Subject:I want to buy Acid

Posted by: abrassell

Date:8/1/2003 6:19:07 PM

I am very interested in buying Acid. I want to do a very specific thing and was wondering if someone could tell me a little about it. I want to make simple 12 bar blues songs. Do I need to also purchase a CD of Blues loops? Do places like Comp USA and best buy sell these CDs? How do you handle chord changes? How do you change keys and tempos?

Sorry for the neophyte questions but I want to know.

Subject:RE: I want to buy Acid

Reply by: vanblah

Date:8/1/2003 9:03:40 PM

Download the demo of Acid. You might be able to get the answers that way MUCH faster and more accurately than if someone tried to tell you.

To answer your question about loops, you can create your own if you have the instrumentation. Besy Buy probably is not that best place to get loops. You might try a music store first, or better yet online. Chord changes and tempo changes are simply a matter of telling the program what you want to do with a particular part of the loop.

Subject:RE: I want to buy Acid

Reply by: mortalengines

Date:8/1/2003 9:47:30 PM

As loops go, it seems like SF just did a loop library featuring some more "mainstream drum" sounds that is, for blues, pop & rock- I have been getting cheap loops on e-bay, I'm saying cheap, not necessarily great but, ok for the price- SF has some really good libraries. Making your own loops is definitely possible but, it will help to have a good soundcard, and a good wav file editor like Sound Forge as well-

Subject:RE: I want to buy Acid

Reply by: CCCPXAPbKOB

Date:8/1/2003 11:03:42 PM

Guitar center has good CD's with loops, I've bought some of them... but they're pretty expensive, for 3 CD's I payed 180 $... the best is to make your own!

Subject:RE: I want to buy Acid

Reply by: makodog

Date:8/2/2003 12:40:11 PM

I bought my Acid program at Guitar Center for about $150.00. It came with a whole assortment of loops and a copy of sound forge studio. For me it was a good value and I use other programs for recording as well. Acid is a good program at a reasonable price.

Subject:RE: I want to buy Acid

Reply by: abrassell

Date:8/3/2003 12:25:37 PM

I bought Acid. So far I like it a lot but I had a couple of questions. When I put in a drum beat and try to slow it down to a blues tempo by inseting a tempo change the music sounds "warbly" and slightly distorted. Is that the correct way to slow down a particular loop? Also, if I have a piano chord vamping on an "E" chord and, in the context of a 12 bar blues song, want the vamping "E" to change to an "A" and I set a transpose command it sounds awful. Do I have to start out with chords that are already recorded as "E" "A" & "B"?

Subject:RE: I want to buy Acid

Reply by: mortalengines

Date:8/3/2003 6:36:35 PM

I know your frustration- as far as I can tell, when you jack with the speed down by more than 10-15 bPM you get the warbling sound- I have used this effect to advantage on a couple of my projects but, It would definitely not work with what you are going for - as far as adjusting the chords try selecting & right clicking on the events at specific divisions & using the pitch shift function to do this at specific times you will have to individually pencil in the event to the individual grid spots that way you don't pitch shift the entire track but what you have pencilled in as individual events- this may or may not work better- I would like to hear some suggestions from some of the more experienced acid users-

Subject:RE: I want to buy Acid

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:8/4/2003 1:02:31 PM

In addition to what mortal suggested, try taking the Pencil Tool or Selection Tool, click on a part of an event where you'd like to see the pitch shift (use F8 to toggle snapping), and then press S on your keyboard. Repeat as necessary. This will split the event so you can change successive events without affecting the entire event.

When working with ACIDized loops, pay attention to the original tempo and key of the loop (which is shown at the bottom right of the Explorer window when you click on a loop in the Explorer).

Note that ACID can't work magic on every loop. Piano sounds are a little more nuanced than other instruments, and thus any type of digital manipulation will sound strange to the ear. When working with such loops, try to keep it in its original key if possible. Even better, record your own. Any material you record in ACID will usually playback as you've recorded it. By default, any material that's 30 seconds or shorter that you bounce down will be turned into a Loop, which means that your material will be ACIDized with key and tempo info. (Key and tempo info is taken from the project's overall key and tempo.)

Also, the key info embedded in an ACIDized loop is basically for ACID's reference only. For more info, consult this KB article. They can explain it better than I can. ;o)

HTH,
Iacobus
-------
RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid
mD's ACIDplanet Page

Subject:RE: I want to buy Acid

Reply by: DKeenum

Date:8/4/2003 1:18:54 PM

Try looking at a CD by SF called Whiskey, Cigarettes & Gumbo. Also, the Mick Fleetwood CD has some blues type Drum loops. I can't say which Bass CD would be the best.