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Subject:Acid Loop Converter
Posted by: knowbody
Date:10/24/2003 10:04:27 AM

Is there any tool that is usable with Windows XP that allows the conversion of Acid Loops en masse, eg change selected loops to one shot or change the number of beats to a specific value? Is there any chance such a tool could be included with Acid 5.0? I have Batch Converter but surprisingly this doesn't do the job.

Thanks,

Chris (Hunt)

Subject:RE: Acid Loop Converter
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:10/24/2003 12:24:58 PM

There's no easy way of doing this, due to the nature of ACIDization.

I suppose you could easily convert a sample to a One-shot (since what you hear is what you get anyway), but converting samples to ACIDized Loops is a lot more involved. For example, one sample may be four beats long at a tempo of 140 BPM in the key of D Major, while another may be three beats long at 120 BPM in the key of E Major.

I know what you're thinking: I know that, that's why I want to do this.

What I'm asking is do you have a bunch of Loops you know for a fact adhere to a certain key and tempo?

There's also the question of stretch markers, which usually involve the user to adjust them in order to make custom Loops sound their best. (ACID Pro is the only version of ACID that lets you adjust stretch markers.)

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

Subject:RE: Acid Loop Converter
Reply by: knowbody
Date:10/26/2003 8:19:31 PM

Thanks for the reply, Iacobus. I did an Internet search and came across references to AcidHead and Acidizer - but no actual programs to download.

I think such a tool would be useful generally. At the moment I have a specific reason. I have a bunch of samples from Data Becker (SoundClips 12,000). Most of these are short samples and play better as one shots or with the number of beats reduced (eg from 4 beats to 1). There are no root notes and the BPM is often different. Number of beats varies from 4 through to 32.

I wonder if a tool that could search directories and organise results according to different criteria BPM, number of beats, root note would be useful. Then files could be selected and the criteria changed across the board. Does this idea make sense?

Chris

Subject:RE: Acid Loop Converter
Reply by: marcarotsky
Date:10/27/2003 12:33:34 AM

im not sure im getting the EXACT nature of your question, BUT...it seems as if you are trying to convert existing samples and BPM's of those samples to something totally different? if that is the case...go with propellerheads recycle. it is a great program, and i use it with acid religiously. you can take a loop and literally convert any part of it to anything else you want (BPM's, keys, samples, arrangement, length, time) you have TOTAL control over every loop or sample you bring in. and you can export your changes as an "acidized" file. or a rex file (for use with reason)
--marc

Subject:RE: Acid Loop Converter
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:10/27/2003 2:19:44 PM

Actually, it does, especially if you know for a fact a range of sample adhere to certain rules such as an exact number of beats, for example. Then it would be useful.

The reason why I'd urge caution is that ACID does not know the facts about the sample being ACIDized; it's only doing it because you tell it to.

Some users, for example, believe that ACID evaluates a given sample that's not ACIDized. It basically does, but only based upon the length of the sample based upon a four beat selection.

As an example, let's take a sample that's exactly one second long. If this sample were to be four beats long, it'd have to be in a tempo of 240 BPM!

(Remember that it's all mathmatical. There are 60 seconds to each minute. If there are to be four beats in one second, that means there would be a total of 240 beats in one minute.)

If you knew for a fact that the sample needs to be only two beats long, that effectively halves how many beats there would be in a minute, therefore reducing the tempo.

So if the one second sample is set to two beats, that means there would be a total of 120 BPM.

This is why it's so important to know the samples before attempting to ACIDize.

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

Subject:RE: Acid Loop Converter
Reply by: knowbody
Date:10/27/2003 8:24:21 PM

Thanks for both the replies, I don't get the 'it' in your first sentence, Iacobus. Are you referring to Recycle or Acid. For my current purposes I don't think I need anything fancy. I guess recycle only works with one file at a time - I could manually change all the loops using Acid in that case. I'm looking for a way to process lots of loops at once. For example setting them all as one-shots. It would be useful if there was some way of instructing Acid how to deal with non-acidized files, eg have the option of setting it to 'one-shots' or loops for when it encounters such a file.

Chris

Subject:RE: Acid Loop Converter
Reply by: Erik_Nygaard
Date:10/28/2003 8:42:03 AM

I've tried both Acidhead and Acidizer, both have bugs that render them useless. Here's a little-known secret:
You can use Chickensys' Translator to batch convert folders of loops,
all loops in the same folder will get the same "values".
I spent some time emailing with Chickensys last year and got the it working fine eventually. It's very easy to use, you set the various Acid values, right-click on a folder, chose Acidize and presto!
I've used the cheaper Giga version to acidize virtually thousands of multitracked drum-loops. The only snag I've encountered is the few odd 24-bit waves that will not convert, these may be altered manually.

HTH
Erik

Subject:RE: Acid Loop Converter
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:10/30/2003 1:02:30 PM

Hi again Chris,

I was referring to just ACID, but I would imagine the same situation could be applied to ReCycle. (It has its own proprietary stretching algorithm, doesn't it?)

I believe ACID treats samples based upon their length. If ACID encounters a sample that does not have any kind of metadata (ACIDization done to the file), ACID will do its own thing.

By default, anything that's between half a second to 30 seconds will be treated as a Loop (and will use what I described in my earlier post). Anything shorter than half a second gets treated as a One-shot. Anything longer than 30 seconds gets treated as a Beatmapped track.

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

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