Questions on Acid and video... -ACID Product Family

Subject:Questions on Acid and video... Posted by: rusty Date:6/16/2001 6:31:46 PM Hi, My main (in fact only) reason for purchasing Acid Pro was to generate music for the animations I create. The acid manual has very little on what Acid can do with video (avi files, etc.). Is there more information somewhere? It seems like you can rearrange video frames, perhaps 'stretch' frames??? Yes, no? It 'seems' like it will save the video with any sounds and music you put to it, true? I can not invest in more SW now (like Vegas Video) but it looks like both Acid and Sound Forge XP will 'do' video... any advantage to using one over the other? Thank you for any help that you can provide! Rusty
Subject:RE: Questions on Acid and video... Reply by: Iacobus Date:6/16/2001 6:56:36 PM Try here? http://www.sonicfoundry.com/acid3launch/video.htm (Kinda neat. Be aware that the sample file they want you to use with the tutorial is huge at 59 MB.) HTH, Iacobus
Subject:RE: Questions on Acid and video... Reply by: Rockitglider Date:6/16/2001 11:56:12 PM Hello, You can only score video you can't edit or arrange it won't let you add more than one clip or image at a time you have to edit in Video Factory (Only $50.00 In Stores) or Vegas Video or you might be able to do some work on your video in Vegas Audio LE I haven't tried yet because I use Video Factory It's a great program for the price. See ya
Subject:RE: Questions on Acid and video... Reply by: hemmerling Date:6/22/2001 11:33:59 PM I am also interested in making music for video tracks, non-commercially. Besides SF ACID 3.0 and the SF Vegas product line and the SF Videofactory, there are such tools: a) DDCLIP 2.23 - free download of the old 4-track audio edition http://www.softlab-nsk.com/ddclipro/free.html ( you may load more than one videoclip into the video timeline, so "hard cuts" and "assembly cuts" are possible ) b) SEKD Samplitude http://www.sekd.com/ http://www.magix.net/ In Germany, the full-version, uncrippled, non-expiring, entry-level Samplitude BASIC 5.20 ( with 8 audio tracks ) was supplied for free on the CDs of two computer magazines PC Magazin ( issue 7/2000 ) and PCGO ( issue 9/2000 ). Btw, Samplitude BASIC 5.20 loads WMA files and saves audio files to WAV - great for use with ACID Xpress. There is a trial version of the full-blown edition available, too. ( you may just link ONE video clip with each project). c) Magic Music Maker Professional http://www.magix.net The demo does not store - so you must buy. ( this is both a video and audio editor, like a combination of SF VideoFactory and SF Vegas). d) Most commercial full versions of multimedia video editors like Ulead Media Studio, MainActor, Premiere 6.0 full edition,.. allow to import several audio tracks (e.g. 99,..). All tools feature video preview and multi-audio tracks. If you depend on ACID (Xpress) for music generation, with those tools, you must export an audio track from ACID and load it into the tools. So non-interrupted, in sync video dubbing is best with ACID 3.0, but the other tools are a good workaround ( and the first two mentioned are "free"). Workaround for people without ACID 3.0, so I did in the past: As workaround, use DDClip just to "learn" the times the scenes change (let the timeline display the time in seconds), especially you may load a currently exported version of your soundtrack into DDclip for reference, and then change the timeline in ACID, save the soundtrack to a .WAV file, and get back to DDclip to check the new timing of original sound, your soundtrack and the video. So you must just learn and write down "o.k first scene 20 seconds, then a scene of 1 minute, then two hard cuts of 5 seconds, and use this information to build a music soundtrack with ACID. In opposite with Acid 3.0, you must not write down or learn, you just see it ! Inspiration by the animation the is more easy, of course. If the video soundtrack is full of sounds and not just silence, you might especially import the audio track into ACID 2.0, so that you "see" when the sound changes, graphically, and you may listen of course - especially in comparison to the graphical display of the sound / video correspondence. There is no advantage of ACID 3.0 for using the graphical method- but its of course great to SEE the video and not just to SEE the graphics of the sounds of the video soundtrack. If there is a video soundtrack, its always a good choice to import it into an audio project, temporily, even if you finally create a music SOUNDTRACK which does not include the video soundtrack and so do the mixing in the video editor (Premiere,..) That's what I did so far with ACID Xpress, DDClip. The free Samplitude BASIC 5.20 is good for adding some effects to single tracks, btw. Just the addition that you must decide either to do a) Disney style: To make the music and cut the video afterwards - so you just have to import the ready-made soundtrack. You need a GOOD video editor with multi-track audio ( no LE or crippled version, please). You don´t need ACID 3.0 / SF Vegas / SF VideoFactory, but Acid 2.0 is sufficient. b) Standard style: Most people prefer to cut a movie and then add a soundtrack afterwards. ACID 3.0 is probably perfect, but with a little bit experience, you may do it with all other tools I mentioned. c) Yello style (Yello, the band from Switzerland with its title "The Race" - one guy composed the music, the other did the video - so that the video is art, and so that the video influences the music ): If you prefer to cut video and make music at the same time, you need a video and audio editor with many (e.g. !99!) audio tracks, like Premiere 6.0 full version, Mainactor, Ulead MediaStudio,... but probably Magix Music Maker is one of the best choices. This style is not recommended, but if you want to DESIGN a music video without making music first, its the only choice. Other video + audio tools, see http://www.hemmerling.com/html/en/audiovis.html Sincerely Rolf

I am also interested in making music for video tracks, non-commercially.

Besides SF ACID 3.0 and the SF Vegas product line and the SF Videofactory, there are such tools:

a) DDCLIP 2.23 - *free* download of the old 4-track audio edition
http://www.softlab-nsk.com/ddclipro/free.html
( you may load more than one videoclip into the video timeline, so "hard cuts" and "assembly cuts" are possible )

b) SEKD Samplitude
http://www.sekd.com/
http://www.magix.net/
In Germany, the full-version, uncrippled, non-expiring, entry-level Samplitude BASIC 5.20 ( with 8 audio tracks ) was supplied for free on the CDs of two computer magazines PC Magazin ( issue 7/2000 ) and PCGO ( issue 9/2000 ). Btw, Samplitude BASIC 5.20 loads WMA files and saves audio files to WAV - great for use with ACID Xpress. There is a trial version of the full-blown edition available, too.
( you may just link ONE video clip with each project).

c) Magic Music Maker Professional
http://www.magix.net
The demo does not store - so you must buy.
( this is both a video and audio editor, like a combination of SF VideoFactory and SF Vegas).

d) Most commercial full versions of multimedia video editors like Ulead Media Studio, MainActor, Premiere 6.0 full edition,.. allow to import several audio tracks (e.g. 99,..).

All tools feature video preview and multi-audio tracks.

If you depend on ACID (Xpress) for music generation, with those tools, you must export an audio track from ACID and load it into the tools.

So non-interrupted, in sync video dubbing is best with ACID 3.0, but the other tools are a good workaround ( and the first two mentioned are "free").

Workaround for people without ACID 3.0, so I did in the past:

As workaround, use DDClip just to "learn" the times the scenes change (let the timeline display the time in seconds), especially you may load a currently exported version of your soundtrack into DDclip for reference, and then change the timeline in ACID, save the soundtrack to a .WAV file, and get back to DDclip to check the new timing of original sound, your soundtrack and the video.

So you must just learn and write down "o.k first scene 20 seconds, then a scene of 1 minute, then two hard cuts of 5 seconds, and use this information to build a music soundtrack with ACID. In opposite with Acid 3.0, you must not write down or learn, you just see it ! Inspiration by the animation the is more easy, of course.

If the video soundtrack is full of sounds and not just silence, you might especially import the audio track into ACID 2.0, so that you "see" when the sound changes, graphically, and you may listen of course - especially in comparison to the graphical display of the sound / video correspondence. There is no advantage of ACID 3.0 for using the graphical method- but its of course great to SEE the video and not just to SEE the graphics of the sounds of the video soundtrack. If there is a video soundtrack, its always a good choice to import it into an audio project, temporily, even if you finally create a music SOUNDTRACK which does not include the video soundtrack and so do the mixing in the video editor (Premiere,..)

That's what I did so far with ACID Xpress, DDClip. The free Samplitude BASIC 5.20 is good for adding some effects to single tracks, btw.

Just the addition that you must decide either to do
a) Disney style:
To make the music and cut the video afterwards - so you just have to import the ready-made soundtrack. You need a GOOD video editor with multi-track audio ( no LE or crippled version, please). You don´t need ACID 3.0 / SF Vegas / SF VideoFactory, but Acid 2.0 is sufficient.

b) Standard style:
Most people prefer to cut a movie and then add a soundtrack afterwards. ACID 3.0 is probably perfect, but with a little bit experience, you may do it with all other tools I mentioned.

c) Yello style (Yello, the band from Switzerland with its title "The Race" - one guy composed the music, the other did the video - so that the video is art, and so that the video influences the music ):
If you prefer to cut video and make music at the same time, you need a video and audio editor with many (e.g. !99!) audio tracks, like Premiere 6.0 full version, Mainactor, Ulead MediaStudio,...
but probably Magix Music Maker is one of the best choices. This style is not recommended, but if you want to DESIGN a music video without making music first, its the only choice.

Other video + audio tools, see
http://www.hemmerling.com/html/en/audiovis.html

Sincerely
Rolf