Subject:Pro Quality Demos, Acid & More...

Posted by: spinweb

Date:5/6/2004 9:27:21 AM

My goal is to make professional quality demos of pop/rock songs.

I currently have:

an IBM T30 laptop,
Sound Blaster Pro 16 compatible sound card ( I think)
ACID 4,
Shure analog Mic,
Line6 POD,
acoustic and electic guitars

OK. I guess the 16-bit OEM sound card isn't cutting it. I'm getting ready to buy
an Echo Indigo IO Sound Card, which another post here suggested. I'm told that
should help a bit.

Basically I'd love any tips on how to get my finished songs to be much more
professional. One can easily get lost in the hardware and software world with
audio. Effects, sound cards, production, MIDI, Vstmixing, etc, etc. I read "..ASIO and GSIF, which are essential for anyone who works with pro audio apps" and I wonder
whether ACID can cut it.

What I want to avoid is spending a bunch of money on equipment and time learning
it all, only to find out that ACID, or whatever, can't really cut it.

How do I navigate this mess?!?!?!?

Thanks!

Rick

Subject:RE: Pro Quality Demos, Acid & More...

Reply by: DKeenum

Date:5/6/2004 10:06:15 AM

I would suggest that you throughly learn acid before you go to much further. I wonder if something like Cakewalks Guitar something or other (can't remember the name!) might be what you are looking for. Acid is best at looping.

Don't get me wrong. Acid is great, and you can use it for demos, but it might not be the best choice. Learn acid and if it you can make it work.

Also, the laptop is a compromise for a DAW. Do some research there as well.

Subject:RE: Pro Quality Demos, Acid & More...

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:5/6/2004 12:21:15 PM

You'll definitely want to get a good audio interface of some sort. Can't go wrong with anything by Echo either.

ACID Pro 4.0 can work with ASIO. Personally, ASIO is good for recording MIDI, but WDM/MME or Echo's PureWave is more flexible. (You can usually only run one ASIO app at a time, even if the drivers are claimed to be "multi-client"; ASIO is just a picky driver model.)

As DKeenum mentioned, definitely get a feel for ACID and how it works. (If you're looking for professional audio, go for ACID Pro; it's the only version of ACID that can do 24-bit audio.) ACID does timestretching on two of the possible three digital audio track types (Loop and Beatmapped; One-shot is the only digital audio track type that is left alone).

If you're the type that works alone for the most part, it may just be up your alley. If you have any questions about ACID, just ask.

HTH,
Iacobus
-------
RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid
mD's ACIDplanet Page
Guitars 4 Kids

Subject:RE: Pro Quality Demos, Acid & More...

Reply by: Snappy

Date:5/26/2004 12:58:28 PM

If you are looking to do 'traditional' multitracking, Acid is not the best tool for the job.

You want something like ProTools, Logic, Sonar, etc. which is designed to be a true multitrack workstation.

Compared to a traditional hardware mixer/tape deck setup, or a dedicated multitracking program like ProTools, Acid has some flaws which are annoying at best, crippling at worst. Hopefully they will fix them in V5, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I use Acid almost every day. But as much as I love it, if I was building a traditional multitrack studio, NO WAY would I use Acid as the core tracking application.

Subject:RE: Pro Quality Demos, Acid & More...

Reply by: spesimen

Date:5/26/2004 4:24:36 PM

i dunno, i think acid can be great for traditional multitracking in some contexts. if you are the only person doing the recording and generally only laying down one part at a time, it is great.. i like it because it is really stripped down and efficient for that purpose. really though until you learn it a bit and get used to figuring out how you like to work, don't worry too much..it's not like anything you learn in acid is going to make it harder to learn another app later, in fact it will be just the opposite.

when trying to make a 'pro' sounding demo like you suggest really the app you use is only a small part of the picture. you're correct that a better soundcard is as much of a factor. also having good monitors to mix on, good mics + pres, lots of practice..etc.. many things in the equation..!