Subject:SUGGESTION: how to alleviate the pain of manually setting '1-shot' vs. 'loop' all the time

Posted by: Snappy

Date:5/23/2003 2:13:53 PM

my idea is primarily to assist in the QUICK building of drum kits in acid from one-shot loops. using sample length as a criteria for '1-shot' vs. 'loop' is totally inadequate. right now, i have 60-second cymbal 'one-hits' that load as loops & .01-second 1-cycle synth tones that load as 1-shots! WRONG!

acidizing sound files in forge is also an inadequate solution. i mean... it would be FINE if i had the time to go through my whole library and acidize every sound, or the $ to hire an engineer to do it for me. it would be REALLY nice if the batch converter could acidize *HINT*HINT* (perhaps the newest one does? i wouldn't know, since i'll _never_ buy a standalone FEATURE!!! >:( )

ANYWAY - my idea:
acid obviously can detect small and large impulses in audio - that's the entire basis of its tempo-matching magic...

SO...

why not put an algorithm in to intelligently detect the nature of 1-shot/loop files? SIMPLY: if it has one giant impulse and no others, consider it a 1-shot. (especially if the impulse comes at/near the beginning of the file.)

or maybe use some kind of pattern-matching technique, comparing the impulse to a 'classic' drum envelope. if it's more 'like' than 'not like', voila, we have a 1-shot.

i realize there are plenty of one-shots that wouldn't match the classic 'percussive attack' pattern, but i believe the VAST majority could be accurately detected. the remainder we'd have to set manually.

granted, this is an 'english-language' description of a decision that will ultimately have to be quantified into '1s and 0s' to make it work in a computer program, but i'm sure the geniuses @ SF can make it happen!

of course it wouldn't be perfect, but it'd be a damn sight better than what we have now!

thoughts?

Subject:RE: SUGGESTION: how to alleviate the pain of manually setting '1-shot' vs. 'loop' all the time

Reply by: Snappy

Date:5/23/2003 2:17:22 PM

and in the meantime... would u all care to join me in reciting the sacred keystroke combination...

ALT
S
D
O
ENTER
CTRL+F4
Y

!!!!

now again, but this time with feeling!!!!!!!!!!

Subject:RE: SUGGESTION: how to alleviate the pain of manually setting '1-shot' vs. 'loop' all the time

Reply by: Snappy

Date:5/23/2003 2:39:29 PM

once u have recited the sacred keystroke combination 100 times, you have proven your worthiness to enter:

THE TEMPLE OF THE MACRO!!!

http://www.americansys.com/ezmacros.htm

(note that i'm not plugging this prog for any other reason than it's the first one i found that had XP support. i'd love to hear about any alternatives... ESPECIALLY FREEWARE!)

Subject:RE: SUGGESTION: how to alleviate the pain of manually setting '1-shot' vs. 'loop' all the time

Reply by: ATP

Date:5/23/2003 2:59:41 PM

there's a program called Acidizer which seemingly makes quick work of acidizing lots of loops at once. it's shareware, so i don't know if it will work only a certain amount of time or that you just get a nagscreen. anyway, you might just wanna check it out :

http://www.softandco.com/a/5964/Acidizer.html

hth.

Subject:RE: SUGGESTION: how to alleviate the pain of manually setting '1-shot' vs. 'loop' all the time

Reply by: SonyJEV

Date:5/23/2003 3:03:32 PM

How about this:

Select the files you want to add as one shots in ACID's explorer
Drag and drop the files using the *right* mouse button
You get a pop-up asking you what track type you'd like to use for the files
Select "Add as One-Shot"

Pretty "Snappy" if you ask me <g>...

--j

Subject:RE: SUGGESTION: how to alleviate the pain of manually setting '1-shot' vs. 'loop' all the time

Reply by: Snappy

Date:5/23/2003 4:32:53 PM

ATP - i will

JEV - that's better than nothing! =)

but it's a rare occasion that i would grab the whole kit at one time... which means i'd still have to identify them individually... (one extra click on that context menu is still 'one extra click'........)

Subject:RE: SUGGESTION: how to alleviate the pain of manually setting '1-shot' vs. 'loop' all the time

Reply by: SkZ

Date:5/23/2003 10:09:02 PM

Well you learn something new every day !! cool tip JEV ;)

Subject:RE: SUGGESTION: how to alleviate the pain of manually setting '1-shot' vs. 'loop' all the time

Reply by: dkistner

Date:5/24/2003 5:11:54 AM

Acid used to have a feature where, if you'd right click on a file or files in Explorer, it would give you a choice of which type it should be: Add to project as one-shot, as beat-mapped, etc. That was a very handy tool and I don't know why it was taken out.

Clicking/dragging is very difficult for people with carpal tunnel syndrome or other shoulder/arm injuries to do.

Maybe a quick solution would be to provide a way people could specify the default type of file (either time-based as now or type-based) that Acid should pull a file in, then give them the option to do it a different way via the right-click Explorer method. If the "Add to Project" was the default and then there was, e.g., "Add as one-shot" "Add as beat-mapped" right under it that you could quickly select to overrride the default, that would work without requiring too much intelligence from Acid.

Subject:RE: SUGGESTION: how to alleviate the pain of manually setting '1-shot' vs. 'loop' all the time

Reply by: jam

Date:5/24/2003 1:07:47 PM

thank you JEV for the TiP :)

Regards,
jam