Subject:No Chopper

Posted by: Blim

Date:4/30/2004 6:29:10 AM

Hi, I'm a complete newcomer to Acid and I've just discovered that I've got no chopper!

I've got Acid Music 3.0 and I am going through David Franks' book Acid Power! to learn how to use it. In the book he talks about the Chopper window, which is supposed to allow me to trim my audio files. Unfortunately the Chopper window is not listed in my view menu. In the book it says it should be on keyboard shortcut Alt-2. This isn't mentioned in the View menu either, it jumps from Alt-1 to Alt-3.

I bought the software from Amazon so I assume it is fully functional. It's not the express version and I can use more than 10 tracks and can access the effects (neither of which I could do with the demo version). I also registered when I first installed so I cannot think what I might be doing wrong.

Is Chopper worth hunting for?

Ian

Subject:RE: No Chopper

Reply by: Blim

Date:4/30/2004 7:09:32 AM

I've just closed Acid 3.0 and been presented with an advert for Acid Pro. The first additional feature it mentions is Chopper. So it's not in the product I bought. O well. Acid Power! says that it covers Acid Music. I guess it covers Acid Pro as well, but doesn't tell you when it's describing Pro only features.

Does anyone know if the Sound Forge demo on the book's disc would do the same sort of thing?

Subject:RE: No Chopper

Reply by: SonySteveS

Date:4/30/2004 7:10:57 AM

Hi Ian,

The Chopper is not available in ACID Music 3. You'll need to upgrade to Pro if you want to use this feature.

Thanks,
Steve

Subject:RE: No Chopper

Reply by: SonySteveS

Date:4/30/2004 7:29:59 AM

Yes and no. Sound Forge can be a really powerful tool for creating and editing loops for ACID. But I wouldn't really think of it as a replacement for the Chopper.

Technically, the Chopper doesn't actually do anything that you couldn't do in any version of ACID editing events by hand. It's just a tool that makes this sort of editing much simpler and much faster.

Subject:RE: No Chopper

Reply by: Big_Faced_Boy

Date:4/30/2004 6:02:37 PM

I never use the chopper... you can't always guarantee the timing of your loops is going to be bang on, so pops and clicks abound. I always just set the grid to "Ruler Marks Only", zoom (using the mouse wheel) in and out then use a combination of S (Split track), ctrl+x (cut), crl+c (copy) or ctrl+v (paste) and the eraser tool. Also, holding ctrl (or l click, hold then r click and hold) and dragging while using the pencil tool will copy the highlighted section. You can zoom right in to make sure all the events start where you want, ie on the beat, and be sure that the chops don't pop by holding Alt and dragging left and right across the hilighted event to fine tune the position.

A lot of tracks with a lot of chops=high cpu load, so mixing them down (solo track then ctrl+m) and muting/removing the original is a good idea.

BFB

Subject:RE: No Chopper

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:5/1/2004 11:19:40 AM

You can fine tune a selection using the Chopper. Either turn off snapping (F7) and/or use any of the editing techniques as you would on the timeline. For example, hold down SHIFT on your keyboard and use the arrow keys to fine tune a selection in increments pixel by pixel. (Amount selected will depend on zoom level.)

Odd. I never came across a high CPU load of any sort when using multiple tracks that were chopped. (Loop or otherwise.)

Iacobus
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