Opening Acid 5 .acd files in Acid Pro 4 -ACID Product Family

Subject:Opening Acid 5 .acd files in Acid Pro 4 Posted by: Dominion Date:6/27/2005 11:32:15 AM I downloaded the .exe archive for the NIN contest. I went to open the .acd project files and got this error msg: An error occured while loading the project file (name).acd This files appears to have been created in a newer version of ACID, and is not supported in this version of ACID. Please download and install the latest update of ACID. This happend with both the Acid Xpress project file and the Acid MusicStudio project file. Well I have the latest update of ACID Pro 4 (f) build 446. So are ACID Pro 4 users not able to open project files from _any_ version of Acid 5?
Subject:RE: Opening Acid 5 .acd files in Acid Pro 4 Reply by: Illogical Date:6/27/2005 12:13:00 PM Yeah, they stopped supporting everything except Acid Pro, Music & Express 5. Here's a quote from Dave Hollinden, webmaster of Acid Planet. It applies to 8packs, but the logic is presumably the same: I understand your point about compatibility regarding 8packs and contest projects. I've received other complaints about this, and have composed a response. I'll post that here (I may have posted it in this forum already.) 8packs are not a feature of ACID, nor a part of your software purchase. We voluntarily create and distribute them for free. One of the reasons we do this is to use 8packs as a learning tool for new ACID users. We hope that new visitors to the site will download ACID XPress and an 8pack, and get an idea how this stuff works. In that sense, it's better to offer 8packs in a file format compatible with the current version of ACID XPress, which is 5.0. This is true for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the 8packs can now use features that are available in ACID 5.0, and thus actually represent ACID 5.0 features that users might be interested in. And secondly, 8packs that are compatible with ACID 3 cause an error/warning dialog box to pop up when you open them in ACID 5.0, and that is a bad initial experience for new users who are trying out our software for the first time. So we tried to juggle two things: on the one hand we have a desire to give away 8packs compatible with our current version of ACID, and on the other hand we have a desire to keep loyal 8pack users happy. Personally, I think we struck a pretty good balance. We've been doing 8packs in ACID 3 file format for nearly four years to make sure that ACID 3 users weren't left behind. ACID Pro 5 came out seven months ago, with Music Studio 5 following shortly thereafter. In addition, the free ACID XPress 5 is available for anyone that doesn't want to upgrade but still wants to see how the project files are put together. (Unfortunately, there was no ACID XPress 4.) And the loops themselves are always free to be used by anyone, even people that don't use ACID. The concerns of ACID 3 and 4 users played an important role in determining when to make this switch. When weighing everything together, we thought that this was a good time to switch to 5.0 compatible 8packs.
Subject:RE: Opening Acid 5 .acd files in Acid Pro 4 Reply by: DaveHollinden Date:6/29/2005 2:39:20 PM Yes, regarding the version compatibility of the ACID projects that we distribute on ACIDplanet (both 8packs and contest sample remixes), we have switched to version ACID 5.0. The above quote from me is accurate, and applies to the contest sample remixes as well as 8packs. Keep in mind that the loops are still there to use, it's only the project file that you may no longer be able to open in your current version of ACID. And if you want to see how the project is put together, you can download ACID XPress 5 for free. Dave Hollinden Producer, ACIDplanet.com

Yeah, they stopped supporting everything except Acid Pro, Music & Express 5.

Here's a quote from Dave Hollinden, webmaster of Acid Planet. It applies to 8packs, but the logic is presumably the same:

I understand your point about compatibility regarding 8packs and contest projects. I've received other complaints about this, and have composed a response. I'll post that here (I may have posted it in this forum already.)

8packs are not a feature of ACID, nor a part of your software purchase. We voluntarily create and distribute them for free. One of the reasons we do this is to use 8packs as a learning tool for new ACID users. We hope that new visitors to the site will download ACID XPress and an 8pack, and get an idea how this stuff works. In that sense, it's better to offer 8packs in a file format compatible with the current version of ACID XPress, which is 5.0. This is true for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the 8packs can now use features that are available in ACID 5.0, and thus actually represent ACID 5.0 features that users might be interested in. And secondly, 8packs that are compatible with ACID 3 cause an error/warning dialog box to pop up when you open them in ACID 5.0, and that is a bad initial experience for new users who are trying out our software for the first time.

So we tried to juggle two things: on the one hand we have a desire to give away 8packs compatible with our current version of ACID, and on the other hand we have a desire to keep loyal 8pack users happy. Personally, I think we struck a pretty good balance. We've been doing 8packs in ACID 3 file format for nearly four years to make sure that ACID 3 users weren't left behind. ACID Pro 5 came out seven months ago, with Music Studio 5 following shortly thereafter. In addition, the free ACID XPress 5 is available for anyone that doesn't want to upgrade but still wants to see how the project files are put together. (Unfortunately, there was no ACID XPress 4.) And the loops themselves are always free to be used by anyone, even people that don't use ACID.

The concerns of ACID 3 and 4 users played an important role in determining when to make this switch. When weighing everything together, we thought that this was a good time to switch to 5.0 compatible 8packs.