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Subject:Acid vs. Reason
Posted by: westside
Date:11/10/2001 2:40:17 AM

Remember a ways back when you first started working with Acid and got excited? Thought it was the coolest program around???? Well that's what I think Reason has turned into for me....What a killer program....I still love Acid but sadly 3.0 was a horrible upgrade.....All of the people that I work with that use Acid and asks whether or not to upgrade to 3.0...I tell them to forget it..2.0 works better...

I hate to say it but unless Acid comes up with new features, it will quickly get left behind... Lately more often than not I have been turning to Sonar to complete my projects....Has a million more features, besides it doesn't start to have pops and clicks after 20 tracks.... 2.0 doesn't but 3.0 for whatever reason, does. Such a shame.


And now using Reason, I see what acid wishes it could be. Not JUST loops, acutal midi, soft synths and the like. Acid still has my undying admiration for being THE ground breaking program in audio, but it seems like Sonic Foundry is giving up on the pro features.....

Subject:RE: Acid vs. Reason
Reply by: Maruuk
Date:11/10/2001 12:56:10 PM

Acid is a coaster until SF snaps out of it and adopts standards like ReWire, DXi and VSTi, or partners with Steinberg or Cakewalk on an integrated hybrid product. The days of a loop-only app with nothing but midi-sync are long over. Acid has overnight become a toy for nubies like Beatnik or the Sony/Acid web app for kids which lets you "make your own tracks and videos". Let's hope 4.0 doesn't have pink dancing bunnies all over it.

Subject:RE: Acid vs. Reason
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:11/10/2001 9:56:44 PM

ACID is, and always will be, the loop based music creation tool in my arsenal. Period. That's all it should do. That's all I want it to do. I don't want extra features (though ReWire, DXi and VSTi would be nice), but I do not want it to turn into a full-blown sequencer à la Sonar. That would make the already intuitive interface too unwieldy. I take one look at Sonar's interface and I shudder. If you ask me, it seems like Cakewalk is just trying to ride SF's coattails with an ACID wanna-be as far as audio loop construction goes.

ACID is merely a tool in a set of tools; it's meant to compliment other programs from SF, like Sound Forge (editing) and Vegas Audio (multi-track editing). It is not meant to be an be-all, end-all program. I'm really hoping it never will be. The only things missing from SF's family of products are a MIDI sequencer and a software synthesizer. If they create such products, I'll be the first one in line to try them out.

I have no idea why you have a problem with 20+ tracks skipping. I've got projects with 40+ and don't have the skipping you mentioned. (To be fair, more than a few but not all tracks have one or two plug-in effects applied to them.) There's the present, known bug where sound skips while changing things around during the playback of a project, but nothing major.

I beg to differ on 3 not being a good upgrade. There are a couple personal reasons why I upgraded, but I won't go into detail. It would already make this lengthy post too long. (I will elaborate if you want me to.)

If you want to see a feature in ACID, then let them know. How are they supposed to improve a product if they don't get feedback from fans/enthusiasts/users?

Just my 2¢,
Iacobus

Subject:RE: Acid vs. Reason
Reply by: u4ik
Date:11/11/2001 12:09:53 AM

I've been using Reason for sometime now and I think it can go both ways. I have just begun using the two of them together. Creating personalized, completely original sounds in Reason and exporting them as loops into Reason. I am very content on the progress of my production. Granted, Reason gives Midi, Rewire, and a virtual rack studio...but I think it works great to create, though I can't stand the sequencer. It is in fact, a very weak sequencer and using Reason alone I think won't take you as far. Whether you use it w/Acid, w/Cubase, or w/Logic...they all work hand in hand. Both have pros and cons, Acid is a Sonic Foundry product therefore giving the edge of Sound Forge and all the other Sonic Foundry benefits.

Subject:RE: Acid vs. Reason
Reply by: westside
Date:11/11/2001 2:40:30 AM

Love your post and respect your view points. Eveybody has their different ways of doing things and that's good. I am an Acid nut but don't think that there are many differences between 2.0 and 3. The one feature that is great is the support for video files....Love it. But like I have said 3.0 works so much worse for me I can't even begin to tell you. I have a PII 450 at home with a slow HD and 192 ram..I used to run 2.0 with pluggins, 40 tracks with 0 problems.....At work I have a P3 850, with a ata100 drive and 512 ram.....I get skips quickly...not to mention if I have pluggins or try to do multiple outs..
Just doesn't run that well for me...things seem to bog down quickly.

As for Sonar, love that program. What I can create in that program kills acid. To me it's the difference between a "pro" and a "consumer" product.

I love the sf products but as I have said, they are becoming less and less Pro... It seems the can make more money that way...so tough for me. I will stick to the pro products, and secretly wish that ACID will blow me away with their next product....I will buy it! Hell I still buy all of their loop disks.... when they are released.....

Subject:RE: Acid vs. Reason
Reply by: westside
Date:11/11/2001 2:41:38 AM

Very harsh, but I agree on all points.

Subject:RE: Acid vs. Reason
Reply by: westside
Date:11/11/2001 2:46:11 AM

You are right that reason has limited abilities as a stand alone product. To me, using Sonar, it's a much better compliment. Sonar does everything Acid does plus 100 things more and Reason does some funky stuff that no other program does....

So I am not using Acid that much anymore. That makes me sad since in the past, it was my #1 program.

Subject:RE: Acid vs. Reason
Reply by: Maruuk
Date:11/11/2001 12:57:25 PM

Let's face it, Acid was a brilliant product that built a fabulous content support system that we all still benefit from. But many us pros just use the loops in better programs with unlimited audio, midi editing, synths, etc etc...

But most importantly for me and anybody who has to get their music out fast and good--in these "other" apps all elements render within the same app mixing directly to master. No pre-mixing sub groups and re-importing them to another app. No bs midi-sync to separate outs requiring elaborate routing to hardware outs or tricky internal loop-backs. Simple and stupid wins the race. Why do all the other companies get this except SF?

Anyway, the Reason comments are correct, it's a quirky program roundly and rightly criticized for no Acid-compatibility or audio record. But the ReWire saves 'em--a buddy's got Nuendo hooked up to it and is throwing his million-buck hardware rig into Lake Michigan. Now he just sits on his front porch and does it all on his Titanium.

The Big Change is coming, though. SF is not stupid, and the sloppiness in 3.0c is just an indication that SF is putting most of its resources into a major upgrade where at least many of our complaints will be addressed. 4.0 will be awesome, and rockin'. And then maybe some of the other guys will have to sweat a little!

Subject:RE: Acid vs. Reason
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:11/11/2001 12:57:26 PM

It's at least encouraging to know you (and Maruuk) still have faith in the product. Why else would you come here, right? :)

I've always believed that the configuration of the system in question has a direct relationship on how ACID 3 performs, all the way down to the soundcard used and the software installed.

If you haven't seen how to optimize your system as a DAW and you're using Win 9x, there's a very good one here. TASCAM used to have nice one too, but I'm having trouble getting to it.

Iacobus

Subject:RE: Acid vs. Reason
Reply by: MacMoney
Date:11/11/2001 10:11:08 PM

>I still buy all of their loop disks.... when they are released.....

Thank You Westside

George Ware
of Mac Money

Subject:RE: Acid vs. Reason
Reply by: u4ik
Date:11/12/2001 11:58:35 PM

here, lemme just put the add in for you:

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/loop_libraries/ShowLoop.asp?PID=241

no comment, lol

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