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Magix Acid Pro 9


cclarry

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On 10/29/2019 at 7:00 PM, jesse g said:

Absolutely Nothing,  Say it again... WAR

If you've never used a DAW, then it would be nice for a beginner.  However, after using any of the reputable DAWS on the Market, you'll stop using it right away.  Also, the GUI just looks so awful. 🤡

It's useful for people who use a lot of Loops.  People who actually use loops have a lot of Loop Packs for things like Chord Progressions and Scales.   It's like using a Software Sampler without having to input the MIDI notes yourself.   You just use the WAV files and the software adjusts the Tempo and Pitch Automatically.  MIDI Loops exist, as well.  Cakewalk actually ships with quite a few, last I checked...

People who talk down on this often either don't know what they're talking about, or are viewing it through a very narrow lens.

Cakewalk is pretty shite compared to ACID Pro for this type of arranging, honestly.  The two tools aren't even comparable, and ACID Pro supports slaving as a ReWire device for this very reason.   I have tried using Cakewalk for this.  It just doesn't cut mustard.  This is why there is still a reason for ACID Pro to exist, particularly  for those people who don't want to fork out the extra cash for a tool like FL Studio (or who don't have a Mac to use Logic Pro X).

This is usable for someone who just sings into a Mic and records a Guitar, as well.  However, it's neither a MIDI Powerhouse like Cubase, a Mixing powerhouse  like Pro Tools, or a Mastering powerhouse like Samplitude. It's a Loop Arranging power house.  The whole reason why Project 5 was ever a thing,  is because people wanted something like ACID Pro - which actually used to retail for ~$350, back in the day - from Cakewalk.  But Cakewalk failed in that market, because tools like ACID Pro and FL Studio already existed, and the MIDI Sequencer and Generalist DAW Market was already uber competitive.

It's a specialist DAW, and how useful it is depends on what kind of work you do.

And ACID Pro's UI is actualkly one of the strongest areas of that DAW.  The Workflow is fast, fluid, and well-thought-out.  It's much faster to do that type of work in ACID Pro than in Cakewalk by BandLab.  The UI has less visual bloat, is better organized, and there are some QoL features (like a separate Marker Lane) that ACID Pro has had for over a decade, but is still lacking in  Cakewalk by BandLab.

$19.99 =  a Steal for this DAW.  But it's a niche tool that not everyone will need or want.

What makes good music is anyone's own opinion.  Don't think many people here have released any hits - in any musical genre (old or new).

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14 hours ago, Mesh said:

I heard you can get chicks with Acid :P....

This was my first introduction to the DAW world (back in the late 80's) and remember it being the coolest thing to do (mangle loops) while calling it your own. Just installed Cakewalk on the family PC, but wondering if I should introduce them to this software (or not).

ACID didn't exist until  the late 90s.  1997 or 1998, I forget which...

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3 minutes ago, Tiger The Frog said:

1998, per Wikipedia.  I bought it as soon as it came out.  Sonic Foundry was in my former hometown of Madison, Wisconsin.

What's the difference between Acid Pro 9 and Acid Pro Next?

Zynaptic Stem Maker, more instruments, 2GB more loops, and I think 5 mastering plugins.

Personally don't think the stem maker is that good (horrible'ish, IMHO), so I'd get base ACID Pro and spend that extra money on something like Samplitude Pro Suite, which is amazing for editing and mastering audio.

I also think it has some better metering.

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Interesting to read this. I just upgraded to the pro 9 version from an older version. Admittedly I was reluctant to do so. If you think of "loops" as simply building blocks to a song. Loops which you can create yourself BTW. It isn't a bad thing.  I can play guitar but it seemed I wasted hours on end when live tracking making sequential verses exactly the same. Sure they would always be close, but often not close enough for me to accept. One would have a little extra something in it while finger picking. 

If you make a loop of the verse/chorus and bridge that's locked to tempo you save TONS of time. I haven't used the program in awhile so I'm still feeling my way around making loops well. Loops can be sent to a folder and seen easily in the explorer. After that it's simple drag and drop. Don't forget that any of it can be pitch or tempo adjusted. If I'm playing guitar and changing keys it's a whole can of worms to open for me. For me, I think making my own loops is the way to go.

Yes it can also be done in several other DAWs including Cakewalk by Bandlab. I just prefer the user interface in this DAW. Also records audio and sees all of my Waves plugins. Not too deep to get your head around it really. Well worth this pittance if you fancy making your main song parts into loops and rearranging them at will.

Edited by Starise
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On 10/30/2019 at 5:42 AM, slartabartfast said:

Your skepticism is warranted. On the other hand, for a young person who has never bothered to learn to play an instrument by ear, let alone master even the basics of music as an art or study, it is a magical machine that can be used to convince such a person that he is a composer. Having spent seven decades listening to various iterations of popular music, I am increasingly convinced that much of what we are hearing these days is probably being composed on such machines--or using  the features of those machines that have been adopted into "serious" DAW's like Cakewalk.  For significant linear composing or mixing it is not a serious contender but at $20.00 it would be a suitable stocking-stuffer for the young person in your life who has had to come to grips with the fact that being a guitar hero takes years of effort and is showing itself to be a much less effective strategy for at getting anyone laid, as it is increasingly being replaced by DJ'ing, or joining a crew of a dozen guys  roaming around a stage empty-handed to a recorded soundtrack. Undoubtedly it will not improve his ***** [can we say copulation?] life to be able to upload his repetitive if not inane work product to YouTube as an accompaniment to films of himself wearing a massively overpriced pair of Beats by Dre and smoking an unidentified substance, but so long as the cans have closed backs what can be the harm? 

http://ks.imslp.net/files/imglnks/usimg/0/09/IMSLP115102-PMLP04292-Bach-BWV_1006-Preludio-Violin_Solo_(Transc.RSB).pdf

Bach probably wished he had ACID Pro.  Could have just used Loops to write 2x-3x as much music #EyeRoll

There is nothing intellectually honest about doing MORE work for LITERALLY THE SAME RESULT.

Using Audio Loops is no different than using MIDI Loops with a decent Sample Library.  Just a more "budget" way of doing it.  In fact, if you don't have decent sample libraries, your loops (or score-written music, using the same reproduceable patterns) may end up sounding even WORSE than the Audio Loops you can buy on the internet.

In any case, people who have a clue about Music and Music Theory realized this.  This is why Loops are a thing.

Have you not received  that memo, yet?

Loops aren't just about Popular Music/EDM.  You can rewrite a lot of popular classical pieces, to a great extent, with Loops.  They're an OBVIOUS solution to an OBVIOUS problem.

Just because ACID is stronger than Cakewalk at providing a solution to  this problem, doesn't mean you have to insult an entire market of people (who use this technology, often in a very viable and appropriate manner) simply to turn people off from it...  while pretending to be the arbiter of what is proper in the music industry.

So, you're saying Bach's music is repetitive and inane, right? (Don't answer this rhetorical question.)

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2 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

 Screw all of the philosophical stuff.  

Unfortunately this comes up any time someone uses the word loop.

Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter.  And dissing people for using samples doesn't make you a better musician.

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If someone wants to use loops, that's fine and I have absolutely no problem with either them or their music: if it sounds good, it's good music regardless of how they made it.

That said, it's not entirely the case that MIDI loops with a decent VI are the same as audio loops. Audio loops will always sound exactly the same, even if perfectly time/pitch shifted. With MIDI loops, you could tweak the output: maybe you'd like one iteration p while another f, or you might want to crescendo a build-up. You could automate a volume/LPF envelope on an audio loop, but with some VIs you might get different instrument timbres at different velocities that go beyond volume and EQ differences. A VI might also have round-robin samples that make different loop iterations sound ever so slightly different, or you might also have different reverb options depending on how dry the audio loops are. These are all very subtle differences that may or may not get picked up by the end listener, but the differences are still there.

But as I previously mentioned, if it sounds good, the producer did a great job and it's good music regardless of the tools/sound sources used in production.

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