If you don't like AP5 midi... -ACID Product Family

ACID Product Family

Subject:If you don't like AP5 midi... Posted by: luces1 Date:2/7/2005 11:33:47 AM This is just my 2 cents about all of the belly aching that I see about the lack of midi in AP5... so keep the flame to a minimum pleeezzze!! First off let me say that I have been using ACid for about 4years and as looping device it IS Simply the BEST!!!! I am a software junklie and I have tested just about every big deal out there as well as off the beaten path software and believe me ACID IS THE BEST!! Just like everybody here I too was always jonesing to get midi in ACID and I must admit that when it did, I was dissappointed as it seemed remedial at best. Also let me say that I have been working with sequencing and midi for over 15 tyears. I have used hardware devices(all the Roland line sequencers and samplers, as well as a few Yamaha seqencers and keys, Amiga and Atari software, as well as early MOTU stuff), so my expectations were a bit high for the midi stuff. A few months back I had enough, so I through down for Cubase SE (my retail sales guy recommended it). So what the hell, he said it was great for VST, VSTi, DirectX, blah,blah,blah. So, I got it and it is pretty good. The more I use it the better it seems, so I got lucky. STill, it sucks for looping (if you want to call it that),but it is very nice in many other arenas. Okay, not to be long winded,but I am,...my brother recently got Cakewalk Home Studio and he wants me to collaborate on some projects, well needless to say I did not want to transfer and retransfer a bunch of wave tracks AND I did not NEED to spend more $$$ on another piece of software, so what was I to do... well, I DID buy another piece of software, Cakewal Music Creator2. This way we could use the Cakewalk bundle file approach. And it is all good. Now, the reason for all of this diatribe is.....(drumroll please), much to my surpise I discovered that that I can Rewire ACID to MC2 and have a ton of midi capability AND the greatest looping device work together!!!! Had I known that all of these things would have come to pass (Acid rewire, MC2 upgrade) so on and so forth, I would have never purchased Cubase(although I am growing fond of it)!! My point is this...MC2 is $39 at Best buy(it only supports 48K 16bit,but what the hell..you can upgrade to the Pro version for $19...still cheaper than any other setup I can think of) and start making ALL the great music that is dancing around in your head! Sure as a consumer you might feel cheated, but once I got past that, I love ACID even more now and I am making music without any real limitations(well lack of inspiration, but that's not Sony's fault!) So everybody who is bummed out with ACID's midi implementation, do yourself a favor and get MC2 (if you don't already have a solid sequncer) and don't look back. Luces
Subject:RE: If you don't like AP5 midi... Reply by: Rednroll Date:2/8/2005 7:39:09 AM Thanks for the tip Luces. Your story and background sounds very similar to mine with midi and my expectations. I have tried Cubase in the past for my midi sequencing needs and was not over joyed. I tried every Cakewalk up to Cakewalk Pro audio 9.0 and still felt a bit limited. I will take a look at MC2. One question, does MC2 have a step record function? I like to write my music in parts, like intro, verse, chorus...etc. Then when I'm done with the individual sections I like to arrange the song in a step record function, where I can create one midi sequence which appears on one track with events labeled, Intro, verse,chorus verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro. Then if I need to edit any of those sections then I just click on that event and up pops a copy of the orinal sequence that can be edited. If MC2 has this functionality, then I'm definately interested. Thanks for your feedback, Red
Subject:RE: If you don't like AP5 midi... Reply by: luces1 Date:2/8/2005 2:18:24 PM Hey Red. To answer your question, yes you can. Although I NEVER(rarerly I should say) use Step record,it is included with MC2. You have to trigger the notes from your keyboard though(actually that is my understanding from the manual,like I said I NEVER use Step rec but according to the manual and the drop down menu it IS there), or you can use the Score function and just put the notes on a Staff, I prefer this method. Like I said, MC2 is great with midi, and ok with audio. Depending on your machine you may experience some stuttering, but I do okay, using 8-10track of audio, 10-20 loop tracks in Acid and 10-20 midi tracks in MC2. My machine is a 1.8g Athlon. Like I said, for $39 I was shocked that I could rewire Acid. THAT was worth the $$$ to me.Also it has the standard Piano Roll Good Luck.
Subject:RE: If you don't like AP5 midi... Reply by: Rednroll Date:2/9/2005 9:39:42 AM Maybe you miss understood my question. When I said "step Record", I'm actually referring to a "Song mode" arrangement type of recording. For example in Studio Vision, I can create seperate sequences with multiple tracks of midi. Each sequence will have it's own duration, and tempo. So let's say I make a Verse sequence consisting of 10 midi tracks and is 16 bars in length and tempo of 90BPM. We'll call that Sequence "A" I Then create a new sequence, which will be my chorus which has 14 midi tracks and is 12 bars in length and tempo 110BPM. We'll call that Sequence "B". I then create a new sequence which I will call my song arrangement sequence. I put Vision in Step Record function and Arm a midi track. I then press PC keys A,A,B,A,B, and I have a single tracks laid out of VERSE,VERSE,CHORUS,VERSE,CHORUS. Then if I want to add other midi tracks to this arranged song, I take the sequence out of Step Record funtion and then just arm a midi track and record additional performances. The individual sequences appear as single EVENTS on that one track where I did the step record funtion. If I want to edit the original sequence or add additonal parts to that EVENT, let's say Sequence "A" the verse, then I just click on the EVENT and up pops a Copy of the original Sequence where I can then edit away or record additional musical parts. Then when I close that out, the changes get made to the single event, so I can therefore change the performance up on the individual VERSE events, so everything doesn't sound the same. Most sequencers have a song arrangement mode.....well except for Acid. I've seen this same functionality on the Akai MPC drum machines as well.
Subject:RE: If you don't like AP5 midi... Reply by: DKeenum Date:2/10/2005 5:10:18 PM Red, That's the way I learned computer sequencing. It just makes sense to my feeble little mind. I wonder if vision was the only program to do it that way... I do miss it.....
Subject:RE: If you don't like AP5 midi... Reply by: JohnnyRoy Date:2/10/2005 5:43:43 PM > I wonder if vision was the only program to do it that way... Actually, in the days of DOS and early MIDI, Roger Powell had a program called Texture that worked very similar to what you are explaining. Texture was my first sequencer because Roger and I were developing software together. Roger is actually the person who got me interested in programming computers. He wrote the MIDI Sequencer and I wrote MIDI Editor Librarians (I had editor librarians for the ESQ-1/SQ-80, Matrix-6, DX7, etc.). I wrote them in Turbo Pascal and Roger wrote in C using the Latus C compiler. (funny how you remember that kind of stuff) Texture had a pattern mode and a song mode. You would record a verse, chorus, bridge as separate patterns. Then you would go in song mode and tell it to play the patterns AABAABCB and you would get 2 verses, a chorus, 2 verses, a chorus, a bridge, a chorus and out. It was simple yet effective. ~jr
Subject:RE: If you don't like AP5 midi... Reply by: DKeenum Date:2/11/2005 9:24:25 AM That's it! That is the way vision worked. I can do it the way every program does it now, but I miss that pattern mode....
Subject:RE: If you don't like AP5 midi... Reply by: luces1 Date:2/13/2005 11:20:11 AM hey Red, Sorry this response took so long, but I have been out of town. Unfortunately MC2 does not work that way.I don't know what software does work like that. In Cubase you can open a multi channel mid file to any track but the whole pattern thing doesn't exist. Sorry,Luces.
Subject:RE: If you don't like AP5 midi... Reply by: Rednroll Date:2/14/2005 7:03:40 AM Yep thanks anyways. It's funny how technology progresses and all these midi sequencers are now able to do a million audio tasks, yet I still find myself using a midi sequencer that's been discontinued for 6 years and the rest of the midi sequncers haven't fully caught up to it's abilities yet. I just find some of these features key workflow features now and I hate to take 2 midi steps backwards just so I can move 1 audio step forward. Well, my never ending midi sequencer, Studio Vision replacement quest continues.

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