a row, or if i used it in acid as a one-shot and lined up eight one-shots back to back?

Subject:RE: sound quality question

Reply by: groovewerx

Date:3/21/2003 10:51:53 AM

i've found that there is a difference in q. to get around this i'd draw a one-shot 8 times then render that as a loop.

Subject:RE: sound quality question

Reply by: oofunk

Date:3/21/2003 11:01:51 AM

hmmm.. to be honest i havent noticed a difference with loops and one shots but obviously the further you strecth the sample the worse it will sound.

One thing i have noticed though is the quality will always be better when you render the final wav out than if you listen to it in acid! But never render to the max volume. render to say -6 to -7db and then use t-racks to master it.

Funk

Subject:RE: sound quality question

Reply by: gazercmh

Date:3/21/2003 11:24:05 AM

thanks for replies. that's a great idea to run four one-shots then render those as a loop, groovewerx. then i could run that new loop numerous more times as a one-shot, and it would go four times as fast as using the original loop.

and oofunk, i have to be honest i haven't paid attention to volume settings when rendering, and i've rendered a lot of stuff. thanks for opening my eyes there.

not familiar with t-racks, though. what's that? if it's a software program, i don't have it. could i do the mastering in sound forge just as well?

Subject:RE: sound quality question

Reply by: groovewerx

Date:3/21/2003 12:36:30 PM

t-racks is a suite of dedicated stand-alone mastering tools soundforge cant come close to.

http://www.t-racks.com/

Subject:RE: sound quality question

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:3/21/2003 2:00:21 PM

One-shots happen to be the only track type in ACID that is left alone as far as tempo/key stretching is concerned.

A big factor for Loop type tracks in ACID is to actually go into the stretch properties of the track and adjust the stretch markers. (Access the properties of the track and then select the Stretch tab.) Note this function is in ACID Pro only.

Using this function can make a Loop sound much better when it's stretched to other tempos, especially if these Loops are your own. A lot of the Loops in SoFo's various loop collections actually contain custom stretch markers. (Take a look; they're the light tan ones.) Basically, you'd want stretch markers on pronounced beats and pronounced subdivisions of a beat.

When dealing with stretch markers, you have two options available. You can either modify the markers and the markers will be saved when the project is saved. If you want the markers to be permanently applied to that Loop no matter what project it's in, you'd use the "Save" or "Save As" buttons in the properties window of the track.

HTH,
Iacobus

Subject:RE: sound quality question

Reply by: gazercmh

Date:3/25/2003 10:34:14 AM

Golly, the more I learn the more I realize I have to learn.

I do have ACID Pro, and looked at the stretch markers like you suggested, Iacobus. I'm not sure what to do to improve the loops, though. Are you saying I should drag the stretch markers to the pronounced beats? What effect would this have?

Subject:RE: sound quality question

Reply by: ozzborn

Date:3/25/2003 1:00:21 PM

if a loop sounds really harible in acid but i want to use it.i open the loop in recycle,stretch it to my new song tempo (loops 127 but songs 84),render in recycle,than open in acid.

Subject:RE: sound quality question

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:3/26/2003 2:43:13 PM

You should place a marker at the beginning of each beat and each subdivision of a beat. For example, if I have rhythm that includes an 8th note followed by two 16th notes, I would place a marker on the 8th note and one on each 16th note. (I'm being abstract for this example; you can't actually "see" the 8th and 16th notes in digital audio. You must determine this yourself.)

Placing and using stretch markers are pretty much essential if you want your Loops to sound good in almost any tempo. It's not a magic salve for extreme tempos (is anything?), but it will definitely help.

Like I said in my previous post, take a look at some of the professionally-done loops from the various SoFo libraries. You'll notice that almost all of them have custom markers. Preview these loops (in the same properties window) to get an idea on why those markers are placed accordingly. You might want to even tap along to figure out its rhythm.

HTH,
Iacobus