Subject:Acid xpress 3.0

Posted by: the_dr38

Date:1/14/2004 11:24:33 AM

Hi newbie here. Not sure if I've come to the right place. Just recently downloaded the free version of Acid xpress 3.0 and to be honest Im completely baffled by the help screen on it. Is it possible to match two song tempos so that they play in time together as it takes forever to do it in Cubase. Are there any tutorials or user-friendly guides to using it on this site? Thanks a lot, sorry if I've bored you already lol :)

Subject:RE: Acid xpress 3.0

Reply by: marcarotsky

Date:1/14/2004 11:40:43 AM

nah, not boring. thats what we're here for!!!! :)

acid express, though VERY limited, WILL provide you with the oppurtunity to beat match songs. (and yes, it is a bit tedious)
i gather you are trying to make a mix cd??? if so, what you need to do is:
1. set your overall project tempo to a relatively middle range for (say techno music if youre making a techno mix cd) set it to 135-140 BPM (if youre doing hip-hop, set it to 98-102)
2. bring in song #1 (just say for ex. castles in the sky, ian van dahl) beatmap that song...(right click on it and select properties) it should beatmap to around 138 bpm.
3. when the song is inserted into your project (remember, the main tempo you set your proj. to was 140 BPM) acid will stretch your song to 140 BPM.
4. do the same thing with all your songs you bring in.
5. now all you need to do is line the downbeats of the song up and start your mixing. you'll realize though, youre going to want to fade some songs in and fade some songs out.

hope this helps ya out.
ask away if you got more questions!!
--marc

Subject:RE: Acid xpress 3.0

Reply by: the_dr38

Date:1/14/2004 2:42:44 PM

Cheers, a lot of other sites aren't so helpful and make u frightened to ask questins. I suppose everyone has to start somewhere, thanks very much, although u may regret inviting me to ask a lot of questions. lol. :)

Subject:RE: Acid xpress 3.0

Reply by: the_dr38

Date:1/14/2004 3:36:07 PM

Ok a few questions does it affect the pitch of the song? I tried to do it and the tempos seem to be the same. I seem to be using some weird programme called techno or something, which automatically opens when i open acid. When i right click on the track after pencilling it in on the top screen, it only gives me the option to adjust the 'start offset' and 'pitch' (which is actually faded out). And they both stick to the same tempo. Sorry again for the annoyance :)

Subject:RE: Acid xpress 3.0

Reply by: marcarotsky

Date:1/15/2004 10:08:44 AM

sorry for the delay...
if you stretch a beatmapped song, you can set it to NOT stretch the key of the song. it seems that you are using "acid techno" version. all the acids are the same in principle except the bundled loops they come with. it sounds to me because you have the "limited" stripped down version of acid, a lot of the features you dont have access to. youll have to excuse me, im not sure what is available and not availaable in the acid xpress line. (i use acid pro)
--marc

Subject:RE: Acid xpress 3.0

Reply by: the_dr38

Date:1/15/2004 3:30:34 PM

I'm currently downloading acid pro 4.0 Should this be ok to do the job? If it works I think I might end up buying it. I just wanna get a feel for it first. I also downloaded something called ableton live 3.0 today which seems very hard to use as well. Do u know much about recording audio into Cubase vst with a mic please???

Subject:RE: Acid xpress 3.0

Reply by: marcarotsky

Date:1/15/2004 4:53:34 PM

recording vocals isnt really my thing to be honest (well, right now anyway) i do 80% remixing of music and 20% original trance type producing. so vocal recording isnt my specialty. but to answer your earlier questions....
1. YES, acid pro will do EVERYTHNIG you are describing that you want to do!! (plus more)
2. cubase and ableton live (both very high end audio apps) are both very respectable in their own rights. ableton lives learning curver is VERY LARGE though, so be careful. Cubases learning curve is a little better. and still a VERY powerful program.

my suggestion would be to start with acid. believe it or not, Acid was one of the first pioneers of windows based and computer based sequencing on loops. and it is much easier to learn than the other 2 programs. but, whats great is although there are a lot of "higher end" programs out there, they are all pretty much based around the technology and concepts that started with acid. so, if you learn acid good, going to a different program becomes a much more pleasant experience!
acid pro is a great and powerful tool. youll get the hang of it in no time. to get from point A to point B in acid there are very few middle routes. in other programs, to get from A to B there are many many steps in between which can become quite burdensome.
i make my living off of acid pro 4.0, propellerhead reason, and sound forge 7.0 (and of course many many many plug-ins)
so, theres some more info for ya....good luck!!! and keep asking away if you want!! :)
--marc

Subject:RE: Acid xpress 3.0

Reply by: the_dr38

Date:1/16/2004 7:15:42 AM

Wow, thanks for that response. I downloaded acid pro 4.0 and what can I say, What a lovely programme to use. It asked me about the beatmapping upon selecting a song and basically did it al for me. Absoloutely brilliant. I still seem to be having a problem getting the beatmapping perfect. On the second beatmapping prompt screen (the one used to ensure the accuracy of the metronome) For the first few parts of the song it's fine but towards the end when i scroll along it seems to be out which I assume means I need to mess around with it for a bit.

Yes I agree that the learning curve for Ableton is rather steep. After using cubase for so long the concept is a bit scary but im sure ill be alright in time. I recently downloaded reason 2.5 to see whether it was as good as everyone said, and mroe importantly, if I could use it. But apparently I need to get an orkester disc or something for which the info wasn't available on the web so Im thinking maybe to try reason 2 as there were loads of these available. Will this make a difference??? Many thanks again mate :)

Subject:RE: Acid xpress 3.0

Reply by: thedoctor

Date:2/19/2004 8:44:42 AM

Hi it's still the same person just under a different name. I remember you saying that you use a programme called reason. I have been using this myself but lately havent been able to load it as it says that it cannot open rewire2 system. it did this b34 and was ok once re-installed but now it's not working again. Do you have any ideas what I could do to get it working please? Many thanks mate :)