Why I like using ACID...... Pro 5 -ACID Product Family

Subject:Why I like using ACID...... Pro 5 Posted by: billybk Date:4/19/2005 7:30:31 PM Well, since we seem to be deluged with negative vibes on these forums lately (SF8, Vegas 6 for audio and even ACID Pro 5), I thought I would share my positive experiences with ACID Pro 5. I have been using AP 5, almost daily, for the last five months and other than a few odd bugs, ( I've never really had a problem with crashes) I have been able to easily get my work done. Since the 5.0a update, what few problems I did have have been cleared up. I had gotten so spoiled with A5 Pro, with all the new features (many of which I actually use day to day now), that when I did briefly go back to 4.0, for a project, I really missed what I had lost from 5.0 and could not wait to dump 4.0. Needless to say, 4.0 is now permantantly off my DAW, since I have no future use for it. For the way I work, which is using a lot of audio loops, numerous recorded audio tracks and occasional MIDI, ACID Pro 5a has surpassed my expectations. In fact, the new version has actually got my creative juices flowing again. So what are some of my favorite features, in 5.0? First of all, the top five indespensible new features that I use, in virtually every new A5 project nowadays are: Folder Tracks: I use this in each and every project now. I group my media into appropriately named Folder Tracks, Drums, Percussion, Bass, Guitar, Keys, Vocal, etc. What was once a large and hard to manage 50 plus track project can now be easily condensed down to 6, 8 or more Folder Tracks and only expanded when needed. Man, how did we ever live without this fantastic space saving and organizational feature! Bus to Bus Routing: I love this feature, especially when used with Folder Tracks. I will route various groups of tracks, typically by Folder (drums, bass, guitar, BG vocals, percussion, keys etc...) to the appropriately named buses (Drum Bus, Bass Bus, Guitar Bus Vocal Bus etc...). This gives me complete group control with a handy volume slider and realtime metering too. I can easily have 6,8 or more, of these, in a project. I can then further route these Buses to other FX Buses and maybe to even other Buses, if desired, before finally going to the Master bus. Great for stem mixing ACID tracks! VST support: This has really improved my productivty and increased the performance, of my DAW rig. I predominately use UAD-1 DSP and Voxengo VST plugins, in my projects. Using my UAD-1 DSP cards, and the VST plugins, with full PDC, in ACID, has never worked better than in it has, in 5.0a. No different than using any other native plugin and the massive native CPU munching that was so prevalant, in ACID 4, has been pretty much tamed, in A5. I am very happy about that! :-) Plug-In Manager: Just like the one that was added in Sound Forge 6. Great for navigating and adding FX from the PIM dockable window. Also for organizing FX and creating and saving customized FX plugin chains. The FX chains, once created, are available for use between various host apps (ACID Pro 5, Vegas 5 & SF6,7,8), that have the PIM, BTW. I never have to click on the Track/Bus FX button's anymore. I just drap and drop, from my permanantly docked PIM, selected FX to the appropriate FX icon and the FX is automatically loaded. It make's locating and loading individual FX or FX chains quick & easy! Bypass All Audio FX: Nice tool to have when you want to quickly A/B (dry/effects) a mix. Also, if you want to quickly record an audio/MIDI track, and you are using a lot of FX plugins and resources, you can quickly and easily free up needed CPU, in a pinch, with one key click. With the new ACID Pro 5 Key Mapping feature I have assigned F10 to be my hot key, for this. Instant bypass of all audio FX. Cool! Other honorable mentions: Realtime Event Reverse: What a great creative tool. I have already used it in one form or another in a number of projects already. One keystroke, instant reverse, in realtime. Gotta love it! Rewire Slave: Works like a charm. I have already created some SONAR 4/ACID 5 projects with this. It is cool to work, in my favorite multi-track host app and then also have my fav loop arranging tool, used as a plugin. Shweet! Customizable Workspace: I like having additional dockable windows available, like the new Plug-In Manager window. So now I can not only easily find & organize my plugins, but also drag and drop the effects, to tracks and buses, in a matter of seconds. The new Key Mapping feature has allowed me to create my own custom shortcuts, like the aforementioned, Bypass All Audio FX, quickly and easily too. I have also been enjoying the new Groove Mapping tools, Media Manager (I have my entire 38GB loop library tagged and cataloged), the new DOA CD burning capbility and even the new enhanced audio time stretching modes sound better than 4.0, IMO. One nice little undocumented feature in ACID Pro 5, is the use of color codes, on the FX icons, that indicate whether a plugin chain has delay compensated plugins in it and ACID is using PDC. Sorta like FX bin status lights: Green: means that there is no delay compensation by Acid, none of the FX in the chain introduce a delay Yellow: means that there is delay compensation by Acid, at least one of the FX in the chain introduce a delay Red: When ACID is ReWired to another host, the plugin indicator goes red to indicate that the plugins have been bypassed. This is a limitation of ReWire. I have been using ACID Pro, since 1998, version 1.0 and 5.0 is the best most comprehensive update ever, IMHO! At least, most of the improvements are features that I can actually use, in my everyday projects. Out of the gate, 5.0 is far more stable than 4.0 ever was or I would not be using it with my 2 UAD-1 cards. Yes, you can create, mix and even distribute (MP3's, WMA's, CD's, AVI's, MPEG 2's etc..) your media projects, all from one app, ACID Pro 5! Billy Buck
Subject:RE: Why I like using ACID...... Pro 5 Reply by: Illogical Date:4/20/2005 6:47:15 AM Billy B, checked out yr tunes, cool stuff, great guitar riffs, glad your having a good experience with Acid Pro. I'll keep my comments on the positive tip here. Three things I DO like about acid pro 5: 1. Groove Templates - using these more and more, especially the more subtle ones. Combined with a versatile compressor, you can get just about any bassline to work with any beat. Good stuff. 2. Reverse - This is a fun trick, and one that's made it's way into quite a few of my more recent tracks. Easy to audition, and if it doesn't work, just flip it back. 3. Folder Tracks - Very handy project management tool okay, thanks, sony. now fix da bugz! Message last edited on4/20/2005 6:47:57 AM byIllogical.
Subject:RE: Why I like using ACID...... Pro 5 Reply by: DKeenum Date:4/20/2005 10:49:53 AM I also had positive experiences with acid 5 pro. I don't have crashes. And I've left 4.0 behind. To me, this version was a major advancement.
Subject:RE: Why I like using ACID...... Pro 5 Reply by: amikula Date:4/20/2005 8:39:02 PM Right on...Acid 5 was a great step forward. With the nestable folder, groove mapping, media manager (this one took me a little while to really use, now I use this every day and has made my life much easier) and the real-time reverse are my favorites. Other then the one crash I found 5.0 has been stable and working like a champ. Been using Acid since 3.0 and it just keeps getting better and better.
Subject:RE: Why I like using ACID...... Pro 5 Reply by: Zacchino Date:4/21/2005 2:24:07 AM What I love about AP5.0a is its stability. The only crashes I've got, have been reported here in realtime (and got fixed). Bugs, are always bad news (e.g. ghost notes). But I'm sure it'll be fixed. Message last edited on4/21/2005 2:24:54 AM byZacchino.

Well, since we seem to be deluged with negative vibes on these forums lately (SF8, Vegas 6 for audio and even ACID Pro 5), I thought I would share my positive experiences with ACID Pro 5.

I have been using AP 5, almost daily, for the last five months and other than a few odd bugs, ( I've never really had a problem with crashes) I have been able to easily get my work done. Since the 5.0a update, what few problems I did have have been cleared up. I had gotten so spoiled with A5 Pro, with all the new features (many of which I actually use day to day now), that when I did briefly go back to 4.0, for a project, I really missed what I had lost from 5.0 and could not wait to dump 4.0. Needless to say, 4.0 is now permantantly off my DAW, since I have no future use for it. For the way I work, which is using a lot of audio loops, numerous recorded audio tracks and occasional MIDI, ACID Pro 5a has surpassed my expectations. In fact, the new version has actually got my creative juices flowing again. So what are some of my favorite features, in 5.0?

First of all, the top five indespensible new features that I use, in virtually every new A5 project nowadays are:

Folder Tracks: I use this in each and every project now. I group my media into appropriately named Folder Tracks, Drums, Percussion, Bass, Guitar, Keys, Vocal, etc. What was once a large and hard to manage 50 plus track project can now be easily condensed down to 6, 8 or more Folder Tracks and only expanded when needed. Man, how did we ever live without this fantastic space saving and organizational feature!

Bus to Bus Routing: I love this feature, especially when used with Folder Tracks. I will route various groups of tracks, typically by Folder (drums, bass, guitar, BG vocals, percussion, keys etc...) to the appropriately named buses (Drum Bus, Bass Bus, Guitar Bus Vocal Bus etc...). This gives me complete group control with a handy volume slider and realtime metering too. I can easily have 6,8 or more, of these, in a project. I can then further route these Buses to other FX Buses and maybe to even other Buses, if desired, before finally going to the Master bus. Great for stem mixing ACID tracks!

VST support: This has really improved my productivty and increased the performance, of my DAW rig. I predominately use UAD-1 DSP and Voxengo VST plugins, in my projects. Using my UAD-1 DSP cards, and the VST plugins, with full PDC, in ACID, has never worked better than in it has, in 5.0a. No different than using any other native plugin and the massive native CPU munching that was so prevalant, in ACID 4, has been pretty much tamed, in A5. I am very happy about that! :-)

Plug-In Manager: Just like the one that was added in Sound Forge 6. Great for navigating and adding FX from the PIM dockable window. Also for organizing FX and creating and saving customized FX plugin chains. The FX chains, once created, are available for use between various host apps (ACID Pro 5, Vegas 5 & SF6,7,8), that have the PIM, BTW. I never have to click on the Track/Bus FX button's anymore. I just drap and drop, from my permanantly docked PIM, selected FX to the appropriate FX icon and the FX is automatically loaded. It make's locating and loading individual FX or FX chains quick & easy!

Bypass All Audio FX: Nice tool to have when you want to quickly A/B (dry/effects) a mix. Also, if you want to quickly record an audio/MIDI track, and you are using a lot of FX plugins and resources, you can quickly and easily free up needed CPU, in a pinch, with one key click. With the new ACID Pro 5 Key Mapping feature I have assigned F10 to be my hot key, for this. Instant bypass of all audio FX. Cool!

Other honorable mentions:

Realtime Event Reverse: What a great creative tool. I have already used it in one form or another in a number of projects already. One keystroke, instant reverse, in realtime. Gotta love it!

Rewire Slave: Works like a charm. I have already created some SONAR 4/ACID 5 projects with this. It is cool to work, in my favorite multi-track host app and then also have my fav loop arranging tool, used as a plugin. Shweet!

Customizable Workspace: I like having additional dockable windows available, like the new Plug-In Manager window. So now I can not only easily find & organize my plugins, but also drag and drop the effects, to tracks and buses, in a matter of seconds. The new Key Mapping feature has allowed me to create my own custom shortcuts, like the aforementioned, Bypass All Audio FX, quickly and easily too.

I have also been enjoying the new Groove Mapping tools, Media Manager (I have my entire 38GB loop library tagged and cataloged), the new DOA CD burning capbility and even the new enhanced audio time stretching modes sound better than 4.0, IMO. One nice little undocumented feature in ACID Pro 5, is the use of color codes, on the FX icons, that indicate whether a plugin chain has delay compensated plugins in it and ACID is using PDC. Sorta like FX bin status lights:

Green: means that there is no delay compensation by Acid, none of the FX in the chain introduce a delay

Yellow: means that there is delay compensation by Acid, at least one of the FX in the chain introduce a delay

Red: When ACID is ReWired to another host, the plugin indicator goes red to indicate that the plugins have been bypassed. This is a limitation of ReWire.

I have been using ACID Pro, since 1998, version 1.0 and 5.0 is the best most comprehensive update ever, IMHO! At least, most of the improvements are features that I can actually use, in my everyday projects. Out of the gate, 5.0 is far more stable than 4.0 ever was or I would not be using it with my 2 UAD-1 cards. Yes, you can create, mix and even distribute (MP3's, WMA's, CD's, AVI's, MPEG 2's etc..) your media projects, all from one app, ACID Pro 5!

Billy Buck